Today is the birthday of my mother Ellen Willis, radical feminist, journalist, activist, teacher, and most devoted and kick-ass mother there ever was and ever will be. My mom died of lung cancer in November 2006, and shortly after, Girldrive was born. It was her death that sparked my interest in discovering our generation’s version [...]
Entries from December 2009
Happy Birthday Mom
December 14th, 2009 · 7 Comments
Tags: Generations · Girls with Drive
Your 2 Cents: Javacia
December 13th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Note: I frequently feature readers’ answers to one or more of the questions Emma and I asked on our road trip. Find out how to submit here. Javacia: 28, writer and educator, lives in Birmingham, Alabama, blogs at GeorgiaMae.com, where she writes about feminism, race issues, media, pop culture and more. Do you consider yourself [...]
Tags: Southern Series · Your 2 Cents
Lady Gaga: feminist?
December 12th, 2009 · 7 Comments
Months ago, I posted about Lady Gaga’s reluctance to claim the word “feminism,” even as she denounced double standards and other injustices in the music industry. I hadn’t given Gaga much thought since then, until Ann Powers of the L.A. Times interviewed me about how I think the 23-year-old star fits into the narrative of [...]
Tags: Young Women in the Media
Girldrive…the song!!
December 11th, 2009 · 1 Comment
This is AMAZING. Ray McKenzie, of the Jen Justice Band aka my luvah Aaron’s dad’s band, wrote a song about Girldrive! The band performed it at the Chicago reading’s afterparty last Friday. This recording is only the acoustic version (Ray says he’ll send me a version with the full band soon), but I couldn’t help [...]
Tags: Girldrive News
Feminism, Atlanta-style: Kerrie
December 8th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Note: This post is Part Three of a series on young feminists or activists below the Mason-Dixon line, since I feel like we didn’t allot the South quite enough time on our original road trip. Feel free to suggest a series on your own part of the country–email nona [at] girl-drive [dot] com. Kerrie: 30, [...]
Tags: Girls with Drive · Grass Routes · Southern Series
“Where’s my post-feminist manifesto?”
December 8th, 2009 · No Comments
This. Discuss. P.S. Julie Block, whoever she is, really needs to become a famous writer.
Tags: Girls with Drive
Madison events!
December 5th, 2009 · No Comments
I am fresh from the amazing and chock-full Chicago reading last night, and about to head to Madison. Tonight I have an event at the Multicultural Student Center Lounge @ The Red Gym (2nd Floor). And tomorrow there is a Girldrive reading at 2 p.m. at A Room of One’s Own, 307 Johnson St., Madison. [...]
Tags: Girldrive News
Chicago reading tomorrow! (and radio and TV)
December 3rd, 2009 · No Comments
Don’t forget–I will be reading from Girldrive tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark St. at Foster Ave. Would love to see you there! Also, I was on Chicago Public Radio’s 848 today–listen to it here. Aaaand, I will be on WGN channel 9 tomorrow morning at around 11:35 a.m. [...]
Tags: Girldrive News
Required reading for today
December 2nd, 2009 · 3 Comments
I have not had time to write a longer piece on this issue, but I’ve been following the updates on the Stupak Amendment–the one in the health care bill that would restrict the access of women, particularly poor women, to abortion through government-run (and, eventually, most private) insurance plans. Today is the No Abortion Ban [...]
Tags: Grass Routes






