{"id":8270,"date":"2014-06-03T15:37:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T19:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=8270"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:14:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:14:33","slug":"interview-grrrl-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/interview-grrrl-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: A Chat with Grrrl Fest Organizers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at AudioFemme, we’re all about making spaces for women in the music industry, whether that’s as music makers or behind the scenes – booking and promoting shows, running sound, shooting bands, and, of course, bringing you top-notch journalism reviews. So we got super excited when we found out about Grrrl Fest<\/a>, a day-long celebration of women in the creative arts. Organized by an inspiring group of young feminists, it features performances from a dozen or so up-and-coming bands that feature female musicians, short films, spoken word performances, zine-writing workshops, button making, a book sale and a silent auction, and that’s to say nothing of getting your tarot cards read and covering yourself in “glitter tattoos.” Not only are we pumped for Grrrl Fest to take over Silent Barn<\/a> on June 14th, we were also so impressed with the scope of the event that we just had to learn more from two of its organizers, Ebun Nazon-Power and Bridget Malloy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"grrrlfestposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AudioFemme:<\/strong> In your words, what is the mission of Grrrl Fest?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ebun Nazon-Power:<\/strong> Grrrl Fest is about supporting and empowering females (girls and women and anyone who identifies as such) in whatever it is that they do. However, Grrrl Fest is mainly focused on the creative fields such as music, bands, dance, spoken word and art. I think our mission is to reveal to all those young women out there that it is totally okay to be creative and self-expressive in an environment where people (not just females) are being supportive and helpful. We wanted to show girls that there is no one way of being a feminist–there are tons of different kinds and ways. So being in a place where people are coming from all over the city and elsewhere and are all about equality and feminism, it can be a life changing experience and hopefully have a positive effect.<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> Who makes up the core group of organizers? How do you work together to organize the event?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ebun:<\/strong> The “core” group I guess would be myself and my other classmates: Christopher Gambino, Savannah Galvin, and Clare Burden, Esme Ahsley-White, Abbie Hornburg and of course my art teacher Bridget Malloy. However, we have plenty of volunteers from different schools who are working with us. The core group organizes at The Beacon School<\/a> and all the other volunteers are organized through social media like Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> How long have you been doing this?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ebun:<\/strong> This is the very first year that we are doing this. We honestly began this enormous project like two months ago!!<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> What inspired you to put Grrrl Fest together?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bridget Malloy:<\/strong> Some students and I were hanging out in the art room during a free period and Ebun put on her band T-Rextasy. It was such a cool sound. It reminded me of some of the 90\u2019s girl bands. At the same time, I was looking at Savannah\u2019s artwork on the wall. It was this really cool text piece. It reminded me of writing on a bathroom wall. So then somewhere along the way I said, \u201cWe should do a ‘Girl Fest!’\u201d Next thing you know we are planning, making calls, getting sponsors and the rest is history. People got right on board too. It was really great how it all just formed so naturally. It really felt like it was the right time for something like this and that many people wanted to see it happen.<\/p>\n