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ReBecca Theodore-Vachon

Film/TV Columnist at The Urban Daily. Co-host of Cinema in Noir every Sunday 6PM EST on BlogTalkRadio.

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Candice Frederick

Award-winning journalist, film blogger, Cinema in Noir Radio Co-Host. Contributing Film/TV Writer for Urban Daily and Bitch Flicks.com. I am also a member of the Online Film Critics Society and LAMB (Large Association of Movie Bloggers).

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Kimberly Renee 

Kimberly Renee aka Reel Sista is a film lover and bibliophile who was born and raised in Charlotte, NC, found her way in Durham, NC and was fortified in the DC, MD, VA area.

When she was a kid she saw the movie musical Little Shop of Horrors and fell in love instantly. And while she was mesmerized by the gigantic singing plant, Kimberly wanted to know more about the three black girls walking through the scenes and singing in the background. What was their story? That was the moment that she became concerned with seeing women of color on the big screen.

Kimberly is a writer and a self- proclaimed nerd, whose interests include the image of African American women in popular culture and literature. Kimberly’s inspiration comes from all forms of the written word: “Well-written television and movies, books, magazines, and song lyrics…I love it all. I know that a well turned phrase can change a life.” Self-definition is very important to her. So Kimberly according to Kimberly is “a womanist, an idealist, a scholar, a writer, sometimes transgressive, sometimes controversial, always creative and always sarcastic.” Each day she strives to live outside of the box.

There are hundreds of folks out there blogging, each looking to say something. Kimberly is grabbing a seat at the table and joining the conversation. But she wants to take it a step further. With Reel Sistas, Kimberly hopes to inspire, empower, uplift, and support women of color both in front of and behind the camera in the film and television industry.

Reel Sistas is on For Harriet’s list of 45 must follow Tumblr blogs. Additionally, Kimberly was recently quoted on the blog Profanity May Be Necessary. Kimberly is also one of the co-hosts of Cinema in Noir on Blog Talk Radio. Cinema in Noir is a weekly podcast that features “unabashed film talk from three mahogany film mavens.” The women give their thoughts and opinions on the film industry from a black female perspective.

Reel Sistas is dedicated to bridging the gap between the women of color who want to see themselves, their mothers, their sisters, their daughters and their friends reflected on the screen and the women working to make it happen. This blog is a celebration of all that it means to be a woman of color in film and television.

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Sekiya Dorsett

I have a passion for storytelling and creating. For over 6 years, I have contributed to some of the best production and marketing teams. I am fortunate to say that I have a varied background in all aspects of production and administration that will enable me to be an asset to any team.

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Angelica Chéri Nutt

A native of Los Angeles, California, Angelica Chéri Nutt wrote, directed and produced her first full-length play Solitaireat the age of 16.  She then went on to obtain a BA in Theater from UCLA and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University where she was a recipient of a Shubert Foundation Presidential Scholarship. Her plays have received readings and workshop productions at Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, and in NYC at Columbia University. Her most recent workshop production The Yin and The Yang was fervently received, and is now available for premier.

Also a poet, Angelica has performed in many cafes and lounges both in New York and Los Angeles. Her piece Then and Again was published in the first issue of SPOOK, a new literary magazine.   Angelica has also taken up lyric writing, with a new musical in the works entitled The Dubious Darla Davenport. She is the associate producer of the critically acclaimed Fire This Time Festival.

Her thesis play Ruby Place Nest on the Ground will be produced in May at the Signature Theater, and she was mentored on the piece by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

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Shari Neal

Apparel entrepreneur & business owner (Bon Bon Vie graphic tees.) Sometimes freelance graphic designer, web developer and art director.

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Reva McEachern

TemplateServe founder, creator of Kidedotals, principal consultant at REVA Digital Media LLC and Global SEO Supervisor at Resolution Media, Reva McEachern has substantial experience in emerging media technologies (digital, social, mobile). A former news reporter and self-taught techie, she has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Home News Tribune, The Star-Ledger, Honolulu Weekly, Top Button, Gay City News, .Net Magazine and Mobile Marketer covering music, mobile technology, search engine optimization, fashion, social issues and politics.

Reva is also an active artist and musician with experience performing in New York since 2005.

Reva holds a Bachelors in Journalism and Media Studies from Rutgers University and a Masters in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University, and is a 2007 Leeway Foundation Art & Change grant recipient. Fun fact, in 2005-2006 Reva’s vocals were featured in a national Wendy’s commercial singing Peter Frampton’s “Baby I Love Your Way.”

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Margarita Barry

Margarita Barry is an emerging entrepreneur, designer, writer and aspiring changemaker. The Detroit native is a seasoned media-maker, first making waves with her multicultural women’s magazine, Tint, as a teen. Since then she’s worked as a web designer, graphic designer, web consultant, and creative director. With a passion for inspiring young entrepreneurs, activating creative places, and using art and digital media to empower communities, Margarita launched Detroit Design Lab in 2008, a web design firm focused on helping small local businesses; I Am Young Detroit in 2009, an online publication and movement providing resources and inspiration to young “doers” in the city; and Detroit POP, LLC in 2010, a creative place-making agency focused on local pop-up retail.  Also in 2011, Margarita launched her own lifestyle brand Bohomodern, combining her love of pattern, her passion for travel, and her pursuit of beauty in accessible, everyday objects. CitySpotters is Margarita's latest social venture, a mobile and web platform that allows I Am Young Detroit users to earn local gifts by ‘spotting’ businesses and movements led by young citizen doers and by playing supporting roles as mentors, resource providers, and educators. Margarita serves on several boards including Critic Car Detroit, Detroit4Detroit, The Empowerment Plan, The Knight Foundation's Detroit Community Advisory Board, and the Pay It Forward Initiative. Her honors include Detroit Young Professional's 2011 Vanguard Award, Crain's Detroit Business 2011 40 Under 40, Michigan Business & Professional Association 2012 Women & Leadership in the Workplace Rising Star Award, and the 2012 DailyVenusDiva Thrive Award. Margarita's greatest hope is that the things she creates positively affect peoples’ lives creatively, socially, and economically.

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Monica Herndon

Monica Herndon is a photojournalist and visual storyteller. She dabbles in video, graphic design, and web design as well.  Monica’s love for photojournalism grew when she attended the New York Times Student Journalism Institute in New Orleans during May 2012. She spent two weeks getting to know the city and its’ people. As the youngest photographer in the group she was pushed to embrace new challenges and overcome mental barriers. Immediately after those two grueling weeks she spent a month in Alicante, Spain capturing the beauty of the ocean-side town. Monica forces herself to learn and be more creative every day with her daily photo blog. She is a perfectionist, and driven to be the best she can be. 

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Arielle Loren

Arielle Loren is a sexuality thought leader, writer, and filmmaker, who has dedicated her career to empowering dialogue about sex. Her work has been featured and praised by The Huffington Post, NPR, ESSENCE, Jezebel, NBC News (The Grio), BET, EBONY, The Root, and Clutch Magazine.

In 2012, she sat as one of three panelists on the “Erotica Out In The Open” panel for BlogHer, the largest conference in the world for women in social media. The Women’s Media Center honored her in 2011 for empowering women online. Loren is one of the select contributors to be featured in the first-ever anthology about E. L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey called 50 Writers on 50 Shades of Grey. She also directed and produced a media-acclaimed documentary, Bideology, about women dating bisexual men (http://bideology.com/).

A graduate of New York University, Arielle is the founder of CORSET and serves as the company’s CEO and magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. She leads CORSET’s international community of readers on their journeys to sexual empowerment.http://corsetmagazine.com/

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Evelyn Ngugi 

Evelyn Ngugi uses the Internet to connect people.

As a multimedia journalist, Ngugi’s desire is to uncover the neglected narratives of your community and finally introduce you to your neighbor through online video.

As a lifestyle blogger & Youtube personality, she makes people laugh and shares life experiences and lessons in hopes that someone can relate.

Formally educated at UT Austin’s School of Journalism, Ngugi can report and write spot news, short features, and develop enterprise stories. Internships and work opportunities with Naturally Curly, Society HAE, and Phoenix New Times have developed her blogging and video reporting skills.

Most importantly, Ngugi is comfortable among different cultures and communities. She was raised in the U.S. South by Kenyan parents, spent a summer interviewing women of color in Brazil, and used her Français to help a French lady order something at McDonalds once.

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Andrea Pippins

Andrea Pippins is a designer and educator with a penchant for cool and personality as warm as her Brazilian roots.

Andrea’s first glimpse into the design world began when she encountered a TV profile about a magazine art director, she then saw Halle Berry’s role as an director in the movie Boomerang and was hooked. Andrea began harnessing her creative talents into a BFA in graphic design and later earned her MFA at Temple University-Tyler School of Art. Andrea’s love for design grew as she learned more about what it means to be a visual communicator and what true design is all about.

With her eclectic style, authentic voice and eye for all things beautiful, Andrea continues to capture the attention of the fashion, art and design worlds. Her blog Fly, is a source of inspiration for creative young women and has gained a loyal following of viewers eager to see what unique fashion find, up and coming artist or personal reflection she will post next.

You can find Andrea teaching in the classroom, working on new designs or dancing in her living room with the Samba music way up.

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Quinnee Zimmerman

Quinnee Zimmerman is a graphic designer, illustrator, and painter. 

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Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is a Brooklyn-based photographer. She has been making images through analog and digital photography since the late '90s. Barrayn has created compelling portraiture and reportage across Europe, Africa and Asia. Her work has been exhibited nationally and has been published in the Smithsonian-produced anthology, BLACK: A Celebration of a Culture, edited by photo historian Deborah Willis of New York University. She has curated exhibitions at the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, galleries and non-traditional spaces. Her writings have appeared in Vibe, Essence, The Source, Complex among other publications. The Jazz Journalist Association awarded her the Clarence Atkins Writing Fellowship in 2005. Laylah, a 2013 Brooklyn Arts Council grant recipient, was recently profiled in exposure the journal of The Society for Photographic Education. Her third solo exhibition, Her Word As Witness: Women Writers of the African Diaspora, which focuses on literacy and women writers of color is currently touring the country and will make its African debut at Yari Yari Ntosi in Accra, Ghana in May 2013.

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Delphine Fawundu-Buford

Delphine Fawundu-Buford is best known for her critically acclaimed photograph Patiently Waiting which graced the cover of the book  Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers and was used to promote the accompanying exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

In 2010, she received a grant to produce a mini-documentary and solo photography exhibition titled, “Tivoli: A Place We Call Home: A Community Faces Gentrification,” at the Brooklyn Historical Society. She also produced a media campaign and solo traveling exhibition for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis titled: “Touched: Black & Latina Women Living with HIV.”  Mrs. Fawundu-Buford’s documentary-styled photography has also been featured in the following books: Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G by Cheo Hodari Coker (Vibe Books, 2004), Black: A Celebration of Culture by Deborah Willis (Hylas Publishing, 2004), Enduring Visions: Women’s Artistic Heritage Around the World by Abby Remer (Davis Publications, 2001) and Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840-Present by Deborah Willis (Norton, 2000).  Ms. Fawundu-Buford’s work has been exhibited in notable exhibitions such as Only Skin Deep sponsored by the International Center of Photography, No Sleep Til’ Brookly sponsored by the Powerhouse Gallery, and Engulfed by Katrina: Photographs Before and After the Storm curated by photography scholar Deborah Willis. She was chosen as one of 200 artists out of over 1,000 reviewed to represent Brooklyn’s most cutting edge artists in the unprecedented and largest survey of its kind in the exhibition Open House: Working in Brooklyn (April – August 2004), at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  A cultural anthropologist at heart, Delphine has traveled to Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Spain, Egypt, Jamaica, Holland, England and Cuba to create imagery that documents and celebrates a multitude of cultures. Delphine has also received numerous fellowships and grants from foundations such as the Soros Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, Fund for Teachers, National Association for Black Journalist, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. 

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Digital Daughters: Black Girls Bridging the Divide

Sisterhood Summit 2013

Call for Submissions

 The Black Girl Project (BGP) is holding its third annual Sisterhood Summit, a symposium designed to provide a platform for young women and girls to develop the tools to advocate, express, create and inspire, while also building active and sustainable networks on local, national and global levels, in Brooklyn, NY in October, 2013.  The symposium this year is themed: Digital Daughters: Black Girls Bridging the Divide.

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” - Audre Lorde

This year’s summit, is inspired by the reality that Black women and girls* are online and claiming virtual space for themselves! From Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and every “app” we are using AND creating, we are continuing to  push and explore deeper themes of safety, expression, sexuality, love, and identity. The summit is an opportunity for young women and girls to engage in dialogue and interactive workshops that will allow them to ask questions, engage viewpoints, and deepen their insight.

As Black women and girls create history, leaving a legacy of virtual archives, narratives, images, stories, and artifacts, how are we building community with one another and what have we learned along the way? These are some of the questions we’ll be discussing and attempting to find answers to among one another. We are also interested in conversations about online safety, from bullying, identity theft, and accessibility; how do Black women and girls decide what information online is valuable and factual; how has language and communication evolved for Black women and girls; who is still excluded or isolated and how can we make changes to include more fully those members of our communities?

This year we welcome parents and caregivers of the young women and girls to be present. There will be a parent track of workshops and tools to support and help facilitate conversations around online safety, new cyber laws, sex/uality, values, and popular culture by those people who work with youth on a regular basis, and even by youth workers themselves!

We believe at BGP that it is always important to provide a space for a variety of perspectives to engage, grow, and that through the collective sharing of knowledge, telling of our stories, and standing in solidarity with one another that we are able to enrich, broaden, and transform ourselves and our communities.

We are seeking submissions for Digital Daughters: Black Girls Bridging the Dividearound the following core pathways:

media making 101

introduction to using platforms and frameworks

sex and representation in media, film, literature, and/or history

consent online and offline

laws regarding virtual spaces

power and the virtual community

creating a virtual voice

online activism

healing from trauma, heartbreak, online

human rights 

anonymity, usernames, and pseudonyms

language online

sexting

anti-bullying and building networks of solidarity

online and virtual representations of sex/uality

citations and attribution of online ideas/images/voices

accountability and responsibility online

innovation online

sexual orientation and queerness online

accessibility

people with disabilities and virtual spaces/access

copyright, creative commons, and ownership

Additionally, this year, we will have a section of the summit dedicated solely to parents and other adult caretakers.

Questions to consider when preparing your submission:

-What does it mean for us to have an online presence? 

-What are forms of healing from trauma?

-How do we build solidarity virtually/online with communities that are oppressed?

-What are essential things to know about being online?

-What does intimacy look and feel like online?

-Are there forms of pleasure that may be experienced online? 

-What safety and security themes are important to know and be clear on while online?

-What are ways we can build virtual and 3D spaces of support?

-How do we create media representations that are realistic and represent our experiences?

-What are ways we can learn to deconstruct the messages we are sent regarding our gender, race, class, and location online?

These submissions can be in the form of presentations, performances, screenings, workshops, panel discussions, and/or interactive installations to name a few.

Submissions should include a 250 word abstract, a resume, accompanying portfolio (if applicable), and a letter of support from a mentor if you are 18 or younger. Application materials should be submitted to this link by July, 6 2013. We encourage applicants abroad to apply as at this year’s conference, we would like to provide an intercultural videoconferencing exchange.

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Just click on the "Nominate Someone" link at the top of the page.