The Fempire, an intercampus network of college feminists in New York City, hosted an event last month called Create, Inquire, Network (CIN) at the Social Justice Hub. Feminists from different New York City colleges, including The New School, Hunter and City College, came together to eat, mingle and collaboratively work on a collage about the intersectionality of race and gender.
Felton Pierre, a creative writing student at The New School, serendipitously found the event while on his way to a zine collective meeting. “When I passed by the Fempire group and one of the members explained to me what the event was about, I was interested in learning more about the work that they did and so I stayed to participate,” he said.
The Fempire’s origins are with Parsons student Ann Dwyer and McCaulay Honors student Sarah Settineri. The two attended high school together at Pelham Memorial High School in Westchester, NY. “We’re both very flamboyant feminists,” Dwyer said. It was through Settineri that Dwyer met Seong Hong. The three of them started the group in the summer of 2013, with the help of Hong’s brother, Caden. City College student Devin Clearly joined them in the summer of 2014.
“We thought that since NYC campuses are just a subway ride away, we should try harder to foster intercampus networking and solidarity,” said Hong.
“The team that organizes the events, which we call the HQ Group, is pretty small,” Dwyer explained, noting that the team has changed throughout the semesters. The current members of the HQ Group are Seong and Caden Hong, Dwyer, and Cleary.
According to their website, thefempirenyc.org, the group’s mission is to “educate the whole of New York City on persisting injustices in society.” They also aspire to “create a unified space for college feminist organizations and individuals to affect change, as well as serve as a networking platform for ambitious feminists fighting for equity.”
The Fempire strives to get more college students involved with the organization. “We host semesterly events on different NYC campuses to try to bring together lots of activists from different backgrounds, so that we can exchange ideas and form a supportive feminist network,” Dwyer says.
Hunter College student Narish Singh initially found out about the CIN event on Facebook. “I thought that having a collective art piece was a pretty brilliant idea, as it not only invited the audience to engage with a concept through their own ideas, terms and representations but only gave the participants one space to express all of it, making the interaction of all these things inevitable,” he said.
There was a great deal of intelligent discussion taking place as well. “At the event, at some point, a lot of people started gathering where the food was and we all started talking about the responsibility of the artist and the viewer, and what should be the attention of the artist: whether to stay within the bubble of intellectuals or to spread knowledge to the masses,” says Calah Broadnax, also from Hunter College. “There were a lot of different opinions and even though there was never a definite answer, it was interesting to hear from different viewpoints,” she said.
In April, The Fempire plans to hold its second annual Arts Night at The New School. Last year, this event, where students submit visual, written and performance pieces, was held at Hunter College and had a turnout of more than 75 people.
Though both Arts Night and CIN are art-driven, Dwyer said that while The Fempire isn’t an arts organization, it does “believe in the transformative powers of art as activism.”
“Art is also a safe space to channel a lot of the passion and rage that comes from doing feminist activism, and it can be very collaborative, so it’s a great way to form connections with people,” she says.
Visit The Fempire’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook/com/thefempire
If you’re interested in being part of their HQ Group, email thefempirenyc@gmail.com.
Born and raised in New York City, Rafaella (Raffi) is majoring in Journalism + Design at Lang. Rafaella also enjoys fashion, writing poetry, reading for pleasure, the art of drag, and listening to pop-punk!
