RAD GIRL COLLECTIVE

The Rad Girl Collective is dedicated to showcasing creative pieces by teenage girls. We believe that, through creative expression, these specific stories can represent and inspire a diverse audience of girls.

[mesharchive]

The internet has changed the way that we construct, view and discuss identity. At MESH ARCHIVE, our goal is to navigate those changes in a way that explores the concept of community and seeks to subvert static definitions of our experiences.

We’re interested in asking questions that allow us to heal our communities through dialogue. MESH is focused on building communities, and restructuring them through a process of reparative learning arising from conversations with each other.

We are looking for submissions of any medium (e.g. essays, video work, design work, photography) to be published in our upcoming publication and website. We are focused on ideas concerning the role of the internet as a tool for education, identification, and community-building and would love to hear about yours.

Currently we are working on a multimedia project concerned with the relationship between objectivity and identity, how aesthetic practices interrelate to our performance and perception of race and gender, and how our selfhood online and offline are interlaced.

If you have an idea for piece or a completed piece to submit, please fill out our pitch proposal form as best you can!

Those who want to contribute to Mesh in a more permanent way as staff members are encouraged to apply. We are currently looking for coders, graphic designers, editorial writers, photographers, and videographers to join our team. 

If you have any questions feel free to email us at [email protected] or shoot us an ask on our blog. Follow us on twitter for updates. 

[jenndolari-deactivated20160922]

My previous post wasn’t meant to sound vain and petty.  It was not meant to sound like a slight to Caitlyn Jenner.  It was a serious call for a focus on more varied stories of transition. Call me Jenn.

“A lot of people have explained it better than me recently, but a large contingent of the trans community has engaged in a lot of dialogue the past few days, ever since Vanity Fair announced their Caitlyn Jenner’s cover story, most of which revolves around the idea that the world only seems to embrace us if we’re wealthy enough or lucky enough to adhere to white, cisnormative beauty standards. I’ve felt frustrated and useless and overwhelmed by opinions on transgender women and how we’re “supposed” to look if we want to be taken seriously.

“But not all of us adhere to those standards. Not all of us want to. Not all of us can. Some of us do, but only out of fear. Some of us do but we aren’t sure why. And whether we fit those standards or not, we’re beautiful, and we all deserve to feel beautiful, and be acknowledged by the world. Admiration and praise for trans women shouldn’t only come if we fit a narrow definition of beauty. As a good friend of mine said Monday ‘Where’s my Vanity Fair cover?’” –rambleonamazon

Sources are here (in white) and here (in black). Please share these and the hashtag #MyVanityFairCover and show the world the myriad faces of the trans community.

[realitytvgifs]

I AM PROUD OF YOU, BRUCE! I have so much respect for your BRAVERY. Thank you for sharing your story and journey. This will make such an impact!

Wishing you nothing but happiness in your future.

[theladybadass]

Lena Horne singing, Believe in Yourself. Scene from 1978 film, The Wiz

[mesharchive]

Mesh Archive is a mixed media collective founded on the concept of community exploration. Tired of being pigeonholed into quantifying and labeling our identities, we came to the conclusion that identity-building is constant; it never stops and it is never concrete. We acknowledge that while identities may be separate, communities and ideas often overlap and at times are conflicting. We aim to discuss these conflicts, and navigate the complexity of genuine solidarity. We seek to empower, liberate, and to explore that sense of personal and community growth through shared discourse and initiatives in ways that create reciprocal relationships with those who matter to us. We value learning through participation and discussion, and try our best to echo that in our creative process.

At Mesh the focus is on medium, space, and identity as content. Currently, our goal is to produce multimedia content in a variety of forms, and we aim to establish ourselves as an alternative publishing source in the future.

We are currently looking for writers, web designers, illustrators, graphic designers and all other content creators to contribute to our first issue that will be centred around identity and the internet.

We’re looking for people interested in reclaiming the idea of knowledge and education as a selective experience that only the traditionally privileged have access to. Our focus is on sharing the stories and experiences othered by mainstream white-centric media, and how the means to share them have changed - allowing for a more complex discussion of identity.

If you’d like to join us, fill out an application here with your ideas, what you’re interested in, and how we can contact you. We’d love to hear what you have to say!

If you have any further queries feel free to email us at [email protected] 

[thechanelmuse]

Meet Miyamoto Eriana 

Miyamoto, who was born to a Black American father and Japanese mother in Nagasaki, beat out 44 contestants to win a spot to represent Japan in the Miss Universe Pageant. She is the first ever Afro-Asian to represent Japan. “I thought, ‘I wonder if a hafu like me would be okay,’ and had insecurities,” Miyamoto said. “I think the world pageant will be a bit more vigorous, but I want to be myself and try my best.” She studied abroad in America and returned to Japan after graduating from college. Her hobbies include working with tools and motorcycles.

Black girls taking over the world!

[enterheavenalive]

Oh my god this is so important!

[vintagegirlonabike]

We don’t exactly know when Anne Frank died but today, on the 12th of March, we remember her life and her death.

Rest in peace, Anne Frank.

[afrolez-blog]

…Let us be clear. Universities keep huge endowments, money on reserve, because they are supposed to keep money. They will always tell you they cannot afford you. They will not spend their money to save the life of a Black feminist. Poet Laureate though she may be. Let us be clear. The universities that we mistakenly label as our bright quirky only refuge for Black brilliance have worked our geniuses to death, and have denied us help when we asked for it. The universities that employed June Jordan, Audre Lorde and so many others, watched cancer eat away at our geniuses, as they simultaneously ate away at black women’s labor. An institution knows how to preserve itself and it knows that Black feminists are a trouble more useful as dead invocation than as live troublemakers, raising concerns in faculty meetings. And those institutions continue to make money and garner prestige off of their once affiliated now dead faculty members. The university was not created to save my life. The university is not about the preservation of a bright brown body. The university will use me alive and use me dead. The university does not intend to love me. The university does not know how to love me. The university in fact, does not love me. But the universe does…. ~

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, The Shape of My Impact (Part One of a Three Part Meditation on Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years by Dagmaar Schultz), The Feminist Wire (via afrometaphysics)

[and-we-are-still-together]

Jena’s Halloween costume is the Dragon Gym Leader of Pokemon Black/White, Iris!

I made most of the costume from bits I found at Goodwill! We didn’t have time to get her a wig so I did her hair, but we’re gonna try to get one before the end of the month and take better photos. I’m just glad I got this done last night!

[kimreesesdaughter]

Please remind your friends that did not or could not finish college that they are not failures.

Regardless if it was dropout or financial woes. You are not a failure.

A degree is not the only thing that can be brought to the table.

[joamettegil]

Did this illustration to go along with a powerful story by Jazzy Davis titled “Hair” in radgirlcollective's Pairing Project zine. Absolutely worth reading!

[tetraghost]

[mainmanblackdynamite-deactivate]

Yo this Movement is so beautiful

[whoissimpson]

WOW

[veryfemmeandantifascist]

Salute All Our Lost Trans Sisters Who Couldn't Be a Part of #BlackOutDay

[flyandfamousblackgirls]

Little Sarah Rector, a former slave, became one of the richest little girls in America in 1914. Rector had been born among the Creek Indians, as a descendant of slaves. She would belong to a group of children that the government referred to as the Creek Freedman minors.

Rector became an orphan after her mother died of tuberculosis, and her father died in prison. Like most children of Indian territory, she was kept in the care of a white guardian who was responsible for her money and education. But her life changed in 1914, as a result of an earlier land treaty from the government.

Back in 1887, the government awarded the Creek minors children 160 acres of land, which passed to Rector after her parents’ deaths. Though her land was thought to be useless, oil was discovered in its depths in 1914, when she was just 10 years old.

The headlines would read: “Oil Made Pickaninny Rich – Oklahoma Girl With $15,000 A Month Gets Many Proposals – Four White Men in Germany Want to Marry the Negro Child So That They Can Share Her Fortune.”

The Salt Lake Telegram reported how her siblings still lived in poverty.

Rector kept her fortune to herself and used it to fund her education to Tuskegee University.

[blackhistoryalbum]

I BELIEVE I CAN FLY…..DOMINIQUE DAWES

First African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics

1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion

World Championships silver medalist

10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team

Member of the gold-medal winning “Magnificent Seven,” 1996 Summer Olympics.

First black person of any nationality or gender to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics

Black History Album [ Find Us On Tumblr | Pinterest  | Twitter | Facebook ]

[sete-estrelo]

Patty Stonefish, of Arming Sisters, asked me to create flyers for the #WeWontForgetMMIW*, a campaign that brings a timeless ritualized gesture into today’s social media. I have had the privilege of working with her for almost two years now and her commitment to the rights of indigenous North American women is a permanent source of inspiration.

**Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women