...is
to change peer culture in order to prevent increasing
violence against women and girls through education,
art and positive representations of women.
WHAT
IS GiRL FeST BAY AREA?
GiRL
FeST Bay Area is a multimedia art festival and
conference that will take place October 8th-12th
2008 in San Francisco and in Oakland, California.
GiRL FeST's mission is to prevent violence
against women and girls through education and
art.
The
non-profit 501(c)3 festival incorporates film,
music, art, spoken word, and dance complemented
by a mini-conference involving panels, lectures,
outreach workshops for children and adults that
address themes such as body image, identity,
empowerment, social change and methods on how
to prevent violence in relationships.
COOL
QUOTES
“[Girl
Fest is] the wave of the future...[It’s]
a creative and dynamic approach to activism
that goes to the heart of what we need, which
is a cultural evolution...This festival will
inspire and entertain, as well as educate and
mobilize.”
~ Jessica
Neuwirth, President
of Equality
Now and
Harvard Law Professor
.................
“I
think art can inspire, illuminate,motivate,
touch people’s hearts and minds…In
order for us to stem the tide of our culture’s
pandemic of men’s violence, we have to
make prevention a societal priority. Art is
certainly a part of that, and efforts like Girl
Fest are important cultural interventions.”
~ Jackson
Katz, Founder of MVP
Strategies
& Former Member of the U.S. Secretary of
Defense's Task Force on Domestic Violence
in the Military
.................
"There
is no question that art is an essential part
of healing, organizing, and social change. Girl
Fest recognizes and embraces that concept, and
is playing a central role in bringing forward
the next generation of activists for gender
equity."
This
is an innovative business started up by a family
from New Zealand who moved to the red light
district in Calcutta to save women and girls
from prostitution by employing them in their
company.
