Since moving to Boston I've been fortunate to meet a slew of amazing and energetic activsts. Shortly after moving here, I attended an activist networking event at the The Women's Center in Cambridge where I met members of the Hollaback! Boston team thanks to the recommendation of team member Brandie. A few months later I was brought on to the Hollaback! Boston team as a team associate.
Over the past few months I've been blown away by the work of Hollaback! Boston. Some of that work includes: releasing the State of the Streets 2013 survey, hosting a two day volunteer training for new volunteers, hosting several anti-street harassment workshops for organizations and at conferences, co-hosting several Take Back the Bar! events, wheatpasting with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and working with Elevate! Boston to make health equity, economic equity and safer communities important issues in Boston's upcoming mayoral election. I'm also super excited for the upcoming HOLLAween party November 1st, a safe-space halloween party and have my costume ready!
Aside from all the amazing work these volunteers are doing, the team of women I work with at Hollaback!boston are really awesome friends who have been a huge part of getting me acclimated to this new city after my move from Brooklyn this summer. The team is truly collaborate, compassionate and committed. They have confirmed for me the really amazing work a small, dedicated group of individuals can do.
If you're new to a city and want a community, find or start a Hollaback! chapter. If you're in Boston and want to get involved, just show up to one of Hollaback! Boston's events and say hello! (Sign up for our newsletter here!)
As an academic and activist, I work to address the full spectrum of gender-based violence. I recognize it's just as essential to have powerful women like city council woman Ayanna Pressley speaking up to make gender justice a part of the political conversation in Boston, as it is to have women and men share their personal stories of street harassment, responding to street harassment and bystander intervention.
Feeling safe and powerful in your own skin and community may begin with joining up with a team of others to do the same. Hollaback!