We Are Girls Session Highlight: Empowerment through Creativity

The November 12th We Are Girls Conference is only 24 days away! For those of you who haven’t yet registered (as well as those that have and are getting excited) we’ve decided to highlight some of the sessions we’ll be offering on this amazing day. The sessions we’re highlighting today empower girls through the creation of art and other fun activities.

Kiss Your Worries Goodbye

Do you chew your nails, sweat the small stuff, and lie awake with a brain on overdrive? You’re not alone! Join us for a whimsical workshop based on Guatemalan Worry Dolls who are known to solve your problems while you sleep. As you focus on making the tiny dolls with scraps of fabrics, snippets of yarn, and assorted beads, you will also create a relaxing space where conversations, stories, and ideas can be exchanged. Be your most creative self as dolls come to life and worries vanish!

Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble

For over 9 years, the Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble has been creating plays that spark dialogue about teen relationships and encourage students to take a stand against dating violence, sexual harassment and bullying. Our play deals with the dramatic relationships that can be a part of high school life, and the stereotypical but unrealistic expectations teens face daily. Our ensemble members are peer educators, and through the use of theatre as a voice for social change, they are enabling students from all over central Texas to stand up, speak out and change lives. Join us for an interactive workshop where students will see a preview of Changing Lives Spring show, and then help create solutions for the problems raised in the show. This will be an interactive workshop. Changing Lives is a collaboration between SafePlace and the Theatre Action Project.

Rock Your Words

Do you have a song in your heart but not sure how to get it out into the world? Rock Your Words will present songwriting basics and give participants a chance to create their own tunes in a fun, fast-paced, low-pressure environment. Singer-Songwriter Myrna Cabello (“Letting Go”) will explain what makes a song, followed by some examples. Together with freelance writer and novelist Belinda Acosta, participants will then get their creative juices flowing to write lyrics to their own songs. No musical experience necessary!

Experiment and Explore

Valentia Vale will be presenting a 3D Workshop concept with an emphasis on Jewelry Design where the participants will experiment with the basic elements of sculpture, texture, and form to create a design to function as a pendant.  The vision of this 3D Workshop is to re-awaken in the participant the tactile and visual sensibilities of texture carried by form, which can be an expression of one’s individuality.

Chica TV

Chica TV is an interactive workshop that teaches girls how to produce their own television show. Latinitas media and technology experts will assist students in the planning and filming of a television talk show around important girl issues. Girls will learn how to operate a camera, design a talk show set, write a script, and much more. Participants have the option of working behind the camera or center stage as a host or guest on the talk show. Chica TV airs on Latinitas Magazine You Tube Channel. 

The Voices in Our Heads

Drawing from the inspiration of writer Jamaica Kinkaid, Badgerdog Publishing will explore the many external influences that shape our self-perceptions. We’ll also write our way toward self-portraits that balance external influences against the truths we hold for ourselves.

We’ll begin with a reading of Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, a short story that highlights the many external influences shaping one girl’s life (attached). We’ll also read George Ella Lyon’s poem, Where I’m From. We’ll then brainstorm together the many sources of external influence girls and teens are subjected to by way of family ties, mass media, and cultural/religious ties. We’ll discuss what those influences ask of us then consider our own ambitions and values. All of this will build toward a creative writing activity in which participants acknowledge external influences while asserting their own identities.

Moody Me

Moody Me is a creative workshop to help girls find their unique voice through spontaneous writing and artistic exercises.  The ongoing goal is to help others create their own honest and poetic visual stories of themselves in addition to bonding with their peers.

And this is just a small sampling of the sessions that will be happening at the Conference. Check back daily for more information on sessions on topics like healthy relationships, financial and business tools, bullying, body image, and more. And go here to see a round up of every session. Sound like fun? Register here!