GWN and Baruch College Celebrate Women's History Month

By Lisa Gomez

Girls Write Now Intern

When Luz, the assistant director of Student Life at Baruch College, asked me if my club, Writers’ Society, would be interested in hosting a Women’s History month event, I said “Sure!” without thinking about it twice. Our club had only had two meetings so far and we desperately needed the exposure.

“How about March 11^th?” Luz asked.

“Great!”  March 11^th was two weeks away.

“What would you like to do?”

“Um, well, I’m thinking maybe we can… have a woman writer come in to speak, read something and talk about being a woman in the writing industry?”

“Perfect!” said Luz.

The rest of our meeting included lots of smiling and nodding and me signing various forms.  As I left Student Life, my smile faded and I realized that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. 

I called my friend and president of the club, Edithe, to fill her in on the details.

“I have no idea how we’re going to do this in two weeks! I exclaimed, not-so-discreetly freaking out.

“Okay, well, let’s think. Who do we know?”

“Oh wait. Okay, maybe I can just post something up on eGWN, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to resort to Craigslist.”

Girls Write Now instantly popped into my head because of the amazing amount of talented professional writers that come together for one main cause: to engage in the art of creative writing. This is the exact reason Edithe and I founded the Writers’ Society at Baruch. Despite creating a journalism/creative writing major about two years ago, there really weren’t that many writing outlets at this nationally renowned business school.  We felt that there needed to be a place at Baruch for creative writers to come together for support, to share ideas, receive feedback, and above all to simply write—much like Girls Write Now.

After posting, I checked eGWN approximately every 10 seconds to see if anyone had responded. I went to bed that night convinced that we were going to have to post an ad on Craigslist and end up inviting some serial killer to Baruch.

Then, mentor Julie Polk came to the rescue.

On March 11^th, Julie arrived, smiling and ready to go. She performed a monologue entitled “ Feckless Flo” about an unapologetically honest woman named Flo, who spends her time in the “crazy car” of the M train.  Julie’s compelling and hysterical portrayal of Flo captivated the audience, even Edithe and me, who had read the piece beforehand.

Julie also read from her memoir, Welcome to Dogadoon, which chronicles the different generations of women in her family, including her dog Rosie.  In a moving piece that still featured Julie’s sharp sense of humor, we learned about Julie’s ordeal in trying to adopt a dog, and how she came to find Rosie.

Afterward, Julie answered questions from the audience ranging from her life as a professional writer to tips for future writers.

As my club’s first big event, I couldn’t have asked for a better featured writer to save the day.

  When Luz, the assistant director of Student Life at Baruch College, asked me if my club, Writers’ Society, would be interested in hosting a Women’s History month event, I said “Sure!” without thinking about it twice. Our club had only had two meetings so far and we desperately needed the exposure.

“How about March 11^th?” Luz asked.

“Great!”  March 11^th was two weeks away.

“What would you like to do?”

“Um, well, I’m thinking maybe we can… have a woman writer come in to speak, read something and talk about being a woman in the writing industry?”

“Perfect!” said Luz.

The rest of our meeting included lots of smiling and nodding and me signing various forms.  As I left Student Life, my smile faded and I realized that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. 

I called my friend and president of the club, Edithe, to fill her in on the details.

“I have no idea how we’re going to do this in two weeks! I exclaimed, not-so-discreetly freaking out.

“Okay, well, let’s think. Who do we know?”

“Oh wait. Okay, maybe I can just post something up on eGWN, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to resort to Craigslist.”

Girls Write Now instantly popped into my head because of the amazing amount of talented professional writers that come together for one main cause: to engage in the art of creative writing. This is the exact reason Edithe and I founded the Writers’ Society at Baruch. Despite creating a journalism/creative writing major about two years ago, there really weren’t that many writing outlets at this nationally renowned business school.  We felt that there needed to be a place at Baruch for creative writers to come together for support, to share ideas, receive feedback, and above all to simply write—much like Girls Write Now.

After posting, I checked eGWN approximately every 10 seconds to see if anyone had responded. I went to bed that night convinced that we were going to have to post an ad on Craigslist and end up inviting some serial killer to Baruch.

Then, mentor Julie Polk came to the rescue.

On March 11^th, Julie arrived, smiling and ready to go. She performed a monologue entitled “ Feckless Flo” about an unapologetically honest woman named Flo, who spends her time in the “crazy car” of the M train.  Julie’s compelling and hysterical portrayal of Flo captivated the audience, even Edithe and me, who had read the piece beforehand.

Julie also read from her memoir, Welcome to Dogadoon, which chronicles the different generations of women in her family, including her dog Rosie.  In a moving piece that still featured Julie’s sharp sense of humor, we learned about Julie’s ordeal in trying to adopt a dog, and how she came to find Rosie.

Afterward, Julie answered questions from the audience ranging from her life as a professional writer to tips for future writers.

As my club’s first big event, I couldn’t have asked for a better featured writer to save the day.

 Lisa Gomez is an intern at Girls Write Now. She is a junior at Baruch College and runs a summer creative writing group with NYPL in the Bronx.