Authors Eva Hagberg Fisher, Wayétu Moore, and Joanne Ramos were featured honorees in our kickoff Spring Series 2019 event—the March CHAPTERS Reading. Each honoree gave a keynote address at the New-York Historical Society to our audience full of mentees, mentors, writers, editors, agents, and activists, as well as introduced our talented readers of the evening.
Our emcees and honorees (left to right): Mentor Andrea Gabbidon-Levene, mentee Rocío Cuevas, Eva Hagberg Fisher, Joanne Ramos, Wayétu Moore
Girls Write Now Readers
Today’s mentees are part of a brave new generation of writers, proudly showcasing their best work:
Sylvi Stein, MOTHER; Nathalie Cabrera, Lion’s Mane; Sanjida Sheuba, Ode to Women; Maxine Babb, Broken; Gabrielle Galchen, Snow White; Claire Yu, City Girl; Joanna Tan, The Scientist; Stefanie Donayre, A Blooming Realization; Manar Dihyem, An Open Letter to The Higher Being; Grace Yu, Dream Nocturne; Basmala Zyada, How It Ends; Kenia Torres, The Unknown and A Flicker in December; Hannah Thomas, Ode to the Deli Man; Ilana Drake, This is Fifteen; Kaya Fraser, Satisfied; Kimberley Garcia, Music Box; Gabriela Palermo, The Women in My Life.
Mentee Manar Dihyem reading “An Open Letter to the Higher Being”
Mentee Claire Yu reading “City Girl”
Mentee Kaya Fraser reading “Satisfied”
EMCEES
- Rocío Cuevas is a Girls Write Now mentee alum who is a writer, lover of Latinx culture, and advocate of women’s empowerment. She currently works at STEM From Dance, a non-profit. She’s also a publicity intern in the Young Readers department at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and on the advisory board of the Octavia Project, a non-profit that helps non-binary youth and girls imagine new futures. Rocío is a Dominican woman born and raised in Brooklyn, currently residing in Queens, NY. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to podcasts, and watching CW TV shows.
- Andrea Gabbidon-Levene is a Girls Write Now mentor alum and an educator, college access professional, and writer from Brooklyn. She is the director of the CUNY Start Program at Hostos Community College. Andrea previously served on the program advisory board for Girls Write Now, the Within Reach Foundation, and currently serves the chair of the advisory board of the Octavia Project. Andrea started her career as a journalist and has been published in the Boston Globe, New Jersey Herald and was a CampusVipe reporter for CNN.com. A native of Long Island, Andrea is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants.
Emcees, left to right: Rocío Cuevas and Andrea Gabbidon-Levene
Performances
Watch the speakers of the night, from our honorees to our mentees, in the playlist below!
Honoree Interview
Watch our exclusive interview with Eva Hagberg Fisher, Wayétu Moore, and Joanne Ramos below!
Join us on Friday, June 14th at the New-York Historical Society for our next CHAPTERS Reading with Girls Write Now Agents of Change honorees, Laurie Halse Anderson! The event is open to the public. Tickets are available here!