To celebrate the strong, inspiring, and bold voices of the Girls Write Now Class of 2020, we aired a Girls Write Now Live: Graduation Week minisode for three nights leading up to our June 12 Graduation Gala event—a fundraiser for Girls Write Now’s initiative to ensure that New York City’s young women and gender non-conforming youth are supported with free programming all summer long.
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These minisodes featured the multimedia, multi-genre work of mentees, each showcasing work on themes like high school on June 9; home and place on June 10; and love and self-love on June 11. You can watch all three episodes—each runs for about a half-hour—right here!
GRADUATION WEEK EPISODE 1: JUNE 9, 2020
This episode is emceed by mentor alum and anthology committee co-chair Maya Millet. In order of performance, featured mentees include:
- Atiqa Chowdhury; fiction, “Beloved”
- Nyasia Bailey; memoir, “Tale of an Unsung Writer”
- Gabi Palermo; podcast, “Toilet Talks Podcast”
- Lyla Malcomson; memoir, “The Day I Fell In Love”
- Sandy Tan; interactive novel, “Becoming”
- Hermei Herman; poem, “Salty, with a Hint of Bitterness”
- Chelsea Chinedo; audio, “What to do!”
- Leslie Pantaleon; video, “My High School Experience: in the context of Girls Write Now”
GRADUATION WEEK EPISODE 2: JUNE 10, 2020
This episode is emceed by mentor and anthology committee member Grace Ali. In order of performance, featured mentees include:
- Giftbelle Lomotey; poem, “Where I’m From”
- Joanne Cai; poem, “This Sacred Earth”
- Alice Kresberg; graphic design, “Different Views”
- Giana Adote; fiction, “Evening Distractions”
- Vicky Huang; graphic design & memoir, “The World Through Me”
- Genesis Cespedes; poem, “Beauty”
- Dominique de Castro; audio, “City Symphony”
- Christine Yan; video, “A Slice of Life”
GRADUATION WEEK EPISODE 3: JUNE 11, 2020
This episode is emceed by mentor and teaching artist Arriel Vinson. In order of performance, featured mentees include:
- Lola Hart; memoir, “I Love You, Lola”
- Amina Rosa Castronovo; poem, “Every Shade of Blue”
- Suhaylah Sirajul-Islam; poem, “A Moment In History; A Favorite”
- Tatiana Mezitis; fiction, “Crossing”
- Kaitlyn Yang; fiction, “Raspberry Heart”
- Lilly Sabella; fiction, “Crescendo”
- Jayla Greenberg; poem, “Morphine Wings”
- Isabelle Sanderson; poem, “Encounters”
- Jayola Reid; poem and video, “Dedicated to my Natural Hair”