15 years ago, GirlZone had its first GrrrlFest, a weekend of workshops, panels, and shows for girls and women. This week, July 31-Aug. 2, organizers and participants are inviting a new generation to celebrate GirlZone! There are workshops, dance parties, and an all-ages rock show (we have the schedule for Saturday and Sunday on our calendar). We asked organizer Anni Poppen five questions about what to expect at this weekend’s celebration to empower girls and young women in Champaign-Urbana:Why did you put together the first GirlZone?
GirlZone was a social movement at a very grassroots, local level. It created safe spaces for girls age 7-17 to explore themselves through activities not normally geared toward females (skateboarding, zine making, changing a tire on a car, karate, BBQing, and so much more).
How has it impacted your lives in the past 10 years?
As a volunteer for GirlZone and GrrrlFests I was trained to create these spaces. I learned important tools like language (don’t address a room full of girls as “you guys” or refer to experts in the fields we’re training the girls on as “he”), making sure the introverts are given a voice and the extroverts are given just as much time to connect, keeping outsiders out of the room, separating groups of girls who came together — leveling the playing field of learning for all, creating challenges each girl could accomplish. I still do this with girls and young women given the opportunity to hang out with them. And let’s be honest, how many of us grew up with these standards? I’m making sure I’m doing this for myself too.
Why a reunion now?
It has been 15 years since the first GrrrlFest; many of our participants are now adults, some with girls of their own. It’s a nice time to come together and celebrate once again.
What do you want attendees to get out of this event? Who should participate?
We want attendees to feel empowered by learning something new about themselves — to challenge those walls of awkwardness and come out of their shell a little more. We have workshops and panels for ladies age 3 to 103, so we hope everyone will join in on the celebration!
The program – how did you curate the topics, and what do they reflect? Is it similar to the one 10 years ago, or does it reflect change in that time?
We kick off the weekend with one of our classics, Zine Making at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, but we also have new workshops like construction (1 p.m. Saturday) and soldering/LED light badges (9:15 a.m. Sunday). The whole weekend came together with a great combination of women, from Co-Founder/Director of GirlZone, Aimee Rickman, to original volunteers coming back to workshops being facilitated by women who were once participants to new faces who are currently doing amazing work for girls and women in the community.The energy is definitely the same, but there are new topics that are coming up like how to deal with smartphones in a workshop. We didn’t have to worry about that 15 years ago.
Online registration for GirlZone events has ended, but there are registration times available both Saturday and Sunday morning. Past GirlZone participants are free with two guests, for those new to the events, it will cost $5-15 sliding scale for each workshop. The rock show is $5 each for all. All events will take place at the Independent Media Center in Urbana.