The Bella Bulletin
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
BALI CELEBRATES… Our two BALI Alumnae, Saumya Grover (Class of 2017) and Brianna Taborda (Class of 2020) who received the new BALI Moreen McGurk College Scholarship Fund.
CHECK OUT… Our new Feminist Five as we highlight author, bell hooks and their phenomenal work.
FOLLOW @BELLAABZUGINSTITUTE
Table of Contents I.
Announcements…………………………………….….…..3
II.
Upcoming Events…………………………………………..7
III.
Highlights of the Month…………….…………….……..…...8
IV.
Feminist Five…….…………………………….......…….....9
V.
Happy Birthday To……………...……………..……....….....11
VI.
This Month in Women’s History …..……….………………....12
VII. Enrichment VIII. Bella IX.
Opportunities……..………...............................…..13
Bulletin Staff………….………………..……...….….15
BALI Staff…………………………….…………..........…..16
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Announcements
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Upcoming Events Virtual BALI Training is Back! We’re back in action, started Wednesday, November 3rd at 4 pm for our year-long virtual training program. This is open to all female-identified high school youth.
If interested, email contact@abzuginstitute.org
Reminders FAFSA Opened October 1st!
Regular Decision Application due January 15th
Stay safe and wear a mask!
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Highlights of the Month
The long-awaited “2020” Summer Olympics this year has a spotlight on City the Council racism, and more This put January, New York will make specifically, misogynoir that is entrenched in the Just days after the Department of Homeland history by inaugurating 31 female city-councilors. sports industry. First, images Sha’Carri was Last month, horrific ofRichardson United States Security announced they cleared the Up until now, the council that has never had more than border patrol brutalizing Haitian migrants banned from the Olympics after a positive cannabis camp of 15,000, 18 women sit on themostly council,Haitian but this immigrants next coming sparked widespread outrage. The horrifying atrocities test, even though it is not a performance-enhancing seeking asylum in Del Rio, Texas, year, the council will have a female majority. made by let the U.S.thegovernment Hatian drug (and alone fact that manyagainst white athletes images were released of U.S.has Border Patrol Furthermore, this year’s election made history migrants, however, extend beyond This the have been excused of much worsefar accusations). Agents chasing Haitian immigrants with on multiple accounts due to the diverse group of events of late September. Most of the past week, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka stepped horses and whips. This instance is one in a candidates. Crystal Hudson will become the their first immigrants depicted in theevents photos surfaced down from their Olympic tothat protect long line of atrocities comitted by the U.S. Black openly queer city deported council member, late September were back toShekar Haiti physical and mental health. And as a result, these government dating back to the first influx of under Title 42. Title 42, established by the Krishnan be the first American, Chi champion willathletes haveIndian faced immense Hatian teh 1970s. After Trump administration, allows the U.S. Ossé willasylum be the youngest city council member, discrimination andseekers judgment.in These three instances the brutal “clearing” of the detention center government toothers immediately deport immigrants (among many at this year’s Olympics) begs and many more of the recent elects will make that attempt to cross the border under the this September, the overwhelming majority the question of whether the Olympics and itsMany fans history by making the council more diverse. pretense of their pandemic concerns. To tosupport of Haitian were travel care about Blackvoting athletes the suggest that immigrants rank choice isforced partbeyond of what has Haitian and Black migrants, consider donating to back to Haiti. entertainment provide. made runningand fortalent officethey more accessible to all
the Haitian Bridge Alliance and UndocuBlack. New Yorkers.
This summer, indigenous water protectors and allies have been Poland tirelesslyissued protesting the construction of In 2020, an almost-complete On 20, members of by Trans*, a resource LineOctober 3, a pipeline being built the Canadian oil ban ofyear, abortions; only permitting victims of This the United Nations Framework group for Netflix employees that are gender company Enbridge. The pipeline is being constructed incest, rape, orallies, medical emergencies Convention Climate Change (COP finally minorities and staged a 26) in Northern on Minnesota even though it walkout violates access to safe and legal abortions. Many protesting Dave Chappelle’s comedy addressed the detrimental impacts faced several treaties made with thehealth Ojibwe peoplespecial of the have accused the Polish government of “The Closer,” which features a copious amount by vulnerable communities as ais result climate area. Furthermore, the pipeline set toofcross 200 taking ofcarbon thefootprint COVID-19 of homophobic and itstransphobic jokes. The change. Atadvantage the convention, preventative measures bodies of water and would walkout wastoof intended pressure the company pandemic quickly and quietly such cutting methane emissions andpass stopping exceedas that all of to Minnesota. The influxthe of to acknowledge the harm done by the special law. In response, the Belgian government Enbridge workers into heavily Ojibwe discussed. territory hasMany also deforestation were and to include more cases LGBTQ+ films and TV shows funded 6 abortion organizations that will heightened COVID-19 and led to the assault of activists and policymakers in attendance, however, on the streaming service. Netflix co-Chief now invite people from lacked Poland toForcome some indigenous community members. ways to to report thatTed the convention a more specific Executive Sarandos publicly stands by Dave Belgium andstopline3.org. receive safe health-related and legal help, see focusplease on health impacts with direct
Chappelle and refuses to take the special off of abortions. solutions Netflix. that address health disparities.
Three months ago, the CDC announced that Steven Spielberg’s Westfree Side Story public has sparked vaccinated people were to enter indoor worldwide excitement. Saudi Arabia, the United places maskless fear has of contracting or A recent lawsuitwithout in Taiwan the potential This month, Canadian-backed oil company, Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, spreading COVID-19. This month, however, due to to make historic change in Taiwan. This Endbridge, was pressured to shut down Line 5 in several of the the Deltamovie variant of the virus however, banned due to Xiao strict month,outbreaks ahave Taiwanese court approeved Michigan for several hours after water (the most rules revealing which occurred in censorship aroundofher sexuality. E’s request to change genderThe onprimary her ID protectors called Enbridge and halted the Provincetown, Massachusetts, where ofWest the issue thatprove these countries have foundmost with without of gender-affirming surgery. operation ofvaccinated) the pipeline from within that the population is the CDC announced Side Story is the Xiao minorEcharacter Anybodys. In the Back inThe 2019, was denied this right, facility. construction andinoperation of Line 5 vaccinated individuals can, fact, contract and original film, Anybodys portrayed as athreat tomboy andposed in response, she isenvironmental took her case straight has an immense to spread the disease. As a result, it is now that seeksNow, acceptance fromDespite the have Jets, but the to many activists that thecourt. Michigan community. thehope factinthat recommended that everyone, regardless of 2021 adaptation, Anybodys isprecedent portrayed as Xiao E’s case will set the state government anda members of and the vaccination status use masks indoors. The Delta explicitly trans. the censorship inthea abolish the law Despite that have states trans individuals Michigan community actively resisted variant is near twice as transmissible as the first use of adaptation the pipeline, Enbridge mustandhave gender-affirming surgery to handful ofconstruction countries, this of Anybodys strains of COVID-19, yet less than half of the U.S. has exploited legalon orderand to change their gender theirin-depth IDs.in work is monumental thanks toloopholes the population is vaccinated.
continue research with doneconstruction. by screenwritier Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg, and iris menas, the transmasculine non-binary actor who plays Anybodys.
Next month, the Supreme Court will take up two lawsuits against Senate Bill 8, a Texas In response to financial difficulties brought on by the abortion law that can ban abortions at as early COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC established a This6 weeks month, as intoCalifornia pregnancy, Governor well beforeGavin many moratorium that protected Americans from individuals find out that they are pregnant. If Newsom established a three-year evictions. This month, even though the pandemic passed, Senate15, Billtransformational 8,will would eliminate 85%-90% pilot-program that record data about the On December author, poet, and its subsequent financial obstacles are far from of abortions in Texas. The two lawsuits made gender and sexuality of victims of violent and bell hooks at age 69. hooks over, professor, the moratorium wasdied lifted, leaving many against the bill were made by the federal deaths. While the pilot-program is limited to published 30 books in her lifetime, and was best Americans in the lurch for affordable housing. With government and a collection of abortion six counties, areLove: still hopeful that known for heradvocates works many About New Visions, the moratorium lifted, the providers and advocates. AsAmericans of now, it across is unclear this landmark bill will be the first step in country owe months ofFeminist past-due rent with little Ain’t anow Woman?, and Theory: what I the Supreme Court’s decision willFrom be. addressing the increased violence bya to no support. This already very present issue has Margin Center. hooks dedicated her faced time as What istoknown now, however, is that the court the So and far,herwill Santa been exacerbated by the pandemic not professor writer to making work will LGBTQ+ not and be a community. discussing abortion rights Clara, Los Angeles, Stanislaus and Fresno dissolve unless established, permanent change is themselves, butallrather, how SB 8 will be “healing” above else, making her loss all the made byimpactful thehave federalagreed counties to participate the enforced. more togovernment. all those that she in healed program. through her writing.
Titled Writer Akwaeke All About after KarlaLove: her Emezi’s Cornejo able-bodied, Newfourth Villavicencio Visionsbook, identical is perhaps was “Dear on twin’s one DACA Senthuran: of nickname bell when hooks’ she AThe decided Black most Pretty famous Spirit toOne: write Memoir,” works. Onabout Life, It Pop being provides is Culture, a undocumented collection this Disability, perennial of essays for and question the Other that first cumulates time Reasons with using a definitive toher into Fallown in an answer. Love name. argument with Yes, It was the Me that right author is an challenges after honest, seems the challenging, election to say, we society’s ofimage 2016, and are monsters. hilarious of thewhat day collection she But loverealized only is. hooks ifof monstrosity the essays writes, story that she’d “The is detail defined tried word Keah as to‘love’ the steer Brown’s explicit isclear most life, refusal ofoften love, was and the to pop-culture defined only abideone asbya she the noun, obsessions. wanted binaries yet…we tothat As tell. would her surround So quote all shelove wrote below us. better Inher confirms, a world immigration if we predisposed used Keah itBrown lawyer’s as a verb,” to uses phone queer The an Pretty number villainy, idea that, One on “Dear on to herits push Senthuran” hand own,past inhas Sharpie left the claims aneed and legacy. monstrosity embarked for her as cerebral-palsy onaaspace trip across of intentional tothe becountry a source rejection. to tell of inspiration and instead encourages the stories her readers of her fellow to see undocumented her disability asimmigrants—and just one of her many to find other the hidden interesting key andher to powerful own. traits and accomplishments The book is (including a metaphysical her love journey for cheesecake!) told through The IgboPretty cosmology. One has Emezi, received who grew up praise from in Aba, well-known Nigeria,artists invitesand thewriters readerlike to Roxane “imagine Gay, being Lenaogbanje, Dunam,like andme.” Deepak Divine Chopra. spirits born to human All About Love contains 13 chapters that expand society’s limited understanding of “love” as a merely romantic mothers, Looking beyond ogbanjethe areflashpoints liminal deities of the in border constant or the transit. activism In order of the to DREAMers, rejoin the spirit Cornejo world, Villavicencio they die over explores and concept to contain concepts of clarity, justice, honesty, commitment, spirituality, values, greed, community, The Pretty the over lives again,ofOne deliberately thealso undocumented—and unpacks leaving Keah theirBrown’s human the viral families mysteries social bereft. media of hercampaign own life.#DisabledandCute. She finds the singular, Initiallyeffervescent a personal mutuality, romance, loss, healing, and destiny (as hooks names the chapters). In these chapters, she makes hashtag posted characters across bythe Brown nation to celebrate often reduced her personal in the media journey to with political self-love, pawns#DisabledandCute or nameless laborers. has transformed The stories connections between lessons we learn as children and how they impact our perspective of love as adults and into she In context tells an online are andnot content, community deferential “Dear of Senthuran” or disabled naivelypeople inspirational is molded celebrating by but departure themselves show the and what love, and proving itmagic, requires. heartbreak, thatThe “being bookinsanity, disabled is structured and unpacks the fraught idea that we are expected to know how to love despite the absence of instructions in being vulgarity as a series cute that ofaren’t infuse letters the mutually from day-to-day the author exclusive.” lives to of their Like herfriends, subjects. most lovers, online other content writers, created divine by and Black human creators, family.however, In them society. All About Love is just one example of how bell hooks’ writing beautifully heals its readers. #DisabledandCute Emezi recounts episodes is occasionally in their life, referenced from their without gender crediting confirmation Keah Brown. surgeries So to to all purchasing of our lovely a home BALI (a readers place that might they call their want“godhouse”), to contributetotobetrayal the hashtag, at the make hands sureoftoliterary tag hermentors. @Keah_Maria! Each letter chronicles a tension — between Western constructions of gender and “people like me: embodied but not human, terrified that
In New going York, we meet the undocumented who were into theBlack federally funded Zero they’re mad, unable to talk about it,workers and estranged fromrecruited the Indigenous realities thatGround might make cleanup after Miami, we enterthe theeuphoria ubiquitous offer medicinal triumph herbs and to some sense of 9/11. it all.”In But also between andbotanicas, heartbreakwhich of love, professional andpotions personal those whose status of blocks them from Emezi any other healthcare options. In artificial, Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for failure, the finality life and death. proves these oppositions while establishing the very real state ID in order to receive life-saving cleaninwater. Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, solitude and weight of being uninterested them.InIncrementally, the chapters inch closer and closer to a finds familyreality. in two“There teenage whosebright fatherand is inbrilliant sanctuary. Andthey through alldoesn’t we see make the author grappling frightening is girls something in me,” write.it“It me feel special. with the biggest questions It makes me terribly alone.”of love, duty, family, and survival.
In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.
“I don’t mind being an inspiration if it is for a valid reason, such as admiring how many slices of pizza I ate, an essay or an article I wrote, my clothing choices, or how quickly I can learn the lyrics to songs. As long as the inspiration doesn’t come with pity or self-congratulatory pats on the back, I am all for it. Let my love for cheesecake inspire you the way it will inspire a nation. you cantosaytell youthem were there first. “People canonedoday spectacular things At if least you forget it’s impossible.” ― Akwaeke - Keah Brown Emeki, Dear Senthuran: A black Spirit Memoir In addition to being an author, Keah Brown is a notable journalist, actress, and “The twisted inversion that many children of immigrants know is that, at some point, your parents
Akwaeke Emezi is ahas Nigerian writer and artist, publications best known screenwriter. Brown writtenlgbo for and and Tamil been featured in video established
become your children, and your ownandpersonal American becomes making sure for their 2018 debut novel Freshwater. Featured on Keah thedream cover of TIME including Essence, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue. Brown is alsoMagazine featured as in
a Next Generation Leader (June 2021) for debut memoir DEAR they ageBurke and die with dignity in a transformative country thattheir hasanthology never wanted them.” Tarana and Brené Brown’s You Are YourSENTHURAN, Best Thing. Akwaeke Emezi (b. 1987) is an artist and writer based in liminal spaces.
― Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (born 1989) is an Ecuadorian-American writer and the This, however, is just the beginning for Keah Brown. In 2022, she will publish her first children’s book, titled author of The Undocumented Americans (2020). She has written about her experiences as an undocumented Sam’s Super Seats. Illustrated by Sharee Miller, this upcoming book will follow a young girl with cerebral palsy A National Book Foundation '5 Under 35'States. honoree, Emezi was born in Umuahia andfor raised in Aba, Nigeria. They immigrant from Ecuador to the United In October 2020 it was shortlisted the National Book Award as she goes back to school shopping with her best friends. Though more information has yet to be released, were named one of The New Hollywood Guard: Writers by Vanity Fair and their romance debut YOU MADE A for Nonfiction. Keah Brown is also set to publish a book geared towards young adults in the next few years. Brown has big FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY is forthcoming from Atria Books in 2022, with the screen rights selling to dreams when it comes to television, many of which have already been accomplished, but for now, we should Amazon Studios a seven-figure deal with executive producer. debut poetry collection all take the time toinread extensive andEmezi wait toassee what next!Their Cornejo Villavicencio washer born in 1989works in Ecuador. When she wasshe fourdoes or five, her parents brought her to the CONTENT WARNING: EVERYTHING is also forthcoming Copper Press 2022 and sophomore United States. She has a brother. The family lived in from the New YorkCanyon borough of in Queens. Shetheir graduated from YA novel in BITTER willbelieves be published February 2022undocumented by Knopf Books. Harvard 2011 isand she is in one of the first immigrants to do so. As of September 2020 she is a PhD candidate in the American studies program at Yale. She was an Emerson Collective fellow.
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Women’s History of the Month: December Wyoming is the first territory to give women the right to vote. December 10, 1869
Mary McLeod Bethune creates the National Council of Negro Women. December 5, 1935
Pearl S. Buck receives the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Good Earth. December 10, 1938
Capt. Annie Fox receives the first Purple Heart awarded to a woman for her service while under attack at Pearl Harbor. Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white person; her arrest sparks the modern civil rights movement in the US.
December 7, 1941
December 1, 1955
Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the N.Y. Stock Exchange. December 28, 1967
President’s Commission on the Status of Women is established to examine discrimination against women and ways to eliminate it. December 14, 1961
Judith Rodin is named president of Univ. of Pennsylvania, the first woman to head an Ivy League institution. December 17, 1993
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Bella Bulletin Staff Wilma Abam-DePass Co-Editor-in-Chief School: Mount Holyoke College BALI Class of 2017 Contact Info: Wilma@depass.com
Zoe Donovan Co-Editor-in-Chief School: Brown University BALI Class of 2017 Contact Info: zoezoedonovan@gmail.com