Meet Haley Riemer ! Haley is majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies and minoring in English and Theatre. She would like to be an activist and work in entertainment, film, and media
Describe yourself and why you wanted to attend Feminist Camp:
I am someone who has a lot of interests and likes to do a lot of different things. I am an actor, writer, and of course a feminist. This past year, I was the Co-President of the Feminist Alliance of Students at Tulane. One of the areas I am most passionate about is human rights and gender equality. Feminist camp sounded like the perfect place for me because I couldn’t imagine anything better than being surrounded by powerful, radical women doing amazing things. I am very interested in acting, media, and entertainment, and I have recently been struggling to reconcile those interests with my passion for feminism when faced with career choices. I wanted to attend Feminist Camp in the hopes of reconciling these two interests together, as well as to become a better leader and a better activist.
Describe your favorite parts of the conference:
It’s hard to pick a favorite part because I loved the whole conference so much. There really wasn’t a dull moment, but if I had to pick some favorites, one of them would definitely be visiting Women Make Movies in the “mini-internship” session, at which I was able to meet so many amazing women working in the film industry and see an exclusive screening of Ovarian Psycos, a great film distributed by the organization. I also absolutely loved attending the premier of Dream, Girl, another incredible film that happened to premier during the week we were in New York. I also really enjoyed visiting Women and Justice and meeting some incredible women working against injustice in the prison system and working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. There really were too many amazing events to name, they all had such an impact on me. The events were only half of the experience though; the women with me attending the conference absolutely made the entire week something I will never forget.
Highlight a speaker or a conference event:
One organization that we visited that was a lot of fun was Vice, which was fun for me because I’ve wanted to work for them for a while. We walked into their new office headquarters and were absolutely blown away. Between the couches, full snack station, and outdoor garden with solar powered charging station, it seemed like a dream of a workplace. What I found really great, though, was getting to see how individual women working with Vice – one of which is one of our coordinators, Amy Richards – brought feminism into their work in a setting that wasn’t an “activist organization”. We got to hear about some of the company’s projects and see a sneak peak of the new episode of Woman, (in one of Vice’s movie theater rooms), which Amy helped produce with Gloria Steinem.
Detail what you learned that you hope to never forget:
I learned that your story probably won’t be (and doesn’t have to be) linear; every single one of the incredible, intelligent, and powerful women we met over the course of this week had a multitude of different paths that eventually got them to where they are. I learned that you don’t have to choose just one career or just one interest. There are so many opportunities out there to make mistakes or do something you never thought you’d be doing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know where you’re going after college and you’ve only got a year left. This week taught me that what comes next is often unexpected, but that can mean so much possibility.
Why should other students attend Feminist Camp:
You should attend Feminist Camp if you are a feminist and are passionate about bringing feminism with you in whatever you do in life. The week of Feminist Camp will show you so many different perspectives that you don’t really get anywhere else and expose you to so many experiences and stories that will inspire you. If you want to meet cool feminist women from all over the country, have an incredible week in New York, and walk away from the experience with invaluable knowledge and perspective, Feminist Camp is the place for you.
Does this sound like something you might be interested in? Tulane undergraduate students can apply to NCI for funding to attend Feminist Camp. Email Betsy Lopez at elopez@tulane.edu for more information.
Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.