My Time With Feminist Camp
By Sydney Soganich
I had been excited about Feminist Camp for weeks, researching and packing and doing everything I could to get ready, when the night before my 10AM flight, I came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning. Through the whole process of changing plans and making it to camp, camp leadership was making sure that I was taking the rest I needed to, had the information to get everywhere I needed to be and got any information that I had missed out on in the morning session. An unfortunate incident became a heartwarming introduction to the supportive and deeply caring community of Feminist Camp.
While it killed the book nerd in me to not be there for the morning session with Feminist Book Club, I had a great time the rest of the first day learning about feminism in the corporate and entertainment worlds with a panel of women at Wasserman and spending the evening getting to know my fellow campers and experiencing a celebration of artistic feminism with an event called “Women Talking: An Evening of Wild Femme Imagination.” The entire first day had me thinking about ways that feminism can be incorporated into the workplace that I had never thought about.
The next morning, we got to work on our resumes with a career counselor, learn about feminism in the international law space with Equality Now!, and visit a jewelry studio in the building where Elizabeth Blackwell practiced medicine. While I missed the late afternoon session that day, I was back in full force for our reproductive justice day on Wednesday. We got to learn from an attorney at Pregnancy Justice, whose patience with and insightful answers to all of our questions had me wanting to make the switch to pre-law on the spot – I think that I could have spoken to her all day. After Pregnancy Justice, we got to learn about abortion from physicians and activists with Reproductive Health Access Program, and even perform a simulation of surgical abortion on a papaya ourselves. We ended the day with a conversation with a doula from Ancient Song Doulas.
The last two days of camp were full of media and art experiences, learning from the 49%, DemocracyNow!, Feminist Press, and a few museums in the city. I loved getting to hear from so many journalists and creatives doing groundbreaking feminist work. On the last day, we got to go to Gloria Steinem’s house and have lunch with her, reflecting on our experiences and futures with an iconic feminist.
Ultimately, Feminist Camp was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to new career opportunities, taught me more about what it means to be a feminist in different spaces, and helped me grow closer to the other Tulane students that attended. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody with the opportunity to go!
