Sibling-to-Sibling (Sib2Sib) is a new organization of Middlebury College students who facilitate monthly events for middle school students in Addison County. Previously two separate organizations, Sister-to-Sister and Brother-to-Brother, we decided to merge in order to create a more gender-inclusive space. We will continue our mission of mentoring and facilitating thoughtful discussions with middle school students, focusing on common issues in the students’ lives. Sib2Sib is an inclusive, comfortable environment where middle schoolers and college students get to know one another by engaging in fun activities and discussions.
We are very excited to announce that our first event will be on Sunday, October 23rd from 1-4pm at Middlebury College’s Chellis House (56 Hillcrest Road, Middlebury). If you have a middleschooler in your life who would enjoy participating, please have them register. More information about the event at go.middlebury.edu/sib2sib/. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at sistertosister@middlebury.edu.
The widely popular Sister-to-Sister Summit for female-identifying and non-binary middle school students is returning to Kirk Alumni Center after a 2-year hiatus on Saturday, April 30 from 9am-3pm. Sister-to-Sister is an organization led by Middlebury College students that facilitates monthly group events for middle school students. Each year, our day-long summit allows college and middle school students in Addison County to meet, discuss, and most importantly, have fun!
For this year’s summit, we have organized several activities: a-cappella singing, poetry, art-making, community service, and field sports. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. If you have a middle schooler in your life who would enjoy attending the event, please send them our way! RSVP at go.middlebury.edu/sts_signup or reach out to sistertosister@middlebury.edu with any questions.
Saturday, October 9, 2-4 pm, 26 Blinn Lane, Middlebury College
Middlebury College’s Sister-to-Sister Program is inviting all vaccinated middle school students (12+) to its first (outside) event: We’ll be decorating pumpkins, making slime, eating donuts, and playing bingo. Please RSVP at go.middlebury.edu/stsevent.
As the world enters the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic and faces the ongoing pandemics of racism, misogyny and queer-phobia, the 2021 Gensler Symposium on Feminism in the Global Arena is focusing on breath. For this purpose, the organizers invited independent poet, scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs to speak about her work, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals on Friday, April 30 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Gumbs’ co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. She has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative, and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.)
Unlike most academic texts, Gumbs’ work has inspired artists across forms to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, and quilts. Alexis Gumbs is currently in residence as a National Humanities Center Fellow, funded by the Founders Award. During her residency, she is writing The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde: Biography as Ceremony (forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Her book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals isa series of meditations based on the increasingly relevant lessons of marine mammals in a world with a rising ocean levels and part of adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy Series at AK Press. This year’s Gensler Symposium is inspiring audiences not just to breathe, but to survive and imagine the world anew through the lens of Black and queer feminist thought.
Middlebury College’s Sister-to-Sister Program is inviting all middle school and 6thgrade girls to four Workout Wednesdays starting on April 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 7 to 7:45 p.m.
Directed by female-identified college students, Sister-to-Sister aims to support middle school students and 6th graders to reach their fullest potential. During the pandemic, the program has switched to an online format and teamed up with certified coach Sal Nakhlawi. Since graduating from Middlebury in 2019, Sal has founded StrongHER Girls, a movement dedicated to teaching girls, women, and folx of marginalized identities how to empower themselves to be strong, from the inside-out. As a recreational powerlifter, the former president of the student organization Women of Color sought a positive, nurturing community for her health and wellness practices. Since weight rooms are often male-dominated, she had trouble finding one—so she created one herself. Over the past year, Sal has been featured in magazines such as Women’s Health and Self.
On Workout Wednesdays in April, Sal will break down every exercise to guarantee optimal form and maximum effect. Sal mixes short, uplifting questions in the series of exercises and invites participants to reflect on them for a couple of minutes. Workout Wednesday will add some much-needed movement to the remote school days.
For more information or to register, contact Karin Hanta: khanta@middlebury.edu, phone (802)458-2742.
When the Feminist of the Year Award was established 30 years ago, nobody would have been able to imagine how we would celebrate in 2020. Known for its inspiring laudatory remarks, warm embraces, artistic contributions, and loads of chocolate covered strawberries, the celebration seemed like straight out of an episode of The Jetsons this year. The virtual setting did not diminish the good mood, however. Celebrants smiled at each other across their computer screens and eagerly joined a virtual dance party. The celebration started with Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” our rally song for the foreseeable future. We first honored the faculty Feminists of the year. This year, the jury decided to distinguish two professors: Hemangini Gupta and Amy Morsman. Just within a short time, Professor Hemangini Gupta has become a huge presence in the GSFS program, one of her nominators note. Her courses are incredibly engaged with the major issues of Feminist Studies, but at the same time they reach out and connect to other fields such as Labor Studies and Science and Technology Studies and thereby bring in a wider group of students. In her free time, Professor Gupta is always ready to lend a hand to make feminism happen at Middlebury, whether it is organizing the pedagogy workshop for faculty during j-term, meeting with students over dinner to discuss various issues on campus, or volunteering to facilitate a feminist reading group in Womxn of Color.
The second winner, Professor Amy Morsman has taught cross-listed History and GSFS classes for close to two decades and has been nominated throughout the years for inspiring students in her “Women in American History” class. In 2015, Professor Morsman provided the scholarly foundations for the “Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution” online project developed by the Vermont-based “Clio Visualizing History” organization. “Click” highlights the achievements of women from the 1940s to the present and explores the complexity of gender consciousness in modern American life. In 2017, Richard Saunders, director of the Middlebury Museum,
asked Professor Morsman whether she was interested in designing an exhibition on the centennial on U.S. women’s suffrage. She followed suit and structured her following first-year seminar around this theme. The outcome was an amazing exhibition that opened in early September 2019 and can now be viewed online. The exhibit highlighted the challenges inherent in the suffrage movement—the racism and classism. Amy had designed and mounted the exhibit during her free time in the summer and continued to graciously donate her time in public lectures throughout Vermont, and—particularly heart-warming—for the middle school members of the Sister-to-Sister group.
Jason Vrooman, director of engagement and curator at the Middlebury Museum of Art, was nominated in the staff category. A 2004 graduate of Middlebury College and PhD in art history from New York University, Jason immediately connected with the Feminist Resource Center at Chellis House upon his return to Middlebury to see how we could collaborate. We have since collaborated on activities for World AIDS Day. Last December, for example, we had a panel of AIDS activists at the museum and then Jason brought out an original artwork by Keith Haring and gave a presentation. The day culminated in a screening of videos in the series “A Day Without Art.” Over the past 1.5 years, Jason has also shown his support by joining the Chellis House Advisory Board and initiated a few improvements, such as the redesign of the Feminist of the Year nomination website. Dr. Vrooman also was instrumental in facilitating museum presentations for younger audiences. In particular, he made his museum docents available to welcoming the Sister-to-Sister group to the “Votes…for Women?” exhibition in December. He has been an invaluable resource to faculty in the classroom, where he has come to talk about feminist art such as Guerrilla Girls agitprop.
The jury decided to award the prize to five students this year. Elissa Asch ’23.5 is a director of the SGA Sexual & Relationship Respect Committee. As part of her work with SRR, she has organized Sex in the Dark events aimed at answering students’ questions about sex and relationships, and in the time of covid—during sexual assault awareness month—she put together multiple comprehensive resource guides for the student body. In these guides she provides many resources related to self-care, support for survivors of sexual assault, support for those suffering from domestic abuse, positive sex ed, and much more. When on campus, Elissa continually promotes sexual health and healthy relationships in her daily interactions with her peers. Most remarkably, she has achieved what other students and staff couldn’t do in previous years: she has pushed for anchoring consent workshops as an integral part of orientation and has succeeded!
Annie Blalock ’20.5, has been indefatigable as FAM leader for the past three years. Initially attracted by the group’s affiliation with Planned Parenthood, she cast FAM’s focus more widely, organizing activism outside of the Middlebury bubble and providing space for our community to respond to national events. FAM members and their allies called government representatives about DACA, gun regulations, and fair housing legislation, wrote to the Department of Justice about proposed changes to Title IX, and tabled for Planned Parenthood’s #Fight4BirthControl campaign. Most recently, Annie and her team went to Town Meeting Day to educate Middlebury residents about Proposition 5, a proposed amendment to the Vermont constitution that would anchor the right to personal reproductive autonomy in the constitution. As a lasting legacy to Middlebury, Annie and her team created Go/SexySources, a website to provide Middlebury students of all identities a comprehensive guide to sexual and reproductive health care on and around campus.
Mikayla Hyman ’20,a human being with limitless energy, developed a particular passion for Feminist Science Studies during her four years at Middlebury. She led science projects at Sister-to-Sister events; went into elementary and middle schools to teach female-identified students about sciencethrough the STEAM Girls Vermont Program; organized and curated the first Feminist Science Art Show in BiHall, and together with Mika Morton ’19, designed a curriculum to teach a winter term workshop on how toincorporate feminist perspectives into science classes at Middlebury College. She also she logged an astounding 600 hours of volunteer time as an advocate for WomenSafe and 275 hours at the Addison County Teen Center.
Even in his first year as a first-year senator and member of the SGA Relationship and Respect Committee, Christian Kummer ’22 showcased a passion for working through student government to make Middlebury a more inclusive, equitable, and compassionate space. He also served on the Institutional Diversity, the Health & Wellness, and the First Year Committees, advocating for the hiring of an assistant director of the AFC and the new Title IX coordinator. His work helping to organize the Panther Day Protest in 2018, which insisted that survivors of sexual assault be believed, not silenced. Besides working on feminist programming at Chellis House, Christian has also been involved in a variety of student organizations: he is a sex-positive peer educator in SPECs, he serves on the Community Judicial Board, he has been responsible for Q&A’s social media outreach, and he is a member of the Provost’s Student Advisory Committee. What is most congenial about Christian, however, is that he cares deeply of amplifying other people’s voices. As the head coach of Oratory Now, Christian has taught public speaking skills to dozens of people. It was very endearing to see him teach class of rather shy middle school girls at the Sister-to-Sister summit in November. By the end of the 45-minute session, he had gently led them towards giving a confident, powerful mini-speech. He has also served on the judicial board and now has been voted the Community Council co-chair.
As co-presidents of Womxn of Color, Ariana Rios ’21 and Izzy Rivera ’21 put a substantial amount of work this year into building community and keeping the club running.They have organized many different sustained initiatives, including Gal-ery, an art show featuring artwork, music and poetry by POC, particularly female-identified. They single-handedly put on a smashing Black Pearl Ball and hosted a lunch with visiting author Emily Bernard. They also changed the name of the organization, which made it even more inclusive group. Ariana and Izzi wanted to be a part of WOC’s organizing team because, as upper-class students, they wanted to fostercommunity and create space for folks just as it had been done for them when they were in their firstyear.
Please congratulate all the winners if you have a chance!
On Saturday, February 22, Middlebury College’s student organization Sister-to-Sister is bringing renowned author Tanya Lee Stone from 2-4 p.m. at Hillcrest 103. A professor in the Professional Writing Program at Champlain College, Stone is the author of Girl Rising, a book that accompanies and expands upon the widely popular 2013 documentary of the same name. This documentary has spawned a whole movement. Around the world, the Girl Rising organization works with local partners. It provides customized tools and curricula to build confidence and agency in girls and to change attitudes and social norms so that entire communities stand up for girls and against gender discrimination. To illustrate her talk, Stone will screen one chapter of the movie, which includes narrators such as Alicia Keys, Meryl Streep, and Kerry Washington.
Around the globe, there are 130 million girls who are not being educated. What can we do about it? According to Stone, educating girls is the single most powerful tool we have to make our world a safer, healthier, more functional place. In her talk, she will unpack the major obstacles to education, including where and why they happen and how we can easily be activists.
Sister-to-Sister’s activities are normally only targeted towards female-identified 6th graders and middle schoolers. In a first in its 15-year history, the organization is opening this event to the entire community. The group hopes that this will stimulate an intergenerational dialogue about what it means to be a girl in Addison County. In an early celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, the group will provide snacks from around the world. The event is co-sponsored by MCAB, the Center for Community Engagement, and the Feminist Resource Center at Chellis House.
For further information, please contact Karin Hanta by email at khanta@middlebury.edu or by phone at (802)443-5937.
