By Ondine Jean-Baptiste

On a bleak, rainy day in upstate New York, there was only one thing on the minds and tongues of both Kiran and Hamilton students: survival. What started as a joke inquiring about the dreary and frigid weather in Clinton became the theme of the evening as curious and passionate young adults gathered to listen and share in their anxieties and questions about post-grad life, reproductive health, and the general oppressive state of being a woman under a 21st century Trumpian regime.

After Kiran gave a backstory explaining how her early passion for music turned into a healthy retreat from misogynistic bro culture (common in many prestigious American colleges), she and I opened the floor to really investigate how we can move forward in effectively combatting menstrual stigma, including straight men into the conversation, and weighing the pros and cons of birth control.

Ultimately, the room left feeling energized and inspired, ready to take the messages of honing female energy, power, and self-love into their homes, classrooms, parties, and hearts. If this session was a mini tutorial on survival, we Hamilton students (especially the seniors in the crowd) feel geared up to fight the capitalist patriarchal systems waiting for us on the other side of graduation. The future is most definitely female. We’re ready….are you?

Link: http://www.missionmag.org/new-page-55