Girldrive: Chicago Women Road-Trip Around the Country, Talk to 200-Plus Women About the F Word

[BridgeTheGap]

Chicago-based author Nona Willis Aronowitz says that her mom, Ellen Willis, "raised me feminist," and "I grew up thinking that I could do anything." It wasn't, though, until after her mom - who was a feminist, journalist with The Village Voice and cultural critic in New York - died on November 9, 2006, that Nona was inspired to go road-tripping with friend Emma Bee Bernstein across the country.
While road-tripping they set out to interview women about feminism, their goals and worries and then turn their experiences into a book. After couch-surfing and photographing and interviewing more than 200 women, the pair wrote "Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism." The resulting book is a 220-page book full of colorful photos and lively interviews with 127 women of various generations and a wide mix of class backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, professions and social groups.
After Willis died, many of her friends and fans reached out to Nona to let her know how awesome her mom was, and that helped motivate Nona to learn more about her and what all she did writing-wise in her life. "I realized her influence, particularly on women," Nona, 25, says over iced chai tea lattes at the Iguana Cafe in Chicago, a relaxed place with exposed brick walls and light dance music. At the cafe, men in suits play backgammon, hipsters chat over lunch and other folks read and work on laptops.

Nona has long, curly hair, and is wearing a black sweater and jeans. She says that her mom's death was "a big wakeup call" in terms of where feminism is going. Or, as she writes in the book, "Every lazy, indeterminate goal I had to be both a writer and a feminist suddenly came alive."

She and Emma met as children at camp in Massachusetts when Emma was 11 and Nona was 12. "We bonded when we were both sick in the infirmary," Nona says. Also, she says they were "mischievous" and gossipy girls. Both grew up in New York City and grew to know each better in high school, even though they didn't go to the same school.

http://www.truthout.org/111509C

[FSogol]

1. Oh, THAT F-word. I get it now.

;-)

[niyad]

2. can't rec, will kick for interest