a website & community for women who write & blog
When I gave a talk on the TEDxBirmingham stage on March 24, 2018, I accomplished a goal I’d had for years. (You can watch my talk here.) If giving a TED Talk is on your bucket list, too, now is your chance to make this dream come true. The organizers of TEDxBirmingham are currently accepting applications for the 2019 event, set for May 3-4, 2019. If you’re ready to shoot your shot here are some tips to help your application stand out from the rest for this or any other TEDx event.
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Early American author Jack London said that and it’s one of my favorite quotes about finding the inspiration to write. We writers can sit around waiting to get hit over the head with inspiration, we have to seek it everywhere.
I often find inspiration in movies — from feature films, to shorts, to documentaries — and that’s why every August you’ll find me at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham.
If you have your tickets for this weekend’s festival you’re probably feeling overwhelmed by all the choices you see on the schedule. Don’t fret. I’ve got you covered.
Corey Craft, one of my colleagues at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, is a features programmer for the festival. Corey has written about film since 2009, teaches a history of film class at ASFA, and has a degree in telecommunications and film with an emphasis in critical studies from the University of Alabama. So before I made my list of must-see movies, I always talk to him first.
Here’s what he had to say…
On Tuesday, August 14 Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji of the popular NPR race and identity podcast Code Switch hosted a live recording of the show in Birmingham at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. This event, presented by Birmingham’s NPR station WBHM 90.3, drew a packed house and featured interviews with Mayor Randall Woodfin, WBHM news director GiGi Douban and local award-winning poet Ashley M. Jones. The discussions during the show tackled important issues about the city’s race relations, economic landscape and more.
Are you a blogger or writer in the Birmingham area ready to kick your social media game up a notch? Or maybe you don’t even have a social media presence or strategy but you know you need one. If so, you need to meet me at the Southern Social Summit on Friday, August 31.
Last month I asked the ladies of the See Jane Write Members Collective what they were struggling with most regarding writing and blogging and nearly everyone responded with the same reply: TIME! They’re constantly struggling to find the time to work on their book or blog.
Unfortunately, I can’t add more hours to the day but I can provide a space for women to hang out and write. After all, that’s why I started See Jane Write in the first place. And that’s why last month I started hosting a weekly virtual “girls write-in” for See Jane Write Collective members. (If you’re not a member you can apply to join here.)
But I’ve decided to take this a step further for the women of Birmingham and offer an in-person girls write-in for members and non-members.
The See Jane Write Birmingham Girls Write-In will be Thursday, May 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at DISCO, 5500 First Avenue North in Woodlawn.