Music For The Future

Two weeks ago, my friend put on a charity event/fundraiser to help raise money for music education. He worked with an organization called Little Kids Rock, who help give teachers the tools and knowledge to incorporate music into their classes. It feels super appropriate to team up with an organization like this these days since our music and arts are being stepped on and discarded by the top guys.

The idea originated at the beginning of the year, and I offered to help in any way I could to make sure this event was successful and went smoothly. The first thing I offered to do was to put together the event flyer (see above ๐Ÿ‘†). I was asked to keep it simple and fun. I hand wrote the type, and kept everything else basic. I then was asked to help plan and organize a Chinese auction. The auction ended up being a bust which felt discouraging, but in the end, we realized that an auction would have only been a distraction since the main part of the event consisted of the music performances.

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This Is Jamaica, Queens

Back in December, I was commissioned to do artwork for a local magazine called Edible Queens for their Winter 2017 issue.

My artwork was featured on this piece called “This Is My Queens” which was written about Melinda Katz. She’s currently the Queens Borough President, and is working hard to fix up Jamaica, Queens. She grew up in Jamaica and knows of the potential it has to become a great neighborhood. The piece was written about her experience and thoughts about Jamaica.

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Ladykiller Haikus

I’ve binged so much on murder podcasts this year that I needed to take a break to gather my thoughts. But that doesn’t mean my obsession of true crime is dying. It’s just on hold for now.

While I’ve been gathering my thoughts and checking my brain to see if I retained the stories I’ve listened to, I decided to have fun and make some haikus. Because why not. Haikus really test you to see if you can tell a story in three lines.

So I’ll give it a shot:

If you want relief
From sexual frustration,
Don’t go to Aileen.

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Illustrated Women In History

I’ve been busy the past few months working on a bunch of stuff on the ~dl~. At the same time I’ve been getting reacquainted with drawing and illustrating. I went to school for illustration, so I feel a little shameful when I say I’m a bit rusty. I’ve been loaded with personal crafty and sewing projects that it felt weird focusing on drawing everyday.

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Meals On Wheels // Twin Peaks Edition

Sometimes you come across a tweet that stops you in your tracks. This tweet โคด is one of those, especially if you’ve watched Twin Peaks and think the world is turning into a shriveled up heartless, bitter blueberry right now.

The current state of our country is (to quote the “president” as of now) – SAD! Their justifications for taking funding away from programs that we all know actually DO work just doesn’t make sense. We’re living in opposite land and these days anything seems to be possible.

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Why I Strike

Every day that passes, I get more and more frustrated with what’s going on out in the world. The women’s strike was last week and as you could imagine, there was backlash and condescending questioning of what the point was and if anything was actually accomplished.

Growing up, it was me and my two brothers. I grew up with parent’s who were old fashioned in the sense where women stay at home and men go out and work. I was raised to be the “girl of the house” helping my mom with chores while my brothers played their video games. Being in a house with brothers, I made it very clear that it’s all or none of us that will do the chores, and I fought against the double standard up until I moved out.

My parents lightened up when I left for college, but their old school mindset and traditional ways got the best of them sometimes. My dad told me recently that he raised me like that so I can grow up to be a “tough cookie”. I can’t tell if he was sincere or if he was making up excuses. Whatever the case, I was surrounded by the double standard, and fought tooth and nail to be acknowledged as an equal.

Since I was five, I’ve been conscious of double standards and sexism, and while my stories and memories are nothing compared to what other women have dealt with, I still fight for equality and against the double standard. Things need to change, and everyone who speaks up can make a difference.

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International Women’s Day

(Credit: ITV.com)

In celebration of International Women’s Day, here’s short story about an entire country who made HERstory.

October 24, 1975: The women of Iceland went on strike. It was reported that about 90% of the women participated in this strike! Just as we’re still fighting today, 42 years later, these women wanted to demonstrate the importance of their contribution to society. They left their paid work, left their home duties, and left their families to go on strike to make their statement that women deserve the equality that all human beings deserve. Something that should be a simple concept is what they fought against then and crazily is something we’re still fighting today.

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Trish Doan Remembrance

I guess you just never know what’s going on in someone’s head. And when you found out bad news, you can’t help but think “what could I have done to have prevented this?”.

So, quick backstory: when I started finding myself in middle school, I went through a metal phase, which I discussed once before. One band that really spoke to me was Kittie. They became my ultimate favorite band, making me feel like I too can be a bad ass chick. I bought all their albums, t-shirts, my first concert was to see them, and I even learned html coding to create a fan site on the now defunct Geocities. The band is known for excessive lineup changes, and back in 2005, they added Tara McLeod and Trish Doan on guitar and bass. Being one year into my fan site, I was eager to do what I could to expand the site and even get a first scoop. I immediately contacted the both of them for small interviews.

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Women’s March NYC

Today was the big day for women to march on Washington. It turned into a global event featuring women not only marching in America but EVERYWHERE fighting for all human rights. It was amazing reading about the expected turnouts vs the actual estimated turnouts which happened to be more than double than what they expected. It was so damn exciting.

The signs were amazing, and I immediately regretted not making a sign to march with. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I attended with my roommate, and we walked, cheered, and shouted along with the protest chants.

I took so many pictures documenting this historic event, but here are my highlights.

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My Year In Pictures

We all take hundreds, sometimes even thousands of pictures on our phone a year. I tend to delete a lot because lack of storage on my phone, but I figured I’d share sixteen pictures from 2016 which I thought were keepers. I take pictures never knowing what to do with them sometimes, but it’s the memory that counts. And a summary like this at the end of the year is the perfect place to display them.

Aside from all the bad from 2016, these were exciting moments that made last year a pretty decent, colorful, and memorable experience. Sometimes it takes a reminder like this to make you actually take a step back and realize it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

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