Bechdel Project Launches FIFE Fellowship

Bechdel Project, a feminist arts incubator, which awarded its year-long ROO Residency to Jeanne Dorsey in May, is launching its latest initiative, the FIFE Fellowship, and the writers that will make up the inaugural fellows.

The FIFE is a multi-year, artist-led fellowship for feminist writers that provides support to develop stories that have the power to change the world.

The fellowship draws inspiration from the writing of bell hooks' and takes its name from her book, Feminism Is For Everybody (FIFE), and focuses on the concepts of intersectional feminism, building diverse community, and the wholistic integration of art into life. (Bechdel Project is a family-positive space and encourages radical self-care for artists.)

Throughout the fellowship, each writer will have access to Bechdel Project's studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to write, workshop, and present work along with guidance and support from the Bechdel Project staff. Fellows will be provided enrichment opportunities (such as retreats, guest speakers, and discussion groups), quarterly dinner parties and a virtual community hub, a yearly artist-led salon, and accommodations for out-of-town artists.

"At a time of diminishing opportunities for writers to develop work, we're excited to be making more space for feminist story-tellers," says co-creative director Jens Rasmussen "and as recent events in the US and around the world are showing, we need feminist stories now, more than ever."

The inaugural fellows are: Nayna Agrawal (Variety's "100 Writers to Watch"), Courtney Bailey (Immersion Play, SheNYC Arts), Imogen Grace (The Price of Perfection, Lifetime TV), MillerPrugh (You Will Never Read This, LadyFest - Immerwahr, Voyage Theater), arroyo monfiletto (My Mother The Sun, Echo Theater), Courtney Taylor (The Warren Commission Spectacular, Imaginarium Theatre), and Else Went (Oxford Man, MTC Sloan Commission.)