Hey, well today is our second day in DC and we are having a blast!  Today we woke up pretty early.  Most of us were still sleeping when we got in the van.  As the day went by we visited many members of Congress and the Senate.  I personally did learned many new things.  I was very interested in this trip because I am looking into being involved with the Government.  We learned about the different positions in Congress and the Senate.  Out of the whole day my favorite part was when we went to dinner.  We ate dinner at Busboys and Poets Restaurant, it was the BEST DINNER I’ve had so far this year.  It was a nice restaurant to relax in and talk about our day.  The food was great and the dessert was even better!  It was my first time traveling to DC and I loved all the history it has behind it.  I would like to thank the Girls Club for giving me this great experience. XoXo

Busboy is basically a café/restaurant where you can go and relax. A place to have a bite to eat and listen to poetry. It’s a place to read a few books and enjoy their fair trade coffee. I hope we get to enjoy this cozy café when we go to Washington DC from the pictures I saw it looks pretty nice. They also have a private room where you get to see movie etc. Busboy offers a space for a library that educates teens, children, and adults on books that encourages them to question themselves beyond the headlines.

“I was just in Washington, DC and delighted with my visit to Busboys and Poets. Powerful, enlightening, and overall an awesome place. I look forward to return visits in the future and could only wish for a similar place here in New Mexico.”
–Gregory Webb, Executive Director NM Commission for Community Volunteerism

If you come into the Girls Club, often you might have seen her walking around with chocolate boxes stacked up to her head.  Yup, that’s Arien.  Arien has been working at the Lower Eastside Girls Club since September and is already an integral member of the Girls Club community.
Arien got involved with the the Girls Club when she meet our Director of Photography, Lou, at an event at neighboring NYU.  That’s when she saw the opportunity to get involved with a young women’s non-profit organization.

Arien is now in charge of public relations, special events, and marketing for the Girls Club. WOW she has her hands full! = ]

I asked Arien what she likes best about her job, she said not only does she get to work with young women, she gets to meet other people with similar interests like event planning.

Her advice for young women is , “always do something you love.”  She said the worst thing is to work at a job you are not happy with, so you should get involved with an internship at an early age (Hey, what do you know we are a step ahead of everyone else =]).  The best advice she has ever gotten was from her dad.  “Do well in school and you will get to do want ever you want.”

Hope you guys learned a thing or two from Arien, one of the many great women who help run the Girls Club.

Emily Kagan is a woman performer. She writes and performances poetry. The reason she write such great poetry is because she is into reading a lot of books. Kagan got her degree in science writing, while in college that’s when she started to express her poetry. At first Emily didn’t think of herself as a poet, but after she got her Master’s degree, she started to notice her talent. Emily found a way to combine both the science she loves and the writing and roll it all into one thing. Emily now makes her living working in a hospital building web sites for them. Emily makes our lives easier by writing “Doctor’s Language” in a way that we could better understand. Emily also works with a group called “The Piper Jane Project.” Which is a group of women poets. One of my favorite quotes from Emily Kagan is, “always do something you love.”

Hanifah Walidah, is also a women performer. She started to write poems at a very early age, around when she was in elementary school. One of the many women who inspired her was MC Lyte. That’s when she started to play with her rhymes. Around the 90’s and mid 90’s is when she was signed. That’s when she started to travel the World and got addicted to it [traveling]. Hanifah got involved with “Brooklyn Funk Essentials,” which is a twelve piece band who plays soul, reggae, and hip hop. Walidah gotten into theater and just finished a one woman play called “Black Folks Guide to Black Folks.” Hanifah just finished editing a film called, “U people.” Walidah said something that really inspired me “if you cant express yourself then you are just not free.”

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