Kitty is a creative Goddess originally from Charleston, West Virginia. She's a feminist writer who's written for Ms. Magazine, stand-up comedian, theatremaker, and host of one of my favorite podcasts, Feminist Crush. At three years old, when Kitty first learned how to read, her creativity began to grow and it never stopped! Growing up, she had opportunities to explore her creativity through theatre, singing, writing, painting, and ballet. She danced classical ballet from nine years old until her early twenties. Around that time, Kitty worked semi-professionally in theatre in London and New York. It was co-directing the Vagina Monologues with Teresa Reynolds that really helped Kitty embrace her feminism. During that time, she realized that feminism is what she wanted her life to be about, that she wanted to be in service to women and feminism. Kitty interned at Ms. Magazine because she wanted to write about the infuriating experiences she was having as a woman and a feminist. At Ms, she quickly realized that she was good at interviewing folks, which led her to later create her feminist podcast, Feminist Crush. Kitty wanted to "amplify feminist voices in the hopes of shifting something in other people, maybe giving them a new way of thinking." Feminist Crush interviews artistic and creative feminists making meaningful, conscious change in the world. In addition, I ask Kitty about her experience being a woman in the comedy world. She admits that it isn't easy as it's often a hostile place. I've always admired women comedians and will until the day I die. Kitty's comedy started out pleasing the guys because she wanted to fit in, but then she realized that she didn't have to be inauthentic just to please them. She stresses the importance of authenticity, "The best comedy is about a unique point of view." Now, Kitty's jokes are organically feminist because she's coming from a genuine place. Comedy can be a way for us to heal from oppression because as Kitty beautifully points it,"Telling the truth is always healing. Telling your truth is transformative and restorative."It's also vulnerable, and where there's vulnerability, there's strength and power. There's healing when a performer opens up and their audience opens up with them, as Kitty notes. Kitty talks about how an artist's role is to change and evolve, much like a feminist's role. We discuss the resistance of embracing intersectionality from certain generations of feminists, and how important it is to be open and evolve as a feminist in order to create sustainable change. Kitty points out ways in which the artist is resistant to change like how many theatre companies keep reproducing plays by and about men despite theatre being a place that is meant to challenge the status quo. Among many things, Kitty facilities two workshops. One is called "Working Title," which is an artist workshop for theatre, film, and TV professionals sharing their writing and connecting with other artists and feminists. The other one is a writing workshop at the Women's Center for Creative Work called "Inspiring Social Change Through Storytelling." How awesome is that? If you're an artist in LA full-time, join Kitty's workshops!Thank you for being an inspiring, creative feminist force, Kitty! Subscribe to Feminist Crush Podcast on iTunes, Follow Feminist Crush on Twitter and Instagram! Connect with Kitty via Twitter and her Website!
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