The 90’s were supposed to usher in a new wave of women empowerment in film and tv but has anything really changed in the decades since? Join writer Allison Yarrow of 90’s Bitch: media, culture, and the failed promise of gender equality, in a conversation with Fanshen Cox Digiovanni, Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith & Christy Gressman.
Allison Yarrow is an award-winning journalist, speaker, and the author of 90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality, a New York Times New and Notable book, and finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club award. Allison has written for many publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Vox. She was a TED resident, a national magazine award finalist, an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, and is a grantee of the International Women’s Media Foundation. She produced the award-winning Vice News documentary “Misconception,” and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
The award-winning playwright, actor, producer & educator, Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni is currently touring her one-woman show: One Drop of Love.Fanshen is also Head of Strategic Outreach at Pearl Street Films (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Production Company). She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa and holds a BA in Spanish & Education, an MA in TESOL, and an MFA in Acting and Performance. She serves on the boards of Mixed Roots Stories, The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and Project Greenlight Digital Studios. Fanshen is also a co-author of the Inclusion Rider which was announced at the 2018 Oscar awards by Frances McDormand.
Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith co-wrote the hit films Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man, Ella Enchanted, The House Bunny, and The Ugly Truth. Upcoming projects include Legally Blonde 3 and two projects for Paramount. Kiwi has written two YA novels, The Geography of Girlhood and Trinkets, the latter of which she recently created/executive produced as a series for Netflix, due out this spring. She wrote the graphic novel Misfit City, which she’s developing as a TV series with co-writer Kurt Lustgarten. Their most recent comic series is the femalebuddy heist caper Smooth Criminals. Dozens of her poems and essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Witness, The Mississippi Review, Rookie, LA Review of Books, and more.
Christy Gressman develops and produces new shows and manages the Night Vale Presents network. She is the executive producer of its current and upcoming podcasts, including Conversations with People Who Hate Me. She is also the creative producer of The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) and other Orbiting Human Circus works, the co-creator and producer of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, and an artist and attorney.
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