KickStart This!

I first saw Angela Patton's TED talk about a month ago, and since then I've been growing more and more amazed by this woman and her work helping girls stay connected with their fathers who are serving time in prison. Locked In NOT Locked Out (A Father-Daughter Dance in Prison) is her documentary about the project.

For one year, starting with this year’s “Date with Dad” and “Dance of Their Own,” we plan to follow four fathers: two incarcerated, who will attend the special father-daughter dance inside the Richmond City Jail; a married father who has made the “Date with Dad” an annual tradition with his daughter; and a weekend dad who is attending the “Date with Dad” for the first time. We plan to delve deep into the stories of these girls, and young women, and their relationships with their fathers. What we will reveal is the common thread that ties them all together: that all of these relationships matter, that fathers matter, and that these relationships make a difference. These familial ties are especially significant in the lives of the men who are incarcerated.

When you think of the women of jazz, I'll wager you typically think of the greats like Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday, and with good reason. They were the shining stars of the era. But there were so many other women playing jazz that we rarely learn about. Producer Kay D. Ray, who has worked with Microsoft and the Experience Music Project to create over 90 films about music is trying to raise funds to edit her two hour movie, and needs our help to get Lady Be Good finished and ready to debut!

LADY BE GOOD gracefully interweaves rare archival footage, photos and filmed interviews into a full understanding of this important chapter in American musical history. Interviews with musicians, band leaders and historians include Clora Bryant, Barbara Carroll, Joy Cayler, Quincy Jones, Melba Liston, Marian McPartland, Bruce Raeburn, Carline Ray, Jane Sager, Artie Shaw, Dr. Sherrie Tucker and Gerald Wilson, just to name a few. The film is narrated by the talented musician, Patrice Rushen.

Taymika Byrd is a New Orleans native, writer, Girl Scout, Ph.D. candidate, and all-around awesome young woman! She is also a sexual abuse survivor. What started out as a writing project to help her deal with her abuse turned into her latest book The Crescent City Connection Project.

In 2012, as part of my recovery process, I decided to write a fictionalization of my experiences. It was an exercise designed to defeat my own personal demons and it was supposed to be a short story relegated to the pages of my personal journal. However, six months later it had evolved into a full length book. At that point, I decided that not only should I use this work to support my own recovery, but maybe by publishing it, this book might also support the recovery of others.

I loved the game Old Maid when I was a kid. Well, here's an exciting, fresh new take on the game, renamed Bold Maid,! I've already ordered my set of cards and can't wait to play this at Game Night!

To refresh your memory, Old Maid is a matching card game. There is no match for the Old Maid, so the player who ends up with her, loses the game. I've politically corrected this game to chip away at the negative connotations concerning single women. So in my version, the one who ends up with the BOLD MAID is the WINNER.

And while we're on the subject of the role of women in games, when Shannon Sun-Higginson learned about the harassment of women and girl gamers, she decided to create a film showcasing some of the amazing women in games and how they have changed the world of gaming forever: GTFO: A Film About Women in Gaming.

The purpose of this documentary is to reveal the experiences of women in the gaming world, both good and bad, as well as to provide steps we can take to change the environment for the better. I have already filmed interviews, tournaments, classes, and conventions, but I need your help funding the remainder of the project.

I am in love with the work of Emily Selwood! She's raising funds to get some of her pieces printed as notecards and posters so she can reach a wider audience.

There are so many amazing Kickstarter projects by and about women. Let's get them funded!