This holiday season we opened with a larger than life performance at the Senate Garage. It was livestreamed to people all over the US and performed in front of a live audience. We NAILED it! As soon as we stepped onto stage, we each took a long pause with a deep breathe and spoke our words, our true story monologues... all about PERIODS! The audience laughed, cried, laughed some more and at the end gave us a standing ovation and came to tell us about their period stories and how they wanted to help.
Following the performance, we received a large donation from the Hudson Valley Women in Business. They honored our work at their annual holiday celebration and we are grateful! This donation allowed us to work all month on a project we like to call, Deck the Stalls. Our plan was to hang some holiday stockings in one of our school bathrooms to provide period products to menstruators. Then something else came along in the meantime- A competition. If you know Ms. Dierna, you know she really likes to compete against others and in her monologue with TMI Project she shared her competitive ice hockey world with us. Competitive winter sports + Periods + Holiday's = Deck the Stalls!
Deck the Stalls became a national movement by Publ!c (hey they have a ! in their name, too) and Period. the Menstrual Movement! They even created a controversial video that was a little too much for our morning announcements, but still got the recognition and approval for us to Deck the Stalls. The head of our custodial staff was not happy about the idea at all, in fact he for sure thought the decorations would end up clogging the toilets and making a mess of the bathroom. However, one week later, and our bathroom is still Decked out with period products.
We'd like to think it's because our menstruators know just how important the topic is to all of us and we find common ground in being recognized, loved and cared about! Advocacy for better products in a peaceful protest kind of way always gets us one step closer to what we really need...
If you ask us, we need better products in schools, public places and in the stores! We need to hold companies accountable for products without labels, toxic ingredients and poor education around our bodies. We don't plan to go quietly either! All of our work at Period Power! is to eradicate period poverty and stigma.
Our mission work will continue with the help of others. At our recent performance we met Shakera Tems, Commission of Women's Affairs for New York State. It was an honor to meet her, have her participate as an audience member at our Stories for Choice: Period Power! event. We look forward to staying in touch with her, in hopes that we get to work closer with the the state to eradicate period poverty and stigma.
Our work continues with our partners as well. We are grateful for TMI Project, HUDSY, Radio Kingston, Senate Garage, IMatter Project and PERIOD. the Menstrual Movement (our proud leaders)! Without the support and work we have been doing with these amazing organizations over the last three years, our work would not have progressed this far!
We also want to say thank you to those who contributed to our story telling, period drives and provided the funding to make baskets for our teaching staff!
$2500- Radio Kingston
$500- Fairly New Thrift Shop
Product Donation- HVWiB
The LP (Life Partner) awards go to Mr. Burch and Julie Novak! They come to every event, support all of our work and Mr. Burch wears his Period Power! shirt almost every Tuesday, discusses periods in class and supplies all of his students with period products! If we can be more like these two people in the world, this place would be in much better hands!
PS- Take Shakespeare Class with Mr. Burch at KHS... it's lit!
