On January 21st, Lyndsey Silva and Suzanne Benton joined tens of thousands of women in
St. Petersburg at the Women's March for Social Justice.
Lyndsey Silva is someone like many others across the country: a young woman disheartened by the results of the 2016 presidential election.
"It was just really devastating news," said Silva, "because I just thought that we were better, than that." Suzanne Benton, at 81 and a long time protestor and feminist, is no stranger to this sort of demonstration. “I knew it had to happen. You know, I’m called the founder, but I actually think I was the instigator," said Benton, "Well, of course, I did the women’s march in New York that Betty Friedan had called, and there was already an organization. The D.C. march is something that just grew, it just came of itself as a result of the election.” Several weeks after the protest, I spoke with Silva about her experience and plans for the future.
I spoke to Benton the following day, and she had some inspiring thoughts to share.
Benton's response to why she wanted to plan the march was simply "Why would you want to organize march? Wouldn’t you have an expectation that were other people that were already raring to go? That you weren’t alone?" she asked before adding, "There wasn’t any energy for it at all and I definitely woke it up." When asked about the surprisingly large turnout, she said: "We had, I do believe, the best organized, the most enthusiastic march in all of Florida- that’s my belief," said Benton, "We are unique, we can be very, very proud, and I just feel so connected now to this wonderful town.” Benton also cautioned young women and anyone else to learn from the past before its too late. “Those of us that have been active in civil rights and in the women’s movement, we’re getting pretty old now, but we were out there. And you better take advantage of us while we’re here, because we know a lot," said Benton, "We’ve lived through a lot of changes and seen things happen; we’ve seen things go in the right direction and in the wrong direction, but I think we were caught on this one. I don’t think we understood the depth of archaic thinking in America- so we have to change it.”
Adding to the celebration of hope and unity the Women's March represented, Benton received some very exciting news.
“The mayor declared January 21st, which happened to be my 81st birthday, Women’s Rights Day. So from now on, my birthday will be Women’s Rights day. I think that’s pretty neat.” Benton also had a word of advice for the current president. “If the disgruntled people are out there en masse, he better pay attention. And we are- and we’re unrelenting.” Finally, Benton shared a message to anyone wanting to get involved. "What you have ahead of you is something that doesn’t come to everybody: it’s a lifelong cause," said Benton, "They have the capacity for leadership and this is the time. They may not know that they can be leaders, but once you start moving forward you learn, and you do, and it’s intrinsic, to a person who cares. If they care, they’re going to learn what to do and how to do it. The resources are out there, they’re growing every day."
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On a day full of clouds and gusts of wind, Angela Parkhurst visited a park to look back on the journey of writing her series of young adult books.
The series is entitled "The Forgotten Fairytales," and features classic fairy tale characters like Cinderella and her prince who have been given a brand new set of twists and turns. So far, Parkhurst has published two books in the series, the first also bearing the title "The Forgotten Fairytales," and the second entitled "Forget Me Not." She is currently working on the third novel, "Fire and Fury."
As she thought over her initial inspiration, Parkhurst described an eery photo of a castle on Pinterest.
"It was very dark, and it had clouds all around the base of it," she said, "and you could really only see the tops of it coming out of the mountains. And I thought to myself 'what would be like if you were riding up to that castle? And what's inside that castle? And who's that person, in that carriage, riding up to the castle? What's their story?' And the first scene that I wrote was them, riding up to the castle in the carriage, and that is the opening scene for my book." Like most writers, Parkhurst doesn't work completely alone. Her best friend Stephanie Bounds Bedwell has also become her editor, a job she adores. "I get to see the raw unedited mess that it is before she works her magic on it and makes it become something incredible," said Bedwell, "I get to go through and help her decide what should stay or go. I get to read parts and cry over things that are so touching and then tell her she made me cry." While she gets to experience the writing process of these novels, Bedwell is still an avid reader. "I have read them many times, during the editing process then again when it was all said and done and each time it seems like I find something new that I might have missed the last time I read them. There is so much imagination behind what she writes and I’m just amazed how she comes up with some of the things she thinks up. " While "Fire and Fury" is going to be the final installment in her trilogy, Parkhurst has no plans to say goodbye to the mystical world she has crafted. "I have a whole spin off planned," said Parkhurst, "featuring some of characters in this book, but mostly it takes place twenty years later, so you're dealing with their children...Mostly, you see the hybrid children, and Cinderella's children that she had with Prince Charming, and you get to see how they live their life." She is also working on books from the point of view of Wolf and Goldilocks. As far as moving from paper to screen, Parkhurst's stories would have an easy transition. "When I formatted my books, I did a lot of research," said Parkhurst, "Instead of following the natural course of books, which is why books are so hard to turn into movies, I follow more of a line of how a film goes." As far as her favorite passage goes, for Parkhurst it's a nearly impossible decision. "It's so hard to pick one because 90 percent of the stuff that I have between Wolf and Norah are my favorite." |
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