In the News
Act Like a GRRRL 2009
By EVANS DONNELL
For The Tennessean
No competition. No judgment. A room where you can be yourself. A place where you can mourn the passing and celebrate the memory of a remarkable best friend.
“Act Like a GRRRL” offers this and more to the 14 young women ages 12-18 who are participating in the fifth annual edition of the program this month. And they will be offering back when they take the writing, dance and songs they’ve created and perform them in public this Thursday and Friday at Belmont University’s Black Box Theater.
“I don’t know what the final performance is going to look like yet, but I know it’s going to be astounding,” program founder and Actors Bridge Ensemble producing artistic director Vali Forrister said. “Fourteen people, pointed in the same direction with the same intention, supporting and believing in each other cannot fail.”
The participants select which of their creative compositions they will perform. Forrister and other adult program co-leaders are there to facilitate. “They define what a GRRRL is on the first day they’re here, and they decide what the performance will look and sound like,” she noted.
“I always get astounded by their ability to be truthful and honest with themselves and share that with everyone,” said co-leader Chandelle Binns. “They end up creating this remarkable song, or this dance, or words, or whatever it is.
“With the performance every piece is a part of them.”
Co-leader Annie Sellick vividly recalls one of the moments from a 2007 performance that inspired her. She watched as the girls – or GRRRLs – performed an Asian Forza movement with swords as the words “You’re a woman, you have power, it is in your hands” were spoken.
“I’m watching this, and getting extremely emotional,” she said. “And I’m thinking, ‘This is really striking a chord’.
“If they look so strong, I want to be in touch with my own strength. I’m inspired by seeing these teenage girls stand up and be powerful. So I looked into my life and said, ‘Where am I not doing that?’”
One of those responsible for creating that moment was Forrister’s nice Haviland Forrister. Haviland, now 19 and a co-leader herself, provided the spark that started the program after she told her aunt she didn’t think the poetry she wrote was very good and that as a female she didn’t expect she could make a living as a writer when she grew up.
“I’m not really sure as a co-leader I can step back from it, but when I was in the program as a GRRRL it helped me find my voice and find my confidence,” Haviland Forrister said.
Her comment about confidence is echoed by current participants. “It’s really helpful if you have low self-esteem or anything you feel you can’t tell anyone outside of this circle,” said first-year GRRRL Tess Deegan, 13.
“I started the summer before I started high school. It was definitely a transformative process for me,” said Tess’s sister Hannah, 16, now in her third year with the program.
“It helped me discover who I really was as opposed to who I had been.”
“It’s a great support system. It lets you speak what you’re really feeling and you don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. You can be your complete self here,” said second-year GRRRL Jenna Stotts, 13. “And there’s no judgment. We’re not like, ‘Oh, your writing’s so good,’ and then we turn around and we say that it’s not. There’s no backstabbing here, no fighting here, no drama, so it’s a really safe place to be.”
“I think it’s a really great thing for anyone who needs to talk through things that are going on in their life because they know they can find support here,” said Haviland’s cousin Jen Forrister, 13, who is back for her second year, “and they know they can work through whatever they’re going through, or it’s just a great place to talk to people if you have no one else to talk to.”
Sommer Harpole, 18, is new to the program. “They’re going to be very open and love you where you are. They are going to love you as if you are perfect, and to have that in my life is an amazing experience because when you have people who love you as if you are perfect, you strive to do better and be better.
“I’m not only excited about the results I’m seeing in myself now but about the possibilities for the results I’ll see in myself 20 years from now.”
“Part of it is about changing the girls’ world views, about themselves and about other girls, and part of it is about changing their communities,” said Dr. Heather Talley, a co-leader who teaches sociology at Vanderbilt University. “The (Act Like a GRRRL) community expands out to their families, other relationships with friends and into their schools.”
Sixteen-year-old Cyan Scarpati has been part of that community since its 2005 inception. She suffered from heart disease all her life and had planned to be part of the program again this year after recently having a heart transplant. Sadly, she passed away on May 24, but her mark on “Act Like a GRRRL” remains strong.
“Everything we do this year is in memory and tribute to Cyan,” Vali Forrister said. “She was a fierce protector of our circle. And she was everybody’s best friend.”
