On April 3, 10 female-identifying students showcased art, videos and personal essays in Urban’s 14th annual Girl Talk. This show was the culmination of four months of work exploring the students’ experiences of womanhood.

The Students for Women’s Equality and Rights (SWEAR) affinity space organized and hosted Girl Talk in Urban’s Performing Arts + Community Center (PACC) theater. Students read their pieces aloud, or, if showcasing visual art, describe their process and the meaning behind their work. Afterwards, the audience was invited to go onstage and look more closely at the displayed artwork.

Girl Talk is an Urban tradition that started in 2012. Since then, the variety of mediums students showcase in the event has increased. “We really expanded it in beautiful ways to honor creativity and how people express themselves in all kinds of [ways], like art and spoken art and poetry and clothes. Organically, it really started to develop into a beautiful representation of the different individuality — but also collective solidarity — [among] young women,” said Shafia Zaloom, health education teacher and former SWEAR faculty advisor.

SWEAR co-leaders Margaret Burke ’27 and RaeLynn Smith ’27 began planning this year’s show in January. After gauging interest among SWEAR members, they began to think about their goals for Girl Talk. “It gives you the opportunity to do something you wouldn’t normally do. … I would never present my art, that sounds terrifying. But it’s really not that scary,” said Burke, who presented a print of her and her dog.

“[Girl Talk is] such an amazing opportunity to show yourself … and help with the building of [Urban’s] community. … My goal is to build a space like that, where people can do that and feel comfortable doing that while you’re up in front of an audience.”

This year, Ally Salky ’28 and Josie Meade ’28 co-wrote a piece highlighting their experiences with ovarian torsion being overlooked by medical professionals. “We sat down and talked about … if [we] wanted [our piece] to be about [sharing] information [or] if we wanted to tell a little bit more of a personal story,” Salky said. “Then, we went about creating an outline where we could integrate facts and personal stories. … We wrote our separate pieces and worked together to combine them [into] a script where we switched off telling parts of the stories.”

Devon Zeches ’28 presented a painted portrait of herself and her siblings at Girl Talk. “I went on this whole hunt for photos and pieced all this stuff together. … I [then used] Photoshop a little bit to make it look more cohesive,” Zeches said. “[Painting is] very much a personal experience. … I’m very private about it. This is … a more unique thing, for me to share my artwork.”

Girl Talk provides a space for students to reflect on their experiences of womanhood. Charley Roberts ’27 compiled a video with photos and recordings of herself and her sisters from their youth. “[G]irlhood is an essential part of who I am. I wanted to find a way to honor my sisters and the way I grew up with them. My piece is there to offer perspective and a bittersweet nostalgia,” she wrote in an email interview.

SWEAR invited students and faculty to the event, advertising it with posters and Schoology bulletin board posts in the preceding week. “The majority of the people I want to come to this event [are] people who feel like they’re not able to fully express themselves in a way that they want to. … Girl Talk is all about female or non-binary people being able to express themselves in whatever way that they can,” Smith said. “That’s why our pieces aren’t just art.”