Meet Darley: Founder of Strong Women Project
Content strategist and fiction writer, Darley, is back at New Women Space this week for “Pleasure Panel” as part of her Strong Women Project series. This free event on April 5th, this Thursday, will last from 7pm until 9pm featuring Darley and 8 wonderful women talking about all aspects of consent. To learn more about Darley and her vision for Strong Women Project, please read below!
- Age and hometown?
Age: 34, Hometown: Los Angeles
2. How long have you been living in your current city?
I’ve been living in New York City for 6 years now.
3. Occupation?
I’m a fiction writer and I work as a content strategist.
4. How and why did you begin your project?
I started the Strong Women Project out of a need to have deeper, more direct conversations with women about delicate, fraught subjects. It began purely through my social media networking and I was able to interview over 100 women just from referrals. After completing these interviews and wanting to launch a website showcasing the results, I was compelled to take a few different steps instead.
I wanted to take the debate off social media channels. Even though the project was totally fueled by social media at the beginning, I quickly began to see that social media couldn’t possibly capture the complexity of the dialogues we need to be having, and then #MeToo happened, and I was like, “YES.” This is great. This is so important. But also, NO, we need not only to spearhead social media movements, but provide living spaces for more of these heated discussions. I saw so much fighting across the board, and in-fighting among feminists, on social media that didn’t look productive to me. So I started the Strong Women Project event series. It was a natural progression to create a book club out of that too — because my reading habits are all-consuming and perhaps selfishly, I didn’t want to feel alone in all the books I was reading.
5. What kind of effects have you seen in your community through your work?
Community is everything and just to have a chance at evolving as a community builder means a lot to me. There are specific effects that I would like to see — in a very broad sense, more support among women and less judgment, and on a professional level, women going out of their way to support other women who they don’t like. I gave a whole talk on that. It’s too soon to say that I’m seeing all of the effects I would like to see in our community through my work. But I’m going to work harder and consistently over time to make it happen. For now, I feel encouraged that women are coming to me and sharing their stories with me. I feel encouraged that other pro-women event series have shown me their support, such as The Freya Project. Right now I’m self-funded and will be seeking funding so that this can flourish and make a deeper impact on the community.
6. How can other people get involved?
People can get involved by getting in touch with me directly at d.aylett.stewart@gmail.com. They are encouraged to attend our events, which I post about on my Instagram (IG: darleystewart). The events are free and open to the public. I’m also adamant about always providing food for our audience. I like to take care of people — belly, heart, and mind!
7. What is the process of deciding on these different themes for each series?
I decide on a theme that I feel passionately about and that I’m obsessed about at the moment. If a theme has completely consumed my attention and changed my reading and thought habits on a daily basis, it’s got a good chance of becoming the next Strong Women Project event theme.
8. What is your inspiration for PLEASURE?
My inspiration for the Pleasure Panel, which I started planning in January, was the initial conversations we were having about consent. As I was reading, I kept noticing that pleasure was missing from the conversation. I knew we would eventually get around to it. And here we are.
9. Who will be on the panel this time around?
My panelists are a dream. Kristee J. Sollee, Stefanie Iris Weiss, Suzannah Weiss, Melissa Petro, Monica Lewis, Nancy Hightower, Lola Jean, Christine Stoddard. I wanted a big group this time because, well, pleasure is a big topic.
10. What advice do you give women who are struggling with finding their own inner strength?
My advice for women who are struggling to find their inner strength is to be compassionate with yourself. Inner strength is built over time.
11. Where do you see the progress in gender equity?
Progress is everywhere around us. The fact that intersectionality is taken more seriously by people looking to embrace change gives me hope. Intersectional feminism may not be a household word yet, but we’ll get there.
12. Why do you think it’s important to have a space for women and gender non conforming individuals?
Without a space for women and gender non-conforming individuals, we are vulnerable and at risk, which is unacceptable. We are physical beings and we need physical spaces that empower us. It’s important to me at Strong Women Project events that we recognize the physical aspect — at our first event, I asked everyone to hold hands and to say to each other, “I support you unconditionally.” Physical gestures are ritualistically incorporated into all of the SWP events. I believe that physical touch is healing — while also allowing for individual boundaries to be respected. In a city like New York, touch in public spaces is almost always unwelcome. It’s a crowded urban space and physicality often feels aggressive here. SWP represents the more caring side of physical touch — holding hands, hugging, even the physical act of lighting a candle, or handing a piece of paper to the person next to you so they can write down their thoughts — that I’ve found missing in New York. I’m all for therapy, but you shouldn’t have to pay a professional therapist just to be in a life-affirming space where people can hug each other openly.
For more information on Darley, check out her website here and to learn more about her event, click here! #strongwomenproject
