In honor of Women’s History Month, we invited Jenny MacBain-Stephens, to share a reading of a Female writer’s work she admires and take part in a short email interview. Listen to her recording of “Before Anything Happened the House had No Skeleton,” by Karyna McGlynn from her book “I have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl” and read the Q&A below.
Pretty Owl Poetry: What does feminism mean to you?
Jenny MacBain-Stephens: To do what I want and not get shit for it (ie: judgments, double standards, stereotypical thinking.)
POP: What moments in your personal history as a woman stand out to you?
J: One moment that stands out to me is when I was a teenager and a guy wasn’t paying attention and crashed into me on the sidewalk and I automatically said “sorry.” Pisses me off to this day.
POP: Who are some of your female influences? (writers, musicians, personal heroes, etc.)
J: Bell Hooks, Kathleen Hanna, Lena Dunham, Carrie Brownstein, Aimee Bender, Anais Nin, editors of BUST and Sassy Magazines, Kim Gordon, Missy Eliott, Nicki Minaj, Anne Sexton, MIA, all of the female poets in Facebook’s Submit Bitches, my best friend who is a defense attorney in NY, several of my grandmother’s, my mom.
Read Jenny’s poems “Premonition Part I” and “Premonition Part II” in issue 10.
Pretty Owl Poetry 