I am thrilled to announce our new Blog Correspondents cohort! These passionate women will spend the next three months writing about street harassment in their communities/countries, including various aspects of the problem and initiatives underway to see the end of street harassment. You will be able to read their blog posts here, starting next week.

Lorna M. Hartman, Spokane, WA, USA

Lorna has studied and written about rape and interpersonal violence since she was a teenager. In the 1990s she spent a year in Thailand as a teacher. She will never forget some of the things she experienced and saw Thai women experience that year. She has a bachelor’s in journalism, and this past June she graduated with a second bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies, taking classes in journalism, computer programming and design. She is raising three young, kindhearted male allies. In between babies she served on the local rape hotline, answering calls and driving to emergency rooms to advocate for victims and connect them with resources they needed. She likes singing and playing music, traveling, and constantly learning new professional skills. Her favorite dessert is sticky rice with mango and coconut milk.

Kasumi Hirokawa, State College, PA, USA

Kasumi is a recent graduate from Penn State with a BA in journalism. Her writing has been published in Valley Magazine, City Weekend Shanghai, Penn State GeoBlog and Shanghai Daily. Kasumi speaks Japanese, English, Mandarin and Shanghainese. She has lived in Japan, China and the United States and visited many more including Morocco, UK and Thailand. She is obsessed with everything Mediterranean and Maghrebi. Her life goal is to visit every single country in the world and perhaps acquire a new language. In her spare time, she can be found either curling up with books, experimenting on a new recipe, hanging out with fellow feminists or belly dancing. You can follow her on Twitter, @kasumihrkw

Kirstin Kelley, Monterey, CA, USA

Kirstin is a Master’s Student in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a news editor at the Women’s International Perspective (The WIP). She discovered her passion for feminism while studying Psychology and Sociology and Anthropology at Green Mountain College. Kirstin has been a human rights and environmental activist since early childhood. Her research focuses on how otherwise normal people can treat others inhumanely, with a focus on stereotypes. Now she is most interested in how ecofeminism can pave the way to a better world, transactional feminism, and deep ecology. You can follower her on Twitter at @KirstinKelley1, where she regularly posts about human rights issues around the world.

Jessie Koerner, Denver, Colorado, USA

Jessie is a longtime human rights activist with a feminist focus. She’s been involved with multiple organizations, including founding the Amnesty International chapter at her undergrad, being an active participant in JustWorld International, and managing the social media accounts for the Global Women’s Network and winnovating.com, where she also blogs. In addition, Jessie will also be part of the Hollaback! fall class, and starting a chapter of the anti-street harassment group in Denver in late 2014. With an M.A. in Global Health and International Security, she’s committed to making this world a better place. Jessie is also an expert in cheap red wine, Pinterest crafts, and over-sharing on Twitter. Find her @pearlsandspurs there and on Instagram, or at pearlsandspurs.com, where she swears she’s going to start writing more.

Cristina del Mar Quiles, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Cristina es una periodista y productora de noticias de San Juan, Puerto Rico. Posee un bachillerato de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, donde también completa su maestría en Consejería. Ha trabajado como reportera para medios impresos y digitales. Actualmente, es una de las productoras de Hoy en las Noticias de Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico. Su interés en luchar contra el acoso callejero comenzó durante sus años como estudiante universitaria, cuando lo sufrió, más que nunca, mientras caminaba desde su hospedaje hasta el campus. Le apasionan los temas relacionados con la justa representación de la mujer en los medios, la alfabetización mediática y la educación. Además, disfruta de viajar y de la jardinería. Cree en un Puerto Rico y en una sociedad entera libre de prejuicios, donde las oportunidades sean accesibles para todas las personas, sin importar su clase, raza o género. Puedes seguirla en Twitter en @cristinadelmarq.

Cristina is a journalist and a radio producer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and is finishing her Master’s in Counseling, both from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. She’s worked as a reporter for print and web media and now she is news producer at Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico. Her interest in fighting sexual and street harassment started through personal experience as a student living at one of the main urban areas in San Juan, where she walked everyday from home to college campus. She’s passionate about the equal representation of women in media, education, media literacy, storytelling, traveling and gardening. She envisions a Puerto Rico and an entire society where opportunities are available for everyone, despite the class, race or gender. Follow her on Twitter @cristinadelmarq.

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA

Brittany is a recent graduate of Towson University and holds a B.S in Mass Communications with a focus in Public Relations. She is an advocate and thought leader for civic and societal issues related to feminism, social justice and civil rights. Brittany works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She is also an organizer for One Billion Rising 2014 and is an avid volunteer within in community. Her goal in writing for SSH is to educate people about the harassment that takes place on the streets of Baltimore, which she’s experienced her whole life. Her offline activities include salsa dancing, arts & crafts, reading and attending local community events. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.

Dearbhla Quinn, Dublin, Ireland and Brussels, Belgium

Dearbhla (pronounced Der-vla) loves the four ‘Fs’ -Food, film, fiction and feminism. She graduated from BESS (Business and Sociology), in Trinity College Dublin, last year. Since then she’s been deciding what to do with her life, and that journey has brought her to Brussels, Belgium where she is in the midst of a think-tank internship working in the areas of gender, equality and employment. On the weekends she’s a tour guide and enthusiastic wine and Belgian beer drinker. She’s decided to combine here love of books and feminism into the novel idea of, during June, reading exclusively women authors. Feel free to join #WomenAuthorMonth and tweet your experience. You can find her discussing her life, politics and the four F’s on Twitter @imoshedinheels and her blogs. Au Revoir!

Corina Thorose, Melbourne, Australia

Corina is a journalist who is currently in a Masters’ program in Professional Writing. In addition to writing for Stop Street Harassment, she volunteers with White Ribbon Australia and the Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service. Her passions include music, literature and pyjamas, and she spends her free time reviewing theatre and film. Corina’s creative and critical work can be found at Thehumbleopinion.me and her women’s opinion pieces can be found at Theirownbells.com. You can also view her articles on social media: @BrandosBride, www.facebook.com/theirownbells, instagram.com/theirownbells.

Suzanne Vyborney, Oakland, CA

Born in South Korea and raised in Northern California, Suzanne studied philosophy and environmental ethics in college and is currently plotting ways to make the corporate world more socially responsible. Often found ranting about the patriarchy, racism, and the prison industrial complex, what Suzanne loves most about her social justice work is connecting with and being inspired by her amazing community in Oakland and beyond. Suzanne is also an editorial board member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights’ blog, Ella’s Voice, the special events chair for the brand new Oakland chapter of the national progressive leadership training institute New Leaders Council, and a volunteer for the nationally renowned anti-street-harassment campaign, Stop Telling Women To Smile. In between, Suzanne can be found making mosaics, working on social justice-infused comedy sketches, sending many an unsolicited cat video and recovering from brunch. You can follow her on Twitter @zantropa.

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

During the week of April 21st – 27th, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh traveled to Baltimore to introduce Stop Telling Women To Smile (STWTS), which is an on-going traveling public art series that attempts to address gender based street harassment.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is an illustrator and painter based in Brooklyn, NY who is mostly known for her oil paintings, but recently branched out into public art as a muralist. STWTS started in the fall of 2012 and was born out of the idea that street art can make a difference.

On two different days, Hollaback! Baltimore co-sponsored an open discussion and artist talk at Station North Chicken Box in Baltimore City. The process of STWTS consists of shooting photographs of local women, using them as references for drawing, and composing them into a design with captions that speak directly to offenders of street harassment. The large black and white prints that feature local women are then wheat pasted throughout cities all over the country and aims at raising awareness of the unwanted, unwelcomed, and dangerous treatment of women in the public.

The open discussion was held on Monday, April 21st and allowed women share how street harassment affected them in different areas and what was so specific about it. The more I listened to other people’s stories, the more comfortable I became to share my own. It has never been easy to discuss my experiences with street harassment, but this discussion provided me with a safe space to vent and connect with others who felt the same.

Afterwards, I met with Tatyana to tell her what I wanted to say to my harassers and to have my photo taken. After discussing a few ideas, we both decided to use “Men do not own the streets,” which would be the quote used if she did my portrait.

The artist talk held on Thursday, April 24th involved Tatyana discussing her background in visual art and how STWTS was created along with questions from the audience. This session was specifically interesting to me because I too have a background in the arts and have recently decided to incorporate feminist art into my work as an activist.

A couple days after while browsing through Instagram, I discovered a photo of Tatyana wheat pasting her very first piece at Station North and noticed that the mural included my portrait. I had no idea I would be featured in the first mural and was overwhelmed with empowerment and emotion when I saw it.

STWTS coming to Baltimore is one of the most memorable experiences I’ll ever have. This powerful campaign allows women to stand up to their harassers and it sends a strong message that street harassment is a serious issue that affects women worldwide.

The message is clear: Stop Telling Women To Smile.

Brittany Oliver is a recent graduate of Towson University and works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.