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Illuminati Girl Gang: A Movement for Female Creativity

Here are some things I love: All girl groups, poetry, alternative publications, the Internet, collages, and girls spilling their guts. Illuminati Girl Gang gives me all of these things, plus the squeely, happy feeling when you find a space filled with women who make art, and who make you want to make art. Admiration feeds into inspiration for creation (I’ve just read this zine and already I’m spitting out rhmes!).

Illuminati Girl Gang started out as a girl in her room on her laptop. Gabby Gabby, a poet, girl gang leader, and a personal Tumblr favorite of mine, began with a well-worn idea: Why not make a website for female artistic expression? Although already done time and time again, the need is continuously pressing. As Gabby noted in an interview with The Art Cake, in the world of literary publications the ratio between female and male contributors is overwhelmingly biased towards male writers. So instead of lamenting what she saw, Gabby created what she wanted to see: A female-centered space for art and poetry. What began as a curated webspace has now extended into a printed publication that has developed a cult following in the alt lit Tumblr fed girl world. And the hype is well deserved — Gabby has fostered an impressive roster of female writers and artists, both established and up-and-coming, such as Roxane Gay, Lucy Tiven, Grace Miceli, and Molly Soda.

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