A new writing adventure!

5 min readApr 14, 2020

Welcome to my Medium page. I’m excited to add this platform to my list of places you can find my work.

I’m a freelance writer but as is the nature of freelance writing, I am beholden to what my editors want. So pitches fall through the cracks. Ideas for stories, interviews, musings, rants, and op-eds (often fully formed) have no place to go. And while I do have a website, I treat that as more of a library of my works, not an actual blog. I rarely publish my own words directly onto my website, but rather post links to the publications where my work has been accepted. Thus, I don’t do much to drive traffic to my site.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want the pitches that don’t get picked up to sit in a folder on my desktop in perpetuity. I want these pieces seen by an audience. Which brings me to this page.

Here’s what I can promise: the things you read by me won’t be “reject ideas” that editors passed on. Editors pass on pieces for a huge variety of reasons. And sometimes, I pitch to places knowing it’s a longshot. Everything I write is heartfelt, genuine, and, I believe, worthy of being read.

I focus mainly on feminism and Judaism. I spend a lot of time focussing on the intersections of the two and how they both feed my soul and cause me pain.

At a rally in support of reproductive freedom

Here are some of the articles I’m proudest of:

And a little bit more about me, generally:

I am a proud activist and advocate based in Washington DC. I have spent the last four years protesting, rallying, learning, teaching, writing, lobbying, volunteering, and working for feminist and Jewish causes around the city.

I am thrilled to be the Special Projects Associate for the National Council of Jewish Women, a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates that has worked for reproductive freedom for over 125 years.

This is Goose. He’s part cat, part meerkat (meercat?)

I graduated in December of 2019 from American University and majored in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I’ve served on multiple executive boards of student organizations such as the American Association of University Women, Students to End Abortion Stigma, and She’s the First. Additionally, I have held multiple internships around DC in women’s advocacy at various nonprofits such as NARAL Pro-Choice America, the American Association of University Women, the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice, Jewish Women International and more. I sit on NARAL’s first ever DC Action Council. I am deeply passionate about promoting women’s empowerment and liberation from the heteropatriarchy. My favorite thing in the world is to bring like-minded, passionate women together to change the world.

I’m heavily involved in the Jewish community of DC. I sat on the Board of Directors for American University’s Hillel for 18 months after heavy involvement throughout my time at AU and am a proud mikvah guide at the Adas Israel Community Mikvah. I’ve been educating about antisemitism for many years and wrote and passed a bill condemning antisemitism through my student government. I’ve travelled to Israel and Palestine four times.

I am highly skilled in all things digital communications and have presented at conferences, offered consulting work, and have had dozens of internships/executive board positions/volunteer roles as a communications specialist. I craft and deliver on-target messaging across platforms to best represent the goals and values of an organization. Utilizing digital advocacy in tandem with in-person activism is my specialty!

Some of the accounts I currently run and have run in the past (outside of my own!) include:

I’ve been interviewed by NowThis, Mother Jones, Refinery29, Washington Jewish Week, Beyond the Byline, Alma, HerCampus, and Harvard Radio Broadcasting. Additionally, I have presented at conferences such as the Mathias Undergraduate Research conference on reclaiming mikvah as a feminist practice at American University and the Working to End Rape Culture Summit digital communication in sexual assault prevention activism at Georgetown University.

When I’m not talking about feminism or Judaism I can predictably be found reading or writing about them, especially with how they intersect with topical issues. I am excitedly beginning a career in writing. Some of my proudest pieces include:

The non-work related parts of me that are worth mentioning: I’m a proud Hufflepuff and think Dunkin Donuts is better than Starbucks. I hail from the lovely city of Boston, though I don’t miss the snow. I have a cat named Goose who brings me so much joy amid the wild politics of DC. I am a voracious reader and am always looking for books recs, so please hit me up!

A new writing adventure!

Written by Steph Black

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