“We just got back two days ago, and I’m still kind of on this feminist high,” senior Chloe Wagner said after spending October 27 through the 29 in Detroit, MI at the “Reclaiming Our Time” Women’s Conference. Wagner went along with sophomore Gigi Lopez and Upper School Language and Cultural Studies teacher Lorin Pritikin.

The conference was lead by the same people who organized the Women’s March to which Wagner a Parker coalition last year. While no one from Wagner’s previous trip joined her in Detroit, she saw many of the same people whom she had met at the march.

Wagner, Lopez, and Pritikin got the funds to go on the trip through Students Affirming Gender Equality (SAGE). SAGE created by Lopez and Parker alum Carrie Lieberman, ‘16, four years ago, has been by Lopez for the past four years, with help from faculty advisor Pritikin. Wagner was the SAGE head for the prior 2 years.

According to Wagner, the conference aimed to inspire people to be motivated to make a change. “What we were really at the convention for was to learn,” Wagner said. “I went to a session on confronting white womanhood—it was so groundbreaking.”

Lucky for Wagner, the conference was held in her home city of Detroit. “Detroit has a long history of activism starting with the riots in the 1960s, and actually from the riots Detroit has never really been built back up,” Wagner said. “They wanted to focus on how strong the city was and how monumental it has been.”

Among various keynote speakers, one notable figure was U.S Representative Maxine Waters, a congresswoman from California’s 43rd District. Waters has been a public representative for 37 years. An important speaker to Wagner was Debbie Satanow. “The senator from Michigan, Debbie Satanow, was there,” Wagner said, “and I’ve been looking up to her for—I don’t know how many years.” The experiences Lopez, Pritikin, and Wagner had exceeded all of their expectations for what a feminist conference would deliver.

Pritikin said “There was a mix of people from all walks of life from every age.” Wagner, Lopez, and Pritikin expected there to be a few hundred people there, but in the end five thousand feminists showed up.

“We have definitely learned a lot about easy ways to implement activism into our daily lives,” Wagner said. “It’s as easy as altering the way you speak so that its not ableist and so that it doesn’t condone white supremacy or perpetrate gender norms.”

Lopez and Wagner have plans to share.“I want to incorporate what I learned into everyone’s daily lives,” Lopez said. “SAGE is the perfect way for me to take action, and start actually talking about these kinds of things.”

This is not the last time Parker will hear about the conference—Pritikin, Lopez, and Wagner plan on doing an MX second semester about their experience. They want to share the ideas they have learned, so the Parker community can be more inclusive to all women, no matter their race or sexual orientation.