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26 May Lost Girls Vintage

“It’s our four year friendaversary!” Sarah Azzouzi of Chicago’s Lost Girls Vintage exclaims, looking to her partner in crime, Kyla Embrey. Raising her travel coffee mug in celebration, Kyla declares a toast. “Let’s cheers! And drink our coffee…because that’s what we do,” she says.

We clink our mugs together and Sarah sighs, “We need this. I wish coffee was hydrating.” The three of us are soaking up one of the first nice days in Chicago, and I’m about ready to chuck my recorder off the balcony of The Goddess and Grocer onto Damen Avenue below. Can we just go get margs and hangout? I want to be the third Lost Girl! Friend crushes are very real, and I have a major one on these two. Sarah and Kyla have made their dreams a reality, something very few of us have the guts to do. Their business, Lost Girls Vintage, is essentially a vintage clothing store that operates out of a 1976 Winnebago RV named Winnie. But if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll find out that it's so much more.

11 May Leah Ball

Leah Ball is a Chicago-based jewelry maker, ceramicist, printmaker, feminist and advocate. Leah is many things, but above all, she is an artist dedicated to empowering others, promoting sex positivity, and creating ways and spaces to talk about difficult yet important topics.

“I didn’t necessarily mean to delve so deep into feminism,” Ball says as she sips on a champagne flute. “I mean, I thought I knew what it was, but I had no idea. I knew things were bad, but I had no idea how bad.” We’re at Lula Café, a cozy restaurant in Chicago’s Logan Square. Ball has smiled, waved, or chatted to at least three different people in the five minutes we’ve been there. “Are you still doing yoga?” she asks as she rubs a pregnant friend's belly. People gravitate towards her. Hell, they practically light up when they see her! As we get deeper into our conversation, we laugh a lot. This babe has a contagious smile and an even more contagious laugh. Her hands, clay residue from earlier ceramic work still present on her fingers, wave through the air as she speaks. No matter what topic we discuss, a humbled wisdom shines from behind the lenses of her large-framed glasses.

21 Apr Damn Gina

The Ginas never laugh alone. Whenever one member of Austin’s first and only all-black, all-female improv troupe cracks a joke or starts a giggle, every member lets out a big, knowing guffaw.

Cene Hale, Maggie Maye, Ronnita Miller, Tauri Laws-Phillips, and Xaria Coleman all have infectious laughs, and as they spread, the sound of their chuckling infuses an awesomely intimate warmth, sincerity, and affirmation into each moment of hilarity. The friendship and deep connection these women share is in every giggle, every crinkle of the eye, every knowing glance or “yessssss.” The Ginas’ friendship is even more powerful because each member spent so much time feeling alone as the only black girl in the room. Now, these babes who all felt like outsiders are in fucking formation. And they’re changing minds about the way people of color are represented on stage, confronting problems that exist off-stage head on.