A Feminist founder— Lo Sontag
Who am I?
I am Lark Lo Sontag, but I go by Lo. Lo originates from my Chinese great-grandfather. Because people continue to erase it, drop it, ignore it, with a “You don’t look Chinese,” I have made it my first name. I’m a part of the African Diaspora from both the USA (New Orleans) and Belize. People cannot be sliced and diced into percentages, it is a ridiculous practice, so I won’t engage in it for myself.
As a young woman, I was told (by a few women and some men—not my parents —they were and continue to be super cool, in fact my dad was the first feminist in my life, but that’s another post) that my role was to embrace my given identity and be a good comrade. I was encouraged to work hard, be quiet about myself, and to stay in my lane.
Yet, I have always thought I was too interesting to be scenery, so I’ve never engaged in that kind of “set yourself on fire to warm others” style of activity. One important imperative of feminism is to not be selflessly deferential. I think all feminists are too engaging to work in the background quietly. We need all feminists to the front! Including YOU!
I grew up in Los Angeles, California. It was a feminist stronghold, though I did not know it at the time. Strong feminists in the genres of art, literature, politics, and journalism surrounded me. All of them complemented and deepend my work as a feminist urban theorist. Urbanism across the nation and the West is steeped in patriarchy and white hegemony, but with my siSTARS by my side, the work was thrilling. My community of transgender, lesbian, working class, Black, Latine, Asian American, men, Jewish American, senior, young, wealthy, and middle-aged feminist friends supported me through hard times. Sometimes, my work attracted negative attention: I was stalked for five years which necessitated several name changes and several moves, despite a restraining order.
The (2017) Women’s March in Los Angeles was a watershed moment for me. The 2017 protest against Trump’s inauguration in Los Angeles eclipsed the size of the New York and DC Marches, with nearly 750,000 people.
In 2018, I moved to New Jersey. I immediately tried to find other feminists with whom to work on my multidisciplinary style urbanism. I met Amy Tingle, the co-owner of the art gallery Creative Caravan in Montclair. I was ecstatic . I just knew that in North Jersey, I would find a feminist community, but with seasons and better public transit.
Across the street from Tingle’s gallery, an ice cream parlor named “Dairy Air(e)” opened. Their logo was a weirdly sexualized cow that was depicted as a thin, underage, teenage girl, blowing bubblegum bubbles and “presenting” to use a primatology term. The logo objectified women, and when Tingle pointed this out on a Facebook group, a barrage of aggression came tumbling out of “suburbia.” I was shocked. I had never seen such aggression from people in polos and khakis. In LA, barbarians looked like racist skinheads not the dad from Family Ties.
When we had a discussion about the matter at her gallery, men came in and attempted to intimidate us, and the result was terrible press against Tingle and her wife, who were eventually pushed out of Montclair.
After that incident I attempted to found a feminist group and was told, “We don’t do that here.” I then tried to locate a feminist group anywhere in New Jersey and was told, “We have women groups.”
Biological essentialism has never been my thing. I don’t care if you have a vagina or a penis, I care if you’re a feminist.
I was saddened, and with the backdrop of the rapist president, I thought this was nothing like Los Angeles, I have made a mistake.
For the first time in my life, I was confused about whether sexism was a bigger problem or racism. In Los Angeles, it was no question: definitely racism. However, in New Jersey, Los Angeles’ racism looked very anemic, and New Jersey’s sexism had me fearing for my future and my life and I hadn’t even gotten a new stalker yet.
I was surrounded by women who had degrees from Seven Sister schools, but since they had taken off work to have children, they could not get employment, and since they could not get employment, they could not leave unhappy marriages, and there were quite a few unhappy marriages.
I have a friend whose husband was a lawyer and translator, and I asked why didn’t his firm seem to hire women, and he said, “If we can’t have sex with you because you’re old or unattractive, then why would we need you around.” Then he laughed.
45-year-old women were old. I’m old!
Black women in New Jersey were in an even harder spot, trapped in a maze of misogynoir where binary gender and race were used to trap, subdue, and deny opportunities.
But what New Jersey did give me was clarity on several things:
- We can’t do this alone, any of this, solidarity is essential.
- We have abundance in the collective.
- Feminism is a lens that can shape the practice of liberation.
- Pluralism is important. Feminism and urbanism must be multicultural, include disabled feminists, multiethnic, gender diverse, age diverse, and accessible across all socioeconomic classes.
- Urbanism, when done correctly, is the power of the we.
- The question which is more important, sexism or racism, is the wrong question.
I wondered how I could convey these ideas, and I felt that a media project would be the best way to discuss and amplify the need and the practice of feminist urbanism. A theory that needs to be brought from the ivory tower and into the bike lanes, sidewalks, and bus stops of urban America. It needs to be brought up during economic development conversations and town halls.
This was when I decided to create A Feminist Newsletter in New Jersey —about Urbanism.
Join me on this long road media that is A Feminist Newsletter in New Jersey, because despite of it all, we are not going back.
We are recruiting writers, artists, photographers, and designers.
We are raising funds to pay for contributors. We are looking for 1,920 paying members by January 6, we’re recruiting a founder’s circle, and advisors.
I hold a MPA with a concentration in urban planning. I am proudly an alumnae of the best woman’s college in the West, Mount St Mary’s University in Los Angeles where I studied journalism, poetry, and philosophy. I also am an alum of New School of Social Research and Claremont. I formerly was a fellow with the Lincoln Institute and The New School. I have been published in the LA Weekly, NJ.com, LA Times, NextCity, and other mainstream and alternative news media.
If you’d like my professional background go here.
