Mission



FEMS exists to empower, create space for, and celebrate feminine people and their voices through poetry. We strive to cultivate intergenerational connections and to amplify our community’s work. As a literary nonprofit we organize an annual poetry slam tournament in addition to holding panels, workshops, and events year-round. In these capacities we aim to drive collaboration, provide radically accessible spaces, and enrich the creative wellbeing of our community.


We are committed to unlearning the structures that have silenced feminine people and to discover and illuminate a space of liberation, celebration, and belonging.



Origin Story



Founded in 2017, FEMS began in Executive Director Zenaida Peterson’s living room in response to the poetry community’s need for a space where feminine voices could thrive. Zenaida envisioned a space that was radically accessible for people of any age, gender, race, experience, and ability to find healing and support in their art.



Why does FEMS exist?



Poetry slam tends to favor masculine voices, giving higher scores to the biggest and loudest performer in the room. We are creating a space for ourselves, where space has not been given to perform, compete and grow through writing and activism in a way that prioritizes softness.



The Team



Zenaida Peterson



Executive Director



Zenaida Peterson (they/them/theirs), author of “Breakfast for Dinner and Other Blasphemous Things” published by Pizza Pi Press is an organizer, a house plant gardener and a Black non-binary poet from the south currently residing in Boston, Massachusetts. They are the founder of Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam (FEMS), an all ages radical poetry slam for feminine folks. They have competed in 5 and coached 2 national poetry slam competitions placing in the top 10 each time. They are prepping for the apocalypse by learning to make plant medicine, engaging in restorative justice and farming. Outside of community work they spend their time recruiting and doing equity work with Quaker Voluntary Service and are a race equity consultant.



Dee Moore



Executive Director



Dee Moore (they/them/theirs) is a white queer nonbinary femme that grew up in the South and is now based out of Boston, MA. They are an experienced facilitator, youth worker, and artist that prioritizes holding space and processes of unlearning thoughts and behaviors created by systems of oppression. They believe in the power of relationship building, story-telling, and art as ways to work towards liberation. Much of their work, both artistic and community based, centers around narratives of mental illness, grief, queerness, resiliency, and race. Dee is currently working on a Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at Lesley College of Art and Design. In this work, they are exploring concepts of representation in art, the relationship between performance art and activism, and the creation of self through storytelling. In this work, they aspire to delve deeply into what it means to be human and create spaces for connection through art. In their off time, Dee is also an avid reader of queer young adult fiction, nap enthusiast, and TV marathoner.



Carlie Febo



Board President



Carlie Bristow Febo is an artist, community organizer, museum educator, youth development professional, photographer, and creative collaborator in Boston. In 2019, she started her own consulting and photography business. She is the co-founder of The Cauldron, a radical feminist social practice focusing on transformative experiences through intentional gathering, vulnerability, and fostering community. Carlie is the co-founder of artist collective Make Art and Cry and manager of nationally touring performance poetry duo Adobo-Fish-Sauce.



Andrine Bell



Board Youth Coordinator



Andrine Bell is a spoken word artist & organizer from MA. Her poetry focuses on anything she needs to heal from in that moment, using the stories and lessons that her loved ones have gifted her to survive herself & others. She is the 2017 Louder than A Bomb Indie slam champion and Brave New Voices International finalist. She’s a teaching artist & organizer for Mass Leap. She's the board youth coordinator & previous slammaster for FEMS. She’s also the outreach coordinator for Books of Hope, mentoring youth artists in several cities around MA. Love is her favorite word and food.



Sara Mae



Board Member



Sara Mae is a white, queer fashion witch and community organizer raised between Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland. She is the former Executive Director and a current board member of the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam Tournament—FEMS and her first chapbook, Priestess of Tankinis, is out via Game Over Books. In her free time, she is learning burlesque in the studio or in her bedroom, and writing songs for her project Day Night Dress.



Ren Main



Board Member



Ren is a non-binary human passionate about the queer community and volunteerism. They have been volunteering with FEMS since 2018 and were the Volunteer Coordinator for the 2019 FEMS Tournament. They are an accountant by day and will bring their financial and organizational skills to the FEMS Board.



Karen West



Board Member



I am a 75 year old woman. She/her. I'm a member in Friends Meeting in Cambridge (Quaker). I met Zenaida when they were a fellow with the Quaker Voluntary Service program. One of the committees I'm on at FMC is Friends for Racial Justice which sponsors the FEMS tournament each year. We hope to continue this great relationship. I'm retired after several years as a psychiatric rehabilitation counselor. I spend much of my time now on different activist projects.



Max May Fowler



Development Director



As the Director of Development at FEMS, Max May (they/them/theirs) develops and implements a strategic fundraising plan with the development team and support from the board. Max May's day job is as the Data Specialist at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and they are finishing their master's degree in applied economics at UMass Boston. Outside of work, Max May loves to write and perform poetry, sing loudly in the car, and play the piano.



Ewan Hill



Development Coordinator



Ewan Hill (they/them/theirs) is a queer love ballad, an encyclopedia of cloud facts, a white nonbinary libra. They are a poet and graphic designer living in Boston and working at a public library. They're into road trips, anthropology, and growing lemon trees from seed.



Julissa Emile



Social Media Director, Slammaster



Julissa Emile (known affectionately as juju) is a twenty-one year old transplant from the United States Virgin Islands. Their writing focuses on the intersections of blackness, queerness and "if that were a garden, what kind of magic would grow from it".



Alison Kronstadt



Slammaster



Alison (they/them/theirs and she/her/hers) is a poet, a youth worker, and an anti-specialized violence advocate currently living in Boston / on stolen Wampanoag land. They love pickles and queer happy endings.



Alanna Moriarty



Marketing Director



Alanna is an avid knitter, scorpio, and Cool Gay Aunt™ to 5 nieces and 1 nephew. A lifelong lover of words, she enjoys weaving them into something meaningful and beautiful — whether that’s for marketing or community-building purposes. When she’s not working with FEMS and the wider queer community, Alanna is probably writing and ranting about healthcare access and federal policy, or showing off Muffin, her elderly dwarf rabbit.



Lauren Lopez



Website Wiz



Lauren is a queer nonbinary writer who is not sure whether they are more aggressive about being a New Yorker or being a Libra. At any given time, they’re probably running around Boston working with nonprofits like Brink Literacy Project or 826 Boston. When they’re not doing all things writing and publishing, you can find them missing New York bagels or cross stitching on public transportation.



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