Points of Departure: I Found My Activism Here
Ariana Katz (CGS'10, CAS’12) and Sarah Merriman (CAS’12)
As Sarah Merriman and Ariana Katz talk about their involvement with the BU Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism—Merriman is the organization’s events coordinator and Katz is codirector—Merriman draws a blank about when the two became friends..
“We don’t really know the story,” says Merriman (CAS’12). “In the end, we just became friends. And now we wrestle a lot.”
With a shared passion for activism, family, culture, and food, psychology major Merriman says that despite her foggy memories of how she and Katz became friends, the two made a “quick ascent to best friendship” during junior year, after spending many nights in Katz’s apartment making dinner and discussing politics. “We do a lot of protesting,” says Merriman. “We did Occupy together, which was fun.”
“Being politically aligned makes friendship a lot easier, and it can be a fun thing,” says Katz (CGS’10, CAS’12), a sociology major. “I found my activism here, and I found my anarcho-feminist voice here. A large part of that was through the center.”
After graduation, the two plan to stay in Boston and share a house with several close friends, which they say will ease their transition into post-BU life. Katz will be teaching at a temple in Brookline, while Merriman hopes to “work in feminism.”
“It feels like the end of school, but it feels less scary,” says Katz. “I’m not scared, and I think it is because of the folks I’m involved with in the community that I’m in.
“It feels very safe. It feels like I’m grounded in Boston and with my people.”
Additional editing by Alex Stout (COM’13).
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