March is a month that demands honesty.
As we recognize Women’s History Month and the Month of Printmaking, we are reminded that women have always created under pressure. Through making art, building businesses, holding families together, and shaping communities while carrying burdens that were never evenly distributed.
Women are doing the heavy lifting in nearly every sphere of life. We are working, caregiving, organizing, creating, and surviving in systems that continue to dismiss our autonomy, our labor, and our safety. Laws are being written that disregard women’s health. Barriers are being erected that threaten women’s voices and access to civic participation. The impact is not distant, it is personal, and it is being felt in our bodies, our homes, and our futures.
This issue features printmaker Margaret DeKoven, whose work reflects the power of intention and the permanence of mark-making. This issue also uplifts women-owned businesses and creatives who are not only contributing to our neighborhood, but sustaining it. These women are not ancillary to our community. They are foundational.
At Urban Life Wash Park, supporting women is not symbolic and it is not seasonal. It is a year-round commitment to visibility, dignity, and collective care. We believe women deserve safety. We believe women deserve autonomy. We believe women deserve to be heard, protected, and celebrated, not only when its comfortable.
This issue is both a celebration and a stance. A reminder that women have always found ways to leave their imprint, through ink, through action, through resilience, and that we will continue to do so.
Your neighbors,
Shaleen and Sam DeStefano