LIKE AN UNPLANNED late-life baby, The Sister Project wasn’t meant to happen. What was intended was a book, co-authored by me (Margaret Roach) and my younger sister, Marion Roach Smith. While Marion was writing away diligently, I was over at my house carrying on a torrid late-night romance with internet 2.0, and with WordPress in particular. The love child of that romance is The Sister Project, a blog network or family of related blogs: sister blogs.
The more Marion and I delved into our joint memoir that circles round the puzzle of, “Nature or nurture? Neither and both” and our same-but-different realities, the more I got to thinking about the other sister experiences out there. Whether biological or political, half, twin or step, all of them are loosely threaded together with ours, or so it feels.
So tell us: What means “sister?” as the index card on my corkboard asks. What, indeed?
HOW THE SISTER PROJECT WORKS
TSP Version 1.0 is a thread of conversation that started with just four “sisters,” Margaret, Marion, Paige and Anastasia. Two of us in the original mix are related by genes; my literal sister and the other two are all named Smith but not related—don’t ask. Read the TSP About Page for more on how we got together, and who we are.
“The Smiths,” as I now think of the three of them, each writes a personal blog on our new network, starting from her personal understanding of the “S” word and heading outward in widening circles from there. For a capsule version of the blogs, try this page.
Each original sister also contributes, according to her interests, to other major sections of TSP—the Galleries, where we curate creative expressions by and about sisters, and to the reference section called Sisterpedia. We hope you’ll make time to visit both; new material is added all the time.
We are debuting The Sister Project at the holiday season on purpose, suspecting that you (as we) have a lot to say about the subject of sisters at this family-intensive time of year. Go ahead: Share it. As TSP grows we will have more formal community areas, but for now jump in and comment, or if there are visuals you want to share, email us at thesisterproject at gmail dot com.
I know you have a sister story. Every day someone asks me what I am doing and I say, “Starting a blog network about sisters,” and before I can even begin to explain, they tell me their sister riff. And then some.
I hadn’t even spoken to the two women in the tiny elevator the other day, riding down from the hair salon to street level. They were arguing over whether the one with dark hair, who thought she had been overcharged but didn’t say anything to the cashier, should go back upstairs and get it straight.
The red-headed woman was saying yes, you must, with increasing insistence. And then she turned to me.
“Don’t worry,” she said, pushing the up button again to hijack them both back upstairs, despite the protest. “We’re fighting but it’s OK. We’re sisters.”–Margaret Roach
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P.S.–We love the image of “sisterhood” by Allison Michael Orenstein (below), whose photographs are on display in TSP’s Gallery for our site launch. Thanks, Allison. 
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First time here? Here's the idea: TSP is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in-friendship or in-feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Welcome to the world TSP!
Welcome yourself, Kari. We are glad to have you among us.
Congratulations, your baby sister is enchanting. What an amazing concept. There is something special about sisters, blood or not.
Welcome, Susan. Glad to see you, and glad you “met” Marion. See you here again soon.
You have dipped into a very deep well here! Thank you for your courage. All the sister ancestors are watching and smiling.
Welcome, Jeanne. The well is deep…and also wide. Every time the initial “sisters” and I talk about the project, we think of five more threads to unravel and explore. Or 50. Thank you for your good words. Blessings.
Hi! I am an older sister of three and I wanted to join TSB. My little sister are 7, 4, and 2 in March! They can be very annoying, but I love them and I have some stories to tell.
Hello Disney, and welcome. I hope you will tell us more about your three sisters…wow! The stories must be really good. Even with one sister, I have some goodies!