WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH EVENTS TO BE HELD AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY "Creating Our Lives: Art, Action and Identity" is the theme for events commemorating Women's History Month this March at William Paterson University in Wayne. On Wednesday, March 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., a "Women, Leadership and Diversity" conference will be held in the Student Center Ballroom on campus. Speakers include Jessica Govea, a professional organizer who recently served as New Jersey state director of AFL-CIO; Elizabeth Volt, the president of the National Organization for Women of New Jersey; Cheryl Clarke, director of the Office of Diverse and Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Issues at Rutgers University; and Sandra Ramos, executive director of Strengthen Our Sisters, a Passaic County shelter for battered women.
Women of different religious faiths gather together for a program titled "Women of Faith and Action" on Tuesday, March 16 at 4:15 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. Speakers include Virginia Mollenkott, Tracy Lynn, Geny Moreno, Rabbi Amy Roth, Joanne De Pasquale, and Barbara Sandberg. On Wednesday, March 17 at 2 p.m., author Susan Douglas gives her witty analysis of the music, movies and TV imagery that helps to shape female psyches. Douglas is the author of "Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media," a book described as "provocative, rollicking, peppy and indignant" by The New York Times. Tuesday, March 23 is "Love Your Body Day." At 12:30 p.m., Rosemarie Newberry's traveling exhibit of real-life body masks of diverse women will be on display in the Student Center Ballroom. Tired of how the beauty industry, advertisers and the media make women feel about their bodies, Newberry invited women of all ages, shapes and sizes to make plaster body molds of themselves. Newberry will make a presentation with poetry readings. Also on March 23 at 2 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom, Tricia Rose, professor of Africana studies at New York University, will speak about women's sexuality, strength and beauty. Rose, who is the author of "Black Noise," is writing a new book about representations of Black women's sexuality. An opening reception for the exhibit "Virtual Artifacts: Computer and Mixed Media Works by Twelve Women" will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Ben Shahn Galleries on Wednesday, March 24. The selected works, on display through April 16, help "expose an attitude or thought process of women artists working in new technologies," says Leslie Nobler Farber, curator of the exhibit. On Thursday, March 25, comic strip creator Alison Bechdel will present "Dykes to Watch Out For: The Slideshow" at 4:15 p.m. in the Martini Teleconference Room in Hobart Hall. During her talk, Bechdel gives an entertaining look at female cartoon characters, growing up lesbian and drawing as therapy. Suellen Semekowski will present "Art and Psychotherapy," a video presentation and workshop on Friday, March 26 from10 a.m. to noon in the Library Auditorium. Semekowski, a faculty member at the Art Institute of Chicago, is an art therapist and relational therapist who works extensively with women. When some of her adult students were grieving over the loss of loved ones, she guided them to create art that helped them deal with their grief. Most Women's History Month events are free and all are open to the public. For additional information, please call Meryle Kaplan, director of the University's Women's Center, at 973-720-2946. ###
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"Zora Neale Hurston," Laurence Holder's one-act
play about the woman who triumphed against great odds to secure an education
and become one of the most prolific writers of the Harlem Renaissance,
will be staged on Wednesday, March 3 at 8 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom.
Elizabeth Van Dyke, who has toured the country portraying Hurston, brings
her to life "with sass and verve," said the Village Voice. Joseph
Edward is Van Dyke's co-star in the two-actor production directed by Wynn
Handman.