Events

Everywoman's Center organizes, sponsors, and co-sponsors a wide variety of events for the Five-College community, typically during the academic year.

For information on all EWC events call 413-545-0883

Fall 2009

Vagina Monologues: 2010!

V-DAY UMASS AMHERST PRESENTS:

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES: 2010!
INFORMATIONAL MEETING and AUDITIONS

The Vagina Monologues is an award winning play based on Eve Ensler's interviews with over 200 women. Created in order to raise awareness about all forms of violence against women and to empower women, funds raised from this years production will be donated to VDAY and Everywoman's Center, a women's center on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Interested in becoming involved in UMass Amherst's 2010 production? Please come to an informational meeting on November 23rd in Campus Center Room 917 at 7PM. Whether you are a performer or not, there are many opportunities for women to become involved in this years production and we invite and encourage anyone who is interested in creating awareness and ending violence against women to attend. We encourage women of all identities to participate in The Vagina Monologues; students, faculty, and community members of the Amherst area are all welcome! Come learn more about our production schedule and the different ways to get involved!
AUDITIONS:
Monday, November 30 - 7pm - Herter 112/114
Tuesday, December 1 - 7pm - Herter 112/114
Wednesday, December 2 - 7pm - Herter 112/114

For more information please contact:Yesenia-riverayes@gmail.com
For more information about the Vagina Monologues contact: www.vday.org/
For more information about Draft Center contact: www.umass.edu/ewc/

Live Film Event:Jean Kilbourne and Killing Us Softly 4

December 8, 2009
Bernie Dallas Room; Goodell Building; Umass Amherst

Famed Author And Lecturer Jean Kilbourne to be Filmed at UMass:
UPDATE OF CLASSIC FILM ON GENDER & ADVERTISING KILLING US SOFTLY

The Media Education Foudation will be filming bestselling author and renowned lecturer Jean Kilbourne in a live update of her classic film series Killing Us Softly at a free event open to students and the general public on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 4:45 PM, in the Bernie Dallas Room at the Goodell Building on the UMass campus. This event is co-sponsored by Everywoman's Center and the Department of Communications at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly, the first systematic analysis of representations of women in advertising, is widely recognized as one of the most successful and influential films in the history of educational film. The new MEF update, the first in almost a decade, will become the fourth in a series that has now been viewed by millions of students across three generations.
“This is literally history in the making,” said Sut Jhally, the Executive Director of MEF and Professor of Communication at UMass. “The filming of a Jean Kilbourne lecture is a major event, and I’m just pleased that students and faculty and staff at UMass – and throughout the Valley – will have a chance to be a part of this. As anyone familiar with Jean’s work and these films know, this will not be a dry academic lecture. She engages her audience with formidable wit and humor.”
Doors will open at 4:30. Seating will be limited, so guests are encouraged to arrive early. For filming purposes, audience members will be requested to remain for the duration of the event, which will be finished by 6:15.
Free,Open to the Public and Wheelchair Accessible
For more information, contact Sut Jhally 584-8500

Let's Talk About Sex

Four Tuesdays, 4:30-6:00, starting November 17
Location : Wilder Hall- REGISTRATION REQUIRED

A four session experiential workshop that provides women an opportunity to talk about their sexual experiences in a confidential, supportive and empowering environment. Together, we will explore how our histories inform how we behave sexually in the present. Discussions will focus on common sexual issues for women including dissatisfaction, loss of sexual interest and difficulty discussing sexual needs or desires. This group aims to empower women to explore their sexuality and increase their own self awareness.
Sign Language Interpretor Needs to be Requested at Time of Registration.
*** Open to undergraduate and graduate women students at the Five Colleges ***.

For more information, contact Megan Willey, EWC Couseling Services, 413-577-0077

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Thursday November 19, 2009 @ 7pm.
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, 121 N. Pleasant Street, Amherst

The Day of REmembrance is held annually in memory of individuals who have been killed because of their gender identity/expression.
For more information contact Brett-Jenny 545-4824

New England Film Premiere: Riot Acts--Flaunting Gender Deviance in Musical Performance

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m
137 Isenberg School of Management, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

The filmmakers, Madsen Minax and Simon Strikeback, will lead a discussion after the screening. Free and open to the public.
For more information contact Brett-Jenny 545-4824

Who's Your Mama?: The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers

November 13, 2009 at 7:00PM
Food for Thought Books; 106 N. Pleasant Street; Amherst, MA

On November 13, 2009, at 7:00PM, the Food for Thought Books Collective, the Women of Color Leadership Network, Everywoman’s Center and the Center for Feminism at Hampshire College will host a celebratory evening featuring: JLove Calderon, Marcella Runell Hall and Marla Teyolia, contributors to Who’s Your Mama: the Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers, (edited by Yvonne Bynoe). Campus and community mamaz have also been invited to submit a range of creative and artistic responses to the text for performance that evening.
Who's Your Mama? centers on the perspectives of all women from cross-sections of society who are actively engaged in crafting identities and family structures (including remaining single and/or childless) that speak to their personal beliefs, intimate relationships, and socioeconomic realities.
This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. Free childcare is available; (RSVP by November 6). Refreshments will be served and everyone is welcome.
For more information: Food for Thought Books at 253-5432 or www.foodforthought.com

New England Film Premiere: Diagnosing Difference

Thursday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
Room 101 Campus Center, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

A film that examines the pathologizing of transsexuality; part of the Pioneer Valley Transgender Day of Remembrance Events. Dr. Shelley Janiczek Woodson, a licensed psychologist and gender therapist, will lead a discussion after the screening. Free and open to the public.
For more information contact Brett-Jenny 545-4824

Relationship Violence Awareness Month Candlelight Vigil

October 27, 2009, 8pm
Goodell Hall, Commonwealth College Lounge

Join us to honor victims and survivors of relationship violence. The event will include guest speakers Dawn Black and Kellie Page, a performance by the Not Ready for Bedtime Players and a survivor speak out.
For more information contact Angela Bruns at 577-4229

Women and Cancer in Our Communities: How To Save Your own Life

October 20, 2009 at 4:00
Campus center Room 905
Women and Cancer in Our Communities: How To Save Your Own Life is co-sponsored by the Women’s Health Project of the Center for Health Promotion, the Women of Color Leadership Network and Everywoman’s Center.
Panelists include Deborah Shields, J.D., MPH, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition; Wilmore Webley, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Microbiology at UMass Amherst; Betsy Garson Neisner, JD, Executive Director of the Cancer Connection and Dr. Lindsey Rockwell, a medical oncologist and hematologist at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
1 in 3 women will develop cancer at some point in their lives, which means all of us will be touched with cancer either as a patient, as a friend, a partner, a parent or a child. Early detection and Primary Prevention is the key to saving the lives of people that we love and ourselves.
Panelists will address a range of issues including:
Do you know how to make early detection and primary prevention a part of your life? How can your provide support to people in your life who have cancer? What are we doing and what has been done to the environment that is contributing to cancer? How do racial and ethnic differences impact diagnosis, treatments and susceptibility to cancer?

This event is one of several collaborations between the Everywoman’s Center, The Center for Health Promotion and the Women of Color Leadership Network that are designed to aid women in making educated decisions about their health and well being while raising awareness of critical social justice issues relating to health.

This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
For more information about the event contact Amanda Collings Vann 577-5185; Hind Mari 545-1670

Creative Movement and Self Expression: A Workshop for Women

Same workshop each Saturday, 10am -- 1pm
September 19, 26, Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Location:
Campus Center 174-74 for Sept. 19;
Campus Center 101 for Oct 10;
Campus Center 905-09 for Oct 17;
Campus Center 165-69 for Oct 24;
Campus Center 174-76 for Oct 31;

This workshop aims to self-empower through structured exercises, group games, and movement improvisations. We meet every Saturday to do exercises and games, which emphasize rhythm and connection, and we conclude each session with a composition of individual or group actions. Participants are encouraged to use the opportunity to explore body expression and awakening of energy and creative impulses.

UMass Alumna Dora Arreola will teach this workshop.Arreola is Artistic Director and founder of Mujeres en Ritual Dance Theatre Company, based in México. She has more than twenty years of experience as a movement researcher, teacher and dance-theater artist.
Women of color and GLBTQ students are encouraged to participate. No previous dance or theater experience required.

For more information contact : Hongmei Sun (413) 545-2896 or gss-gwn@grad.umass.edu

Film: Who Does She Think She Is?

September 30, 2009 at 7:00
Augusta Savage Gallery; New Africa House; University of Massachusetts

Currently 52% of all professional trained artists are men and 48% are women and yet 98% of the artists in major art institutions and galleries are men and 2% are women. What would it take to value women who are artists in our culture? Why do women still have to choose between having a family and practicing her art? What are the contemporary challenges, rewards and struggles for women in the art world?

From Pamela Tanner Bonner and Nancy C. Kennedy, the producing team that won an academy award for Born into Brothels comes Who Does She Think She Is?, a film that examines some of the most pressing issues of our time: parenting and work, partnering and independence, economics and art.

The film follows five women as they navigate the economic, psychological and spiritual challenges of creating art outside of the elite art world. From Hawaii to the suburbs of Ohio, from new York City to the deserts of New Mexico, we watch as these women- ranging in age form 27 to 65-fight to honor their vision and their families every day.

The event is Free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
For more information contact : Hind Mari @ 545-1670

Wild About Wilder

Thursday September 17; 2-4pm
Wilder Hall, 221 Stockbridge Road

Please join us at the Wild About Wilder Open House on Thursday September 17 from 2-4pm. Wilder is the home of the Bilingual Collegiate Program, Everywoman's Center and Women of Color Leadership Network. There will be refreshments, networking & fun giveaways. Hope to see you there! For more info call EWC @ 545.0883 or umass.edu/ewc

Poems from the Women’s Movement

Wednesday September 16, 2009 at 7:30
Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall/*Amherst College
Free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible

On Wednesday, September 16, 2009 there will be an event celebrating Poems From the Women’s Movement, edited by Honor Moore and published by the Library of America, now in its second printing.
Poets Joan Larkin and Honor Moore will read their poems and the work of others in the book. Several students from the Five Colleges will join them in reading poems from the anthology.

Poems From the Women’s Movement, selected by O Magazine, is number 15 on Oprah’s Book Club summer reading list!
Joan Larkin’s newest book, My Body: New and Selected Poems (Hanging Loose Press), received the Publishing Triangle’s 2008 Audre Lorde Award. Honor Moore’s recent memoir, The Bishop’s Daughter was a finalist for a National Book Critic’s Circle Award.
The reading will be followed by a reception and book-signing.
For more information contact Ellen Miller -Mack at 586-0591

UMass Amherst Everywoman's Center