Two of the major events this weekend in the ongoing Women’s History Month Kingston events will try to work through the complexities of being both female and a minority.
The first is called “Race and the Women’s Movement” and it will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 9 at the Kingston Library, 55 Franklin St. The aim of the discussion is to explore how the women’s movement has dealt with the issue of race in its past and how it might deal with it going forward.
The talk will be moderated by journalist Mariel Fiori of Spanish-language magazine La Voz and Spanish-language radio show La Voz en la Radio. “I am very happy to have been invited to be part of such a great group and important topic,” Fiori said. “The panel will seek to answer the following questions: How has the women’s movement historically treated race? And how we can inform current activism differently? Starting with the historical aspect, we will go chronologically, until the present time, understand the new terminology, provide connections and wrap up, before opening up to the questions and comments from the audience for the second hour of the program.”
The panelists are:
• Evelyn Clarke, the former Ulster County Human Rights commissioner and Youth Bureau director. Evelyn is a voice-over artist and also serves as an ordained minister at New Progressive Baptist Church in Kingston. She will reveal the “Unsung Sheroes of the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist Movement.”
• Diane Harriford is a professor at Vassar College and the current vice president of the National Women’s Studies Association. She has also been the chair of the college’s Sociology Department and director of its Women’s Studies Program.
• Susan Lewis, SUNY New Paltz history professor emerita, will discuss race in the suffrage movement.
• Jessica Nydia Pabón-Colón, assistant professor at SUNY New Paltz, will speak about teaching and applying the feminist-of-color concepts, “bridgework” and “intersectionality.”
• Rashida Tyler, Citizen Action of New York board of directors member for the Hudson Valley, will speak about her experience in organizing and local government.
The event is free and open to the public. Coffee and treats are being donated by outdated: an antique café. This event will be live-streamed by Radio Kingston.
Later Saturday, March 9, from 4-6 p.m. at the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Library, 43 Gill St., will be “Women and Earth: A Celebration of Women’s History Month.” Sally Bermanzohn will talk about Native American women as farmers and leaders in the Eastern Woodlands; Sarah Elisabeth will speak on the Wise Woman Tradition, giving those who attend the opportunity to slow down and reconnect to the Great Mother, Gaia, Earth and to themselves.
Also of note, on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at Peace Nation Café at 636 Broadway in Midtown will be “Open Mic: Celebrating Women.” Scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, it will be “an evening of Womyn’s voices, stories and performances with dinner, small bites and drinks.”
Hosted by the comedian and radio co-host Jessieca McNabb, scheduled performers before the 8 p.m. open mic include CC Treadway (songs of the spirit), Maiko Hata (peaceful revolution), Emma Elisabeth (poems “Process”), Lisa Marie (life bits of a female prisoner) and Zelda (“SheitelStock”). Those who want to participate in the open mic are asked to sign up by 7:30 or email peacenationcafe@gmail.com in advance. The organizers say all are welcome to attend but ask “only womyn and womyn identifying performers please.”
For more information and events, check out the WMHK Facebook page at facebook.com/womenshistorymonthkingston.
Join the family! 
