
Join us on Monday, March 27, at 5 pm MST, when Southwest Word Fiesta will celebrate Women’s History Month. The presentation will be held at WNMU’s Miller Library. Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It commemorates and encourages the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women have played in history.
This is both an in-person program and a virtual one. Zoom link:
https://wnmu.zoom.us/j/83202178255
The presenters will share readings and reflections on significant figures and issues in women’s history.
Our presenters include:
Ken Ladner, Silver City’s Mayor
Pamela Warren Williams is a poet, publisher, and visual artist searching for poignant truths, with provocation from heartbreaking beauty to the current pain in our culture, and following the ties that either bind us or tear us apart. Her publishing company is Mercury HeartLink, which promotes positive social impact. She will read her own poetry.
Lupe Cano will discuss Jesusita Acosta Perrault.
Angelina Rose Aquilar is a nursing student at WNMU. A National Honors Society student in high school, a volunteer at her church, captain of all the sports, as well as a feminist, she believes in equality for all; no matter race, religion or gender. She will discuss what inspires her.
Alexandra Todd moved to Silver City in 2008. She was professor of sociology at Suffolk University in Boston for 23 years, with five of those years as head of Women’s Studies. One of her areas of research was women’s health and reproductive care. She will celebrate Ron Hamm’s recent book “New Mexico Heroines of the 20th Century,” and will read a short piece on women and health.
Catalina Claussen is an award-winning YA novelist, short story author, and poet. Catalina will read her own poetry.
Diana Edwards, Ph.D., LPCC, family counselor and cultural anthropologist, is a long-time activist for peace, justice, and equality. Her presentation today is about her work for the first feminist magazine in Canada, Branching Out. Diana volunteered with this women’s cooperative venture as photographer, writer, and contributing editor from 1975 to 1980.
Lynne Zotalis is an award-winning author and poet, most recently elected as liaison for the Silver City chapter of the New Mexico State Poetry Society. She has published several short stories as well as poetry in Tuck Magazine, an online human rights journal, writinginawoman’svoice, The Poetic Bond VII, VIII and IX, and Lyrical Iowa, among others. Interviewed by John Noltner; founder of A Peace of my Mind, the recording is available on his website. She has contributed to numerous anthologies including Peace Begins and Turning Points: Discovering Meaning and Passion in Turbulent Times, published by Changing Times Press. Ms. Zotalis’ latest poetry collection, Mysterious Existence, published by Human Error Publishing as well as Saying Goodbye to Chuck a daily journal to enunciate the readers’ personal grief process are available on Amazon. Her memoir/creative nonfiction, Hippie at Heart (What I Used to Be, I Still Am) won a Firebird Book Award and was a finalist in the Best Book Awards. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DC6GZ7T
Elise Stuart, former poet laureate of Grant County, is the author of a collection of poems, Another Door Calls, and a memoir, My Mother and I, We Talk Cat. She facilitates an open poetry group, River Poets, and hosts the monthly poetry event at Tranquil Buzz Coffeehouse in Silver City. Elise will read her own poetry.
Ann Hedlund, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist who focuses her research on women makers of craft and art. She is the author of Navajo Weaving in the Late Twentieth Century: Kin, Community, and Collectors (University of Arizona Press) and Gloria F. Ross & Modern Tapestry (Yale University Press), among others. She plans to read excerpts from Wynne Brown’s 2021 book, The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life in Science & Art (U of Nebraska Press), about her 1880s fieldwork escapades in southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Join us for this engaging celebration of women’s contributions to history.