Celebrating women through music and poetry

Kicked off by Dr. Trish Franzen’s lecture on Dr. Anna Howard Shaw on Tuesday, March 25, Women’s History Month has been packed into a week full of events to draw awareness to the importance of women in history. On Friday March 28, Union Board’s event Celebrating Women through Music and Poetry, co-sponsored by feminist group POWER, will take on this celebration of empowerment in the form of art.

Twice a year, CPO director Jen Schreer attends a programming conference in order to pick from various talent that she believes will bring enjoyment to Albion College students. This past fall, Schreer, along with Union Board member and Detroit junior Langston Brannon-Pugh came across two talented performers that were not only enjoyable to watch but exemplified the strong female role models they were looking for.

“We started with Caroline Rothstein and we knew we had to have her perform some time during Women’s History Month,” Brannon-Pugh said. “It was one of the most powerful performances I’ve ever seen before. Poetry is nice and all but her delivery, her execution was incredible.”

Rothstein, scheduled to perform during this Friday’s event, is an award-winning “writer, performer, and body empowerment advocate.” She is a slam poet who dares to speak out against controversial issues and is most famous for her poem, “Fat,” which is a raw telling of Rothstein’s difficult struggle with bulimia and body image. The poem was respected and promoted by multiple celebrities including Lady Gaga who tweeted the link.

“I think her poetry will highlight some things that women are dealing with and how to understand them better,” Schreer said. “That message will come through her poetry, which I hope will be a very powerful way to get a really important message across.”

To open for Rothstein is singer/song-writer Rachel Brown who also embodies a strong female role model. Schreer and Brannon-Pugh aim to set the tone with Brown’s music and ultimately relay an important message of female empowerment through the combination of both performers.

“The whole theme of Women’s History Month is to celebrate strong women and the women’s movement,” Schreer said. “It fits within Union Board’s mission to bring performers to campus but within [this performance], especially with Caroline, there will be an educational piece there and a very powerful piece.”

Celebrating Women through Music and Poetry is a free event, will offer free food to all attending and is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. in the KC stack.

Photo by Alexa Hyman