LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College will have a variety of presentations and other campus events as part of its Women’s History Month celebration on March 5-8.
Sponsored by the LCSC Social Sciences and Humanities divisions, this year’s event has the theme “Raising our Voices.”
A presentation by Washington State University ethnomusicology professor Melissa Parkhurst entitled “Leader for Their Tribes: Women in Music at Chemawa Indian School” will kick off events at noon on March 5. The presentation will be held in Room 100 of Meriwether-Lewis Hall.
At 6 p.m. on the same day, the film “What Happened, Miss Simone?” will be shown at the LCSC Center for Arts & History, located at 415 Main St. in Lewiston. The film looks at the life of legendary recording artist Nina Simone, a Civil Rights activist and a classically trained pianist who lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius, and tortured melancholy.
LCSC history professor Amy Canfield and music professor Sarah Graham will give a presentation on “Feminism and the Mic: ‘Girl Groups,’ Women Conductors and Subversive Empowerment” on March 6 at noon in Room 100 of Meriwether-Lewis Hall.
On March 7, a presentation on “Striking the Right Note: Women’s History and Music Culture” will be given by LCSC history students Meghan Castle, a junior from Clarkston, Wash., Katrina Cook, a senior from Coeur d’Alene, and Corina Larsen, a junior from Weiser, Idaho. The presentation will be at noon in Room 100 of Meriwether-Lewis Hall. They will make the same presentation at the American Culture Association/Popular Culture Association Conference in Washington, D.C. later this spring. Their talk will focus on how race and gender intersected in the music industry to reflect shifting ideas of femininity and feminism. Castle is examining the under-representation of women in the areas of punk music in the 1980s, and how this is reflective of the backlash against the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Cook is exploring the conflicting messages of American freedom and equality in the 1930s with numerous instances of racism, specifically lynching. Larsen examines how singer Selena Quintanilla exemplified biculturalism through popular culture in the U.S. in the late 20th century.
Two events are slated for March 8. The first is the second annual Women’s Leadership Conference at the LCSC Center for Arts & History, which runs 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Two LCSC Women’s Leadership Awards will be presented during the conference, one to an LCSC employee and the other to a member of the community.
The second event is a concert by Women Empowered by Singing Together (WEST), led by Graham, who founded the ensemble. The free concert is set to start at 7 p.m. at the LCSC Center for Arts & History. WEST is composed of women from the Palouse and Lewis-Clark Valley, including some from the LCSC choir. Their performance will track the history of music written for women’s choirs and features pieces on faith, love, feminism, and empowerment.
For more information on LCSC Women’s History Month, contact either Canfield at [email protected] or Marlowe Daly-Galeano at [email protected].