The HerStories Project

Updated Mar. 7, 2011.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting The HerStories Project‘s second year of community-based events! Just within a month of the first 2011 program, Embodying Our Words, the next is coming quickly – HerStories Fest, an artistic celebration of stories about women.

PREPARATIONS for HerStories Fest, March 18, are in full swing! Co-organizers Sandra Cade, Jill Fisher, and I putting our hands together from 4PM to 5:30PM at the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing (1710 E. Michigan Ave.) on Mondays, March 7 and 14, to ready the way. We welcome more hands to join us – in person and online – to make this celebration about women’s stories and fundraiser for the WCGL shine bright! For synchronous online collaboration, sign-in to Skype and add deyofthephoenix as a contact.

SET-UP for HerStories Fest on March 18 begins at 5PM at Gone Wired Cafe (2021 E. Michigan Ave.) to prepare for the Silent Auction, and continues with 6PM set-up at Everybody Reads Bookstore (2019 E. Michigan Ave.). At the moment, we have 2 people confirmed for on-site assistance. If you are interested to set-up, help during the event, and/or clean-up, please let us know (herstories.project @ gmail.com).

The program begins with WORD ART at 7PM at Everybody Reads. The event is free and donations for the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing are welcome. Would you like to tell a story, read a poem, or deliver another artistic expression to celebrate stories about women? Let us know (herstories.project @ gmail.com)! All genders are invited to participate and honor women. Contributions explore varied angles: autobiography, a woman of inspiration from this lifetime or wider history, a feminine figure from fiction or mythology. So far, the line-up includes:

• Silvana Alfaro and Nancy Allen, co-editors of and contributors to Washington Square Review (2010), student literary journal of Lansing Community College;
• Laurie Hollinger, Michigan State University student and Center for Poetry intern;
• Sandra Cade, ethnographer, singer, and sponsor Intercultural Communications;
• Melanie Morrison, founder and director of Allies for Change;
• and myself, Lansing-based poet and spoken-word artist.

HerStories Fest continues as a BENEFIT CONCERT at Gone Wired with suggested donation of $10. Proceeds go to the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing, which has called upon the community to help raise $10,000 by the end of March for its continuation. If you are a musician and would like to contribute, please send us word. At this time, performers include:

• Marco Guzmán, Chilean musician performing opera and romantic ballads in Spanish;
• and Mighty Medicine, fabulous duo of jazz, blues rock, and funky folk.

In tandem with these events is the SILENT AUCTION. Donations offer a range of services and artwork: framed paper art, shamanic healing ceremony, language lessons, Guatemalan textiles, books, auto repair services, paintings, paper mache boxes, baked goods, hand-knit medicine bags. We continue to accept donations, so please contact us about contributions (herstories.project @ gmail.com). Some donations will be on display at Gone Wired and Everybody Reads the week before HerStories Fest.