With special guest appearances from author Angela Davis, spoken word group Yellow Rage and mural artist Favianna Rodriguez, the 8th Annual Women of Color Conference promises to provide participants a safe space for artistic expression through trauma healing, as well as education in social and political indifference among women.
The conference, presented by the University’s ASUO Women’s Center, is an outlet for women who have been harmed to share their personal experiences. The conference blends in artistic workshops to help encourage survivors to openly discuss issues such as sexual assault, modern-day slavery and abortion. Allies join these women to support their effort of raising awareness.
“We wanted to emphasize the positives that come from expression after communities have been silenced from traumas,” Andrea Valderrama, the conference coordinator, said.
Valderrama said she believes the conference’s full title — “Our New Year’s Resolution: Ending Oppression through Expression” — works toward a broader concept. The focus is to look beyond the two-day conference and incorporate a consistency of expression throughout the year, she said.
The idea is to balance the need for an artist outlet and establish a commitment of self-healing as a resolution. She hopes women and allies take away the necessary tools to accomplish this effort.
“To be able to develop these things and their own knowledge, they can continue to work on them,” Valderrama said.
Lyndsey Goforth, a University junior and volunteer at the Women’s Center, said the conference is an opportunity for equality. Attending as a woman of color ally, Goforth said she wants to show support for the community of traumatized women. Not everybody has a comfortable outlet, she said, but the conference aims to give participants a chance to express their voices.
“I’m excited to be a part of an eye-opening experience,” Goforth said. “So people can really understand what it’s like.”
Participants will attend workshops ranging from meditation and herbal tea making to cooking and body image. More education-oriented workshops will include intersections between racism and sexism, digital short-film of survivor stories and media depictions of survivors.
Both days will highlight PostSecret, a community mail art project that has grown to national prominence. People send anonymous homemade postcards with revealing confessions to PostSecret.com. In similar fashion, conference participants will have the option to privately write their secrets on a sheet of paper. The secrets will be anonymously gathered and displayed for participants to discover what has been hidden from their communities.
“Silencing can cause disconnect and issues between community members,” University junior Lindsey Holman, who is leading the workshop, said. “To display them allows people to see what these secrets are being kept from each other.”
The workshops will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the EMU River Room. While the conference has been registered to maximum capacity, Valderrama said, students who have an interest are encouraged to attend guest appearances.
“So many women or people go through these things,” Valderrama said. “You have an outlet now for you to breathe, to feel safe, and to feel loved and supported.”
Friday at 6 p.m. will feature Yellow Rage’s various styles of poetic form and delivery, including free verse and theater monologue, to explore culture and gender issues. Saturday will be an all-day mural art demonstration by Rodriguez. Davis will be the keynote speaker and will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for the general public.
[email protected]