Culture
Women Of Appalachia Project Performance At ARTS/West Nov. 18
< < Back to women-of-appalachia-project-performance-at-artswest-nov-18ARTS/West is pleased to host the 8th Annual Women of Appalachia Project (WOAP) “Women Speak” performance, an evening of juried poetry, story and song, featuring artists from throughout Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. The event will be held in the performance space on Nov. 18, 2016, at 6 p.m.
The mission of WOAP is to showcase the way in which female artists respond to the Appalachian region as a source of inspiration, bringing together women from diverse backgrounds, ages and experiences to embrace the stereotype – to show the whole woman; beyond the superficial factors that people use to judge her.
The work of 28 spoken word artists, poets, storytellers and musicians, will be performed at six separate venues throughout Ohio and West Virginia; first up at ARTS/West, 132 W. State Street, Athens. In December several WOAP artists will speak their art at the Parkersburg Art Center, 725 Market St; the Bowen House in Logan in March 2017; esteemed Columbus Poetry Forum, Bossy Girls on High Street in May 2017 and a performance at The Pump House Fine Arts Center, Chillicothe in June 2017.
Save the date for a very special “Women Speak” presentation on April 14, 2017 at Ohio University’s Multicultural Center. Donations will be collected for My Sister’s Place, domestic violence shelter and this event will feature Maggie Smith Beehler, Author of “Good Bones” and 2016 Ohio Day Poet of the Year.
“I am so pleased to have Maggie Beehler with us this year and grateful to this eclectic group of galleries and venues who have offered to host this season’s “Women Speak” events. It allows this collection of spoken art to be heard potentially by hundreds of folks in their respective communities,” says founder curator Kari Gunter-Seymour Peterson. “Over the past 8 years, ARTS/West has been an important partner to WOAP. We are grateful for the support and encouragement provided by the excellent staff and volunteers.”
When asked how living in Appalachia has influenced her life and therefore her art, West Virginia poet and song writer, Jeanne Bryner says, “We moved to Ohio from West Virginia when I was about four years old. The housing my folks could afford was in the projects. We were a one-industry town: a steel mill. When it went under in 1973, the underpinning of our community evaporated. Long before I learned the terms, I felt the impact of deindustrialization and displacement. Everything I write examines courage, for it takes a toll to arm wrestle this world with only a good heart and common sense.”
“My family hails from Kentucky, generations of blue-grass blooded men and women who have weathered both the good and the bad that Appalachia has to offer.” shares poet, Alexis-Rueal. “My writing has been an effort to pay homage to those family members and to my own relationship to the state of my birth.”
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The presentation is free to the public though donations in support of WOAP and ARTS/West will be taken at the door. There will be a short reception immediately following the performance. Refreshments will be served.
For more information go to www.womenofappalachia.com or visit WOA on Facebook. For questions, email womenofappalachia@gmail.com