benzie area women’s history project
The theme for this year's 26th anniversary Education Day is Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. It will be held on Saturday, April 5, 2008, 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, with registration beginning at 9 am. The location again is Crystal Center at Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville.
(look here for a map and driving directions)
We will be featuring singer/songwriter Susan Urban with two presentations—a musical examination of age discrimination and a multimedia exploration of the life of Janis Joplin. Read more about Susan here.
Also on the schedule is a writing workshop with Susanne Glynn that will take off from the conference title as we reflect on the question "Do well-behaved women seldom make history?" Bring your ideas, memories, and impressions of a woman (yourself, a family member, friend, someone famous, an imagined character) and the impact of her "unconventional" behavior on history (yours, someone else's, the world's). We'll all do some writing and sharing.
Cindy Shapiro will present "Watershed Women: More Inconvenient Truths," a selection of captioned video clips with discussion, tapping into current data and research, notably by women such as Maude Barlow, about the perilous future of global water health.
We can also expect a "visit" by several ill-behaved women from not-too-distant history, organized by Jane Purkis, an opening talk on the Women's Movement by Kay Boyne, belly dancing from yoga and dance instructor Asianne Imani, and music from Mary Anne Rivers.
We are again featuring a book discussion session with Katherine Ross. The book we've chosen for this year is Kabul Beauty School, by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson, published in 2007. Holland, Michigan, cosmetologist, Deborah Rodriguez, went to Afghanistan in 2003, starting literally from scratch with a plan to build her own beauty school, training and befriending Afghan women. Their unusual and risky partnership encouraged independence and income that at times came at a higher price than Rodriguez anticipated. The book is also a New York Times bestseller. We encourage you to read the book in advance if you'd like to take part. It will be available at the Book Store in Frankfort, Horizon Books in Traverse City, as well as local public libraries. Remember that you can request it through inter-library loan. The latest paperback edition offers an intriguing afterword—so look for that if you can.
During the day the Book Store from Frankfort will have a selection of books of special interest to women, and Unity Fair Trade Marketplace from Traverse City will also have items to purchase.
The registration fee this year, which includes lunch, will be $25 if you are pre-registered, or $30 at the door. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged to help us plan the number of lunches required. Fees pay for the expenses of the day as well as our annual $500 scholarship for a non-traditional female student at Northwestern Michigan College. Scholarship donations are tax deductible.
You can download a printable letter/registration form here, in pdf form.
Child care will be available at Crystal Mountain this year at no cost. You'll need to pre-register for this by calling 231-882-5373.
If you need lodging, you can call Crystal Mountain at 800-968-7686 and mention BAWHP to find out about special overnight rates that weekend.
You can also consider using our own Benzie Bus for transportation. To set up a ride, call 231-325-3000, or toll-free 866-325-3380.
For access (listening devices, interpreter services, or enhanced text for the day's program) contact Cindy Shapiro at 231-882-7063 (voice/tty) or 231-590-4671 (mobile) or email
as soon as possible and no later than March 21.
Crystal Center is wheelchair accessible.
For more information, you can phone 231-882-5373 or 231-352-6513. To email us, or to be on the mailing list, see the contact/feedback page.
The Benzie Area Women's History Project is a committee affiliated with the Benzie Area Historical Society.
photo: Early 20th-century actress Lillian Russell on one of her famous gold bicycles.
http://www.bawhp.org