By Patricia Franklin
Staff Writer
Women empowerment seems to be taking the world by storm, and California State University, Dominguez Hills is right in its midst.
The Women’s Resource Center at CSUDH is hosting its fifth annual women’s conference on campus on Thursday, March 1. The emphasis of the conference is “Visionary Voices” and the keynote speakers are civil rights activist Bree Newsome and feminist writer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
Newsome a filmmaker, musician, speaker and activist, is known for her infamous arrest in 2015 for removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds.
Piepzna-Samarasinha is a poet, writer, educator and social activist. Her work focuses on abuse survivors, interconnecting the systems of colonialism, abuse and violence.
The women’s conference will not only provide dynamic speakers but there are various workshops for writing & radical self-expression, poetry, craftivism, self & community care, digital harassment and resistance and using your voice.
“This conference will help you voice your opinion, especially if you are interested in feminism,” said Vitasta Vyas, a student programmer at the Women’s Resource Center. “And you want to learn how to voice your opinion through craft, through workshops and self-care.”
The event takes places in the month of March because it’s National Women’s history month, where women are celebrated, honored and praised for their achievements.
“[The event is] definitely needed on campus because women [can] participate in something which is going to help them,” said Vyas. “I would say that this will give [them] encouragement. It’s something national (and) it can help our campus community for students to be more confident and, even if they want to come out, they can come out.”
The Women’s Conference begins at 10 a.m. and will end with a reception from 6:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Welch Hall Courtyard. Registration begins at 9 a.m. on the third floor of the LSU. Workshops and addresses will continue throughout the day in the LSU. Workshops range from how to use your voice for community activism (10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. in LSU Ballroom A) to craftivism (3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the East Walkway).
For a full schedule, visit: www.csudh.edu/wrc/programs/womens-conference/.
