On campus, the celebration and recognition of women didn’t
stop when Mother’s Day ended.
Women for Change Week began May 10 and will continue through
Saturday with an expansive list of events occurring daily.
“The purpose of the week is to celebrate women and all of
our accomplishments, while recognizing how far we have to
go,” said Karen Hedges, Women for Change committee
co-chairwoman.
One event took place Monday night when the University of
California, Irvine Performance Group presented “Unspeakable
Acts,” a play with an interactive segment.
Students filled De Neve Auditorium to watch the performance and
interact with peer counselors and the actors.
The focus of the performance was rape, and the audience watched
survivor stories played out through a set of monologues.
After the performance, a PowerPoint slide show with facts about
rape was presented.
When the slide asked students who knew a victim of rape to stand
up, more than half of the audience got out of their seats.
Students were then given the opportunity to share their opinions
about rape when they were asked to determine whether parts of a
performance were considered rape or consentual.
The segment was led by two peer counselors from the Center for
Women and Men at UCI.
“It’s hard to get the message out and it’s
hard to get people to listen. For me, education and outreach were
the best ways,” said Joselyn Zamora, a peer counselor for the
UCI Center.
During the interactive segment, a few members of the audience
showed interest in having a similar performance group at UCLA or
having the UCI group travel to the campus more often.
“I think that (one student) made a good point about having
the performance at orientation,” said Kimberlee Cabanne, a
first-year biology student.
But the problem with the group performing at orientation is that
there are so many sessions and the group would have difficulties
travelling from the Irvine campus for all of them, said Donna
Norris, assistant director for the Center for Women and Men at
UCI.
Norris began working with the group after realizing that there
was a tremendous need for outreach, she said.
She has been working with the group for over a year; the program
itself dates back to 1996.
The actors forming the Performance Group are undergraduate
students who auditioned for a place in the program.
The students had both an interest in acting, as well as in
educating their audience about rape.
“The fact that this school is asking for us to come is
just a sign that people want to be educated,” said Janelle
Eagle, a Performance Group actor.
The Women for Change Week committee also planned events such as
women-oriented discussions led by media notables and authors.
Another highlighted event is the screening of the movie
“Real Women Have Curves,” with director Patricia
Cardoso speaking to the audience.
Also, a women-oriented art exhibit will be open to the community
all week at Kerckhoff Art Gallery.
The UCLA-specific week is in its fourth year, and was started by
the Women for Change campus organization.
The committee is made up of students, staff and faculty from a
variety of departments and organizations.
“Every year it gets better and better. We hope to make
this year the best, but with that in mind, we hope that next year
is even better,” Hedges said.
For more information about Women for Change Week, go to
www.women4change.ucla.edu.