SWAN Day is March 26 - One Week Away!

SWAN Day Is Only One Week Away! Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day is officially next Saturday, March 26. If you want to be included in our annual list of SWAN events for 2016, be sure to post your event on the SWAN Calendar by Thursday, March 24. It is fine if your event happens after that date, just be sure to post it on the calendar before the deadline. We have listed events below from Oregon, New York, Ohio, and California to inspire you. If you want to find out how to post your event, read this post>> Two Great Playreading Events in Oregon Two of our favorite  initiatives to promote women's stories and women writers are being celebrated with SWAN events in Oregon this week. Thanks to Oregon 365 in Eugene and Reading the Kilroys in Ashland for coming up with these terrific ways to celebrate SWAN Day!  EUGENE, OR - Oregon 365 is part of 365 Women A Year, an international playwriting project that involves over 200 playwrights who are creating one-act plays about extraordinary women from the past and present. The project's goals are to write women back into our social consciousness and to empower and promote female playwrights around the world. On Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m., Oregon Contemporary Theatre and Northwest Ten Festival will present a free reading of four plays by Oregon women writers about women in history.  The fascinating real-life subjects include an 8th Century Chinese Zen Buddhist, an African-American White House correspondent, a Native American activist, and the daughter of a Roman emperor.   Read more>> ASHLAND, OR - The Kilroys are a group of playwrights and producers in Los Angeles who compile an annual list of excellent new plays by female and trans authors based on the recommendations of over 300 theatre industry leaders. Because this list is widely publicized, producers can no longer claim that they "can't find any good plays by women."  Reading the Kilroys List is a group of theatre makers in Ashland, OR who gather each month to read a play from The Kilroys List, share a meal, and promote the visibility of female playwrights. On Sunday, March 20 they will do a reading of Georgette Kelly's play, Ballast, which explores the way gender influences our relationships and seeps into our spirituality, our dreams, and even our ability to take flight. Read more>> NEW YORK, NY - The Apollo Theater Education Program is offering two free panels in the coming week. Women in Dance - At Behind the Scenes - Women in Dance, women from DanceNYC, Dance Theatre of Harlem, International Association of Blacks in Dance, Joyce Theater, and Elisa Monte Dance will discuss their careers as dance administrators, managers, and choreographers. The panel will be on Monday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. and is presented in collaboration with Women of Color in the Arts.  Read more>> Ground-breaking Women in Music - Live Wire: Mothers of Invention will look at the blues and gospel origins of Rock n Roll and the ground breaking female icons at its heart: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Big Mama Thornton. The panel will explore their influences on American pop culture, the hidden histories of black female identity, and cultural appropriation.  The panel will be on Thursday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m. Read more>> CINNCINNATI, OH - Womens Way of Ohio-Kentucky and Women Writing for (a) Change will present their 6th SWAN Day in Cinncinnati on Saturday, March 19 from noon - 6 p.m.  The event will showcase women poets, bloggers, spoken word artists, dancers, painters, weavers, story tellers and musicians. Please join them if you are in the area at 6906 Plainfield Road in Cinncinnati. $15 Sliding Scale - no one will be turned away.  Read more>> SAN FRANCISCO, CA:  Galeria de la Raza presents Womxn Are Perfect!, an exhibition that defines and reclaims what perfection means by, for and about self-identifying womxn. Through different mediums and approaches, the 30 featured artists challenge hetero-normative narratives of womxn perfection. The works offer a celebration of taboo bodies, sexual identities, self-love and awareness of self-worth that stand in opposition to oppressive systems and expectations. The exhibiting artists emerge with a contemporary, unapologetic and relentless vision of womxn perfection.  Wednesdays - Saturdays through March 26.  Read more>>