“One Woman Show” Hopes To Empower

Have no fear, Women’s Month is back!

 The Women’s Center at Virginia Tech for the past 20 years has put together Women’s Month which includes lectures, videos, workshops, activities, performances and other types of entertainment to celebrate women.

One such event is “One Woman Show”, a performance designed to empower women who find themselves in any tough situation in their lives. This show will take place at the Blacksburg Middle School on Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Ivory Townsel of Prairie View A&M University has performed the show in Texas, New York and Florida, and will next take part in Women’s Month at Tech. Townsel will portray different women through a variety of operatic actions. The show will discuss the different circumstances and challenges women have to overcome in the world today.

 “The purpose is to express the different stages of women’s lives, whether they be incarcerated, a single mother or having trouble with men,” said Tech student Jessica Brunson, who helped organize “One Woman Show”. “It’s something new,” Brunson said of the show, “It’s something people at Virginia Tech haven’t really seen.”

The Women’s Center has been putting on Women’s Month activities since the 1980s, when it first originated as Women’s Week before transforming into an entire month.

The Women’s Center’s theme for this year is “Social Justice through Sisterhood: Local Activism and Global Service.”

“Post April 16, we really wanted to give the community as many opportunities as possible to come together and do healing, and that’s what we focused on for Women’s Month this year,” said Kathy Lokale, the Program Coordinator for the Women’s Center.

Women’s Month is a way to recognize the diversity of women, and to empower them in the Tech community. The activities are open to everyone, and are meant to educate people and celebrate women.

“It’s such a male dominated world, and we shouldn’t have just a women’s month, we should always be focusing on women’s achievements…Women’s Month offers a lot of diversity and new perspective,” Lokale said.

 “One Woman Show” will run about 2 hours long, and the Blacksburg Middle School doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale for $5 at the Squires Student Center, or can be purchased online at http://www.uusa.vt.edu.