2022 Womxn's Herstory Month

This month is dedicated to celebrating womxn’s contributions to herstory, culture and society and has been observed annually in the month of March in the United States since 1987. Womxn’s Herstory Month 2022 will take place from Tuesday, March 1 - Thursday, March 31, 2022. 

(source: womenshistorymonth.gov) 

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Womxn’s Herstory Highlights & GenEC Recs

March 1 - March 31 | Instagram @SJSUGenEC

Gender Equity Center 

We will be highlighting different womxn, past and present, on our Instagram/Facebook throughout the month of March 2022. We will also be spotlighting different work (books, music, podcasts, movies, etc) from womxn on our weekly GenEC Recs. Be sure to check it out on our Instagram @sjsugenec and follow us to stay updated! 

MLK Library  

Suffrage and Women's Rights Digital Exhibit

While Silicon Valley is known for its role in leading the technology industry, the South Bay has also led the way in women’s leadership positions in local government and business. This exhibit showcases archival materials related to the origins of women’s suffrage in California and traces these roots through to the present day. 

Black Spartans (1907-1948) Exhibit

"Black Spartans (1907-1948)" represents ongoing research in San José State University Special Collections & Archives identifying documentation of Black experiences throughout SJSU history.

Much of the information we have comes from the Spartan Daily student newspaper and the La Torre yearbooks. With too few exceptions, Black Spartans’ stories are not told in their own words but from the perspectives of their majority white classmates. This is reflected in the language and focus of the articles. We invite you to read critically.

The 19 Black Spartans featured in this exhibit pursued their educational goals while contending with institutionalized racism and other major crises of the 20th century: two World Wars, the influenza pandemic of 1918, and polio. Locally, “the deed to virtually every home in San Jose” included restrictions against Black and Asian residents known as “restrictive covenants” (Spartan Daily, February 16, 1948, page 2). On campus, blackface and minstrel shows were a regular part of student events.

"Black Spartans (1907-1948)" is an invitation to the community to join us in surfacing these stories, ensuring these histories are preserved and presented in a way that honors these students’ lives. Contact us at special.collections@sjsu.edu to participate.

View the physical exhibit in the SJSU King Library's Jennifer and Philip DiNapoli Gallery (second floor) from February 9 – April 1, 2022.

Sponsored by The Black Leadership Opportunity Center, Mosaic Cross Cultural Center, Department of Art and Art History, Department of African American Studies, SJSU Institute for the Study of Sports, Society and Social Change, Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley, SJSU Community and Government Relations Team

This Woman’s Work: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery Exhibit

January 15 – March 19, 2022

We welcome you to view the African, Asian American, Chicano and Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center’s latest exhibit, “This Woman’s Work: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery,” featuring more than 50 quilted works along with photographs and quilting items on display at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on the fifth floor.

This exhibit highlights five extraordinary African American women who share their compelling and unique stories of the multigenerational craft of quilting. We invite the next generation to learn the long and rich history of quilting, draw inspiration from these stories, and share this historical work with the San José community and beyond.

Sponsors:  African, Asian American, Chicano and Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center

LibGuide about Women’s History

MLK Library has some great resources to discover! This guide is just to give a snapshot celebrating just a few of the many momentous events in the history of women.

Schedule of Events/Programs

*subject to change

Listen Differently: Black Feminism, Music, and Popular Culture

#ListenDifferently

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022, 1:30-5 PM
Vimeo & Hammer Theatre 

The milestones of women of color in popular music and culture are often celebrated. Yet, in both the music industry and in scholarly studies, little attention is paid to what women of color think about the state of popular music and culture; the impact popular images and tropes have on their everyday lives; and the possibilities for interracial exchange and political mobilization. “Listen Differently: Black Feminism, Music, and Popular Culture” prioritizes Black feminist thought and criticism in the Arts and Humanities by welcoming one of its most powerful practitioners—Dr. Tricia Rose-- to the SJSU campus for a keynote address and conversation with Bay Area hip hop artist and journalist, Rocky Rivera.

Dr. Tricia Rose is an internationally-respected scholar of post Civil Rights era Black U.S. culture, popular music, social issues, gender, and sexuality. Her first book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America laid the intellectual foundations for Hip Hop Studies. In 2008, Dr. Rose returned to hip hop to challenge the field she helped found, with: The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip-Hop-And Why It Matters.

Following her keynote, Dr. Rose will join in conversation with Bay Area independent hip hop artist and journalist Rocky Rivera. Their conversation will focus on addressing the lines between cultural appreciation and appropriation, along with the possibilities for social and political alliances within hip hop music and culture for women of color. Rocky will also perform songs from her latest album Rocky’s Revenge.

Tickets will be available through the Hammer Theatre. Right now, we have an EventBrite site: https://listendifferently.eventbrite.com 

Sponsors: African American Studies Department, Ethnic Studies Collective, Sociology & Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Department, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Program at SJSU, and De Anza College Partners.

Open Mic: Womxn’s Herstory Month

Thursday, March 3rd, 6 - 8PM
In person: Student Union Courtyard & Streaming: Youtube @MOSAICCCC 

Join us in person or virtually for the March Open Mic in honor of Womxn's Herstory Month! If you have something to share, please come share your artistic talents with the SJSU community.

Sponsors: Mosaic Cross Cultural Center, Gender Equity Center, and Student Union

Writing Our Wellness through Love, Rage, and Healing

Thursday, March 10 from 11 AM -12:30 PM, Live on Zoom

In this poetry workshop, Cecilia Caballero will draw upon key concepts from Lama Rod’s book “Love and Rage” to explore the institutional and interpersonal impacts of love, rage, and healing through a BIPOC feminist and social justice framework. Through mindfulness and self-reflective writing prompts, participants will learn about ways to skillfully respond to our emotions and our vulnerabilities. Ultimately, participants will explore how the inner work of healing can strengthen relationships with ourselves and our communities through the tender and liberatory practice of poetics. (No previous poetry experience required).

Chicanx Latinx Student Success Center

Social Reproduction Under Crisis, or Business as Usual? A look at Migrant Domestic Work in Beirut, Lebanon 

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 11AM, Live on Zoom

Register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Lebanon, a small country of nearly 7 million inhabitants, is home to nearly 250,000 non-Arab migrant domestic workers. Since the mid-1980s, non-Arab women migrants have come primarily via professional recruitment agencies to provide domestic work in the homes of middle- and upper-middle class Lebanese families across the country. As in much of the Southwest Asia and North Africa region, in particular the Arab Gulf, however, women migrant domestic workers in Lebanon have faced extreme precarity in the form of exploitative labor, limited legal protections, and an infamous visa sponsorship system known as the kafala system that grants Lebanese employers almost complete power over their domestic employees.

This talk will contextualize the current socioeconomic situation facing these non-Arab migrant women domestic workers in Lebanon today, with particular attention to COVID-19. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Beirut, Lebanon, between 2018–2021, this talk explores the strategies that domestic workers are now forced to use in order to survive such a hostile environment.

Sponsors: Carol Mukhopadhyay Feminist Lecture Series and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program 

Intersections: Pathfinders to the Millennium Program

Tuesday, March 15, 5-6PM, Live on Zoom 

In celebration of Women’s History Month, join the Africana, Asian American, Chicano and Native American Studies Center and project co-directors Harriett Arnold, Ed.D. and Nannette Regua, Lurie College Ed.D. Educational Leadership doctoral student, to learn about the exciting project, “Intersections: Pathfinders to the Millennium Program.” This project will explore the history, experiences, and commonalities of two women of color, Blanca Alvarado and Iola Williams who made a difference in the political landscape of Santa Clara County during the 1970s to 1990s. The program will include a presentation about the ongoing research of trailblazing political leaders, a community conversation, and Q&A.

Sponsors: SJSU King Library; Africana, Asian American, Chicano, and Native American Studies Center

Title IX 50th Anniversary Event

What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You!

March 19, 2022, 12 - 1:00 PM, Live Online

Register now 

The Santa Clara County American Association of University Women (AAUW) is celebrating Women's History Month with a special webinar commemorating this year's 50th Anniversary of Title IX.

CELEBRATE 50 years of Title IX requiring equal opportunity in education for all genders.

LEARN from experts about the impact and ongoing efforts to protect students.

ACT by recognizing sex-based discrimination in educational and learning to exercise your rights.

Our panelists:

• Danielle Slaton, Olympic medalist and Earthquake television analyst (Moderator)
• Dr. Akhila Carter-Francique, SJSU Associate Professor of African-American Studies and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Sports, Society and Social Change.
• Marlene Bjornsrud, Cofounder of Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and former General Manager of San Jose CyberRays.
• Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Title IX activist and author of ‘No Stopping Us Now.”
• Jess Eagle, Maha Ibrahim and Rebecca Sheff, of Equal Rights Advocates, advocate for justice to protect and advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of all gender identities through groundbreaking legal cases and bold legislation. 

Sponsor: Santa Clara County Branches of the American Association of University Women (AAUW)