Belly dancers, martial artists, poets and performance artists gathered yesterday at Ohio University's second annual International Women's Day Festival in Baker University Center Ballroom.
Though young at OU, the festival celebrated its 99th anniversary this year internationally. The event featured more than 20 performances, including a belly dancer and vocal performances from OU's Tempo Tantrums and Title IX. There were also more than 15 informational display tables from OU students and Athens residents about women in different cultures.
Over 300 people attended the event, surpassing the attendance of last year's festival by about 100 people, said Winsome Chunnu, assistant director of the Multicultural Center, who helped organize the event.
Every year
we try to get as many countries represented as possible so that women can learn from each other said Chunnu, a native of Jamaica. Although we've come a long way it's always important to have some event that highlights these challenges and remind people that they still exist.
OU graduate student and Sudan native Hala Guta participated in the festival to highlight the challenges faced by Sudanese women and children during wartime. Guta wore a traditional red, black and white Kenyan dress to the festival, which included a headscarf that read People for Peace in Swahili.
My presentation is mainly just to bring their voice out
because these women have a distinct experience (in war)
she said.
Guta also said she wanted to participate in the festival because of what she has been able to learn about herself as an international woman.
For me to be here on my own
I really found myself
she said. Where I come from is always about the community and never about me. So being here alone is kind of a new experience for me to find what it means to me to be a woman.
Some presentations were much more physical, such as the demonstration of a Burmese martial art, Bando.
Seeing women with swords and sticks and big knives - hopefully it's inspiring
said performer Cheryl Cesta, who has been studying Bando since the mid-1980s. I hope it inspires women just to know that women can be athletic or martial artists just as well as
or better than
men.
Women's Center Director Susanne Dietzel said she was pleased by the turnout at the event.
You seldom have the opportunity for that collective energy in a room
said Dietzel, a native of Germany. It's just been wonderful.
