Women Speak, taking place Friday evening, will give Appalachian women the opportunity to showcase original work.
This Friday, ARTS/West will showcase how Appalachian women are breaking stereotypes with presentations of original writing and songs.
Women Speak, a sister event to the Women of Appalachia project, will consist of the juried work of twenty-one women from across Appalachia including songs, stories and poetry. The women will travel to Athens for the opening this weekend.
The visual exhibit of fine art will be set up like a reader’s theater, said Kari Gunter-Seymour, the founder and curator of the event. Normally at least 100 people attend the event, she added.
“There is a real stereotype for the culture. We’re seen as under-educated, under-served, un-groomed,” Gunter-Seymour said. “This is my effort to put out into the world that we’re creative, we’re capable, we’re inspired, we’re like everyone else in the whole world —we just happen to live somewhere else.”
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Women of all ages and ethnic background participate in the event, but they are all living in Appalachia, Gunter-Seymour said.
The pieces can revolve around any theme, but Gunter-Seymour asks every participant to write a paragraph about how Appalachia has influenced her as a person and have her art to be displayed in a pamphlet.
Sarah Diamond Burroway is the first person to journey from Kentucky for Women Speak, Gunter-Seymour said.
Burroway, a technical writer who does creative writing in her free time, is sharing a reflective piece about her time when she once worked as a radio news director.
“I think women in Appalachia have always had a voice and I think we’ve known we’ve had a voice, but getting other to hear what we have to say has been difficult through time,” Burroway said. “Any opportunity we have to come together as artists is always something that we should promote as people in Appalachia. It helps define who we are, not just as women but as individuals.”
Women Speak provides a different experience, because each woman will go on stage and introduce herself and her work, Gunter-Seymour said. She said she hopes it will give people a new appreciation for the art.
“It can be very difficult to read something like poetry because sometimes you don’t get it,” Gunter-Seymour said. “But when somebody reads their piece and you hear all of those inflections in their voice, and you see their face, it’s a whole different (experience).”
Sherri Saines, a reference librarian at Alden Library, has participated in the event for several years with pieces of poetry, which she has been writing and performing since the second grade.
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Saines was a juror of the event this year. She said she enjoyed being able to read different levels of writing, from people who are first submitting work to published writers, and enjoyed seeing the array of topics women write about.
But overall, Saines said she enjoys the energizing atmosphere that comes with performing pieces and that the event is limited to Appalachian woman.
“A person may or may not perceive as an Appalachian woman they have a different point of view in the world or their voice is somewhat unique because of that,” Saines said. “One of the things I’ve learned from being a part of this process for so long is that I am more of an Appalachian than I knew I was.”
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