Suffrage Centennial, Women’s Rights, and Voting Rights Events
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate
Join the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the premiere of The Citizen’s Senate, a new educational program that features a combination of archival footage and live performance in order to highlight key moments in American history when citizens have compelled the U.S. Senate to act. The first installment will examine the struggles and ultimate success of the final decade of the suffrage movement. The event will include a reception, performance of the program, and panel discussion moderated by Roberta Wollons, Ph.D., Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The conversation will include:
• Paula Austin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies, Boston University
• Susan Ware, Ph.D., Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University
The Citizen’s Senate features a combination of archival footage and live performance.
ABOUT THE EDWARD M. KENNEDY INSTITUTE FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE
The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is dedicated to educating the public about the important role of the Senate in our government, encouraging participatory democracy, invigorating civil discourse, and inspiring the next generation of citizens and leaders to engage in the civic life of their communities.
REGISTRATION & SEATING
Registration opens no earlier than 5:30 PM. Registration and doors close 15 minutes after the start of the program. Some seats have obstructed views.
ACCESSIBILITY
The Edward M. Kennedy Institute strives to meet the needs of and be accessible to all of their visitors. We offer several options for assistance to visitors as listed on this page. Please reply to programs@emkinstitute.org as promptly as possible to request Communication Access services.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The Edward M. Kennedy Institute frequently engages in photographing and recording programs and events for its own documentation and promotional purposes. Please notify a staff member or volunteer if you do not wish to be photographed or recorded during your visit.
DIRECTIONS & PARKING
Directions are on the Institute’s website. Parking is available in the Kennedy Institute lot.
Playwrights discuss how a modern gaze shaped their suffrage play, “I Want to Go to Jail.”
Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra is proud to join 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative and the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy in celebrating 100 years of Women’s Suffrage in America. The program begins with the trailblazers in women’s symphonic history in the United States, beginning with the music Ruth Crawford Seeger, the first female composer to win the Guggenheim Fellowship. We then explore the music of Jennifer Higdon, one of America’s most widely performed composers in 2019, with one of her latest works, Breeze Serenade. Before then exploring the music of three Pulitzer-prize winning composers, Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and western massachusetts’s own Caroline Shaw!
Instrumental music has been at the core of Mount Holyoke College since our founding. Mary Lyon moved a piano into Seminary Hall almost as quickly as she shelved the library’s first books. She believed instrumental music taught young women discipline, provided students with language in a different chord, and–most importantly—Mary Lyon understood that music has the power to console a troubled heart and uplift the human spirit.
The Mary Lyon concerts commemorate the central role of music in Mount Holyoke College’s history by celebrating the contributions of women musicians and women in general, through music. The programming therefore gives voice to the often under-represented work of women in music.
Program:
- Ruth Crawford Seeger – Rissolty Rossolty
- Ruth Crawford Seeger – Music for Small Orchestra
- Jennifer Higdon – Breeze Serenade
- Joan Tower – Chamber Dance
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich – Prologue and Variations
- Caroline Shaw – En’tracte
Friday, January 24, 2020 at 8:00pm to 10:00pm
Abbey Memorial Chapel, Main Chapel
Celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage with a whole year of music by women!
Hildegard von Bingen’s “Ordo Virtutum”
Saturday, February 22, 2020 – 7pm – Eliot Church of Newton
Sunday, February 23, 2020 – 5pm – St. Paul’s Brookline
Immerse yourself in chanted opera: what Director LeClair calls the very first opera, written around 1150 by Abbess and now St. Hildegard von Bingen, fully staged for modern audiences with 18 women and men lending gender fluidity to the various ancient roles; with Na’ama Lion, flute, Nancy Hurrell, harp, Laura Jeppesen, vielle, and Mike Williams, percussion.
Celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage with a whole year of music by women!
Hildegard von Bingen’s “Ordo Virtutum”
Saturday, February 22, 2020 – 7pm – Eliot Church of Newton
Sunday, February 23, 2020 – 5pm – St. Paul’s Brookline
Immerse yourself in chanted opera: what Director LeClair calls the very first opera, written around 1150 by Abbess and now St. Hildegard von Bingen, fully staged for modern audiences with 18 women and men lending gender fluidity to the various ancient roles; with Na’ama Lion, flute, Nancy Hurrell, harp, Laura Jeppesen, vielle, and Mike Williams, percussion.
Help us kick off a year of programming around our 2020 theme, “Who Are Cambridge Women?”
Opening Conversation and Annual Meeting
Tuesday, February 25, 2020*
Cambridge Public Library, Main Branch
6-8 PM
*Inclement weather date is Wednesday, February 26, at the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
The event will feature Eva Martin-Blythe, Executive Director of YWCA Cambridge, in conversation with Diana Lempel, the Society’s Doing History Curator. The Annual Meeting of the membership will immediately follow the presentation.
This March we will join organizations and individuals around the world in celebrating International Women’s Day. This year the International Women’s Day campaign theme is #BalanceForBetter, which challenges our global community to strive towards gender balanced boardrooms, governments, media coverage, employment practices, wealth, sports coverage and more.
2019 International Women’s Day Forum: #BalanceForBetter
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 | 5:30-7:30PM
We were reminded recently through Worcester Business Journal‘s March 2018 “Boardroom Gap”series that Worcester has a long way to go towards creating more gender-balanced businesses and boardrooms. Join us before International Women’s Day as we examine the gender gap in business, discuss ways we can address gender inequity in our community, and develop strategies for how we can create #BalanceForBetter.
With guest panelists:
Lisa Clauson
Director of Strategic Partnerships, New England Regional Council of Carpenters
Brad Kane
Editor, Worcester Business Journal
Yuisa Pérez -Chionchio
Director of Human Resources, Family Health Center of Worcester
Kate Sharry
Chair, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce
Monica Thomas-Bonnick
Vice President, Business Lending Officer, Webster Five
Stacey Luster (moderator)
Assistant Vice President, Worcester State University
Proudly presented in partnership with League of Women Voters of the Worcester Area and Massachusetts Women Of Color Coalition.
Learn more about International Women’s Day at
We Did It For You! Women’s Journey Through History is the story of how women got their rights in America, told by the women who were there. It is an entertaining and quick tour through the journey, starting with the struggle women had in the 17th century Puritan Revolution through to our 21st century empowered women politicians. It has been performed across California for thousands of high school students, college students, and adults. On Women’s Equality Day 2017, We Did It For You! began performances in Massachusetts. A dedicated troupe of volunteer women who care about women’s rights and active participation in our democracy are determined to entertain and educate you with this incredible experience.
This is a Free event thanks to a grant from the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area
Celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage with a whole year of music by women!
ReSOUND in the CONVENT
Saturday, April 4, 2020 – 7pm – Eliot Church of Newton
Sunday, April 5, 2020 – 5pm – First Parish Cambridge
ReSound in the Convent is our 6th edition as moving constellations of singers chant and sing polyphony surrounding you with lush harmonies and soaring melodies.
With the brilliant accompaniment of Catherine Liddell on theorbo and baroque guitar, together with and a string trio, we revisit the unique and stunning repertoire by northern Italian nuns in the early baroque period. Women whose names you may remember from our earliest seasons, like Isabella Leonarda, Raffaella Aleotti, Sulpitia Cesis, and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani will be well represented, as well as our dear friend Anonymous. We’ll also reprise two pieces written for this program in 2019, one by Patricia Van Ness and the other by Suzanne Sheppard. And of course the standard bearer of women composers, Hildegard von Bingen will do what she does best which is surround the program and YOU with her extraordinary chant. With Catherine Liddell, theorbo, and string trio.
With special guests Daniel Stepner and Julie Leven, violins, Laura Jeppesen, gamba and Catherine Liddell, theorbo.
Celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage with a whole year of music by women!
ReSOUND in the CONVENT
Saturday, April 4, 2020 – 7pm – Eliot Church of Newton
Sunday, April 5, 2020 – 5pm – First Parish Cambridge
ReSound in the Convent is our 6th edition as moving constellations of singers chant and sing polyphony surrounding you with lush harmonies and soaring melodies.
With the brilliant accompaniment of Catherine Liddell on theorbo and baroque guitar, together with and a string trio, we revisit the unique and stunning repertoire by northern Italian nuns in the early baroque period. Women whose names you may remember from our earliest seasons, like Isabella Leonarda, Raffaella Aleotti, Sulpitia Cesis, and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani will be well represented, as well as our dear friend Anonymous. We’ll also reprise two pieces written for this program in 2019, one by Patricia Van Ness and the other by Suzanne Sheppard. And of course the standard bearer of women composers, Hildegard von Bingen will do what she does best which is surround the program and YOU with her extraordinary chant. With Catherine Liddell, theorbo, and string trio.
