Shared from the 3/27/2017 American Press eEdition

Local group promoting diversity to host lecture on La . women’s history

A city of Lake Charles committee created for promoting diversity and inclusion in Southwest Louisiana will host a free lecture on Louisiana women’s history from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Carnegie Memorial Library, 411 Pujo Street.

The lecture is the first in the committee’s “Brown Bag Lecture Series” and coincides with national Women’s History Month, according to event coordinator Marjorie Harrison. Each lecture in the series will be scheduled during a weekday lunch hour. Residents are encouraged to bring their lunch and eat during the event.

Harrison said the idea for the series came from a recent meeting the city held with different religious and cultural community leaders. She said the committee plans to make the series a quarterly event, with the next installment planned for May.

She said she hopes the series becomes a time where residents can enjoy each other’s company while learning something new about their community.

“It’s going to get us talking about diversity,” Harrison said.

Guest speaker Janet Allured, professor of history and director of women’s studies at McNeese State University, will present the lecture Wednesday based in part on her book “Remapping Second-Wave Feminism: The Long Women’s Rights Movement in Louisiana, 1950–1997.”

‘We need to think about starting to get our hands on that history and archiving and preserving it.’
JANET ALLURED
Professor of history and director of women’s studies at McNeese State University .

Allured said she also plans to talk about the historian’s craft, particularly how people in power affect which histories are recorded and which are left untold.

She said the lack of influential Southwest Louisiana women in area records shows just how one-sided history can be.

“We have very little history about women in this area, very little,” Allured said.

She said it’s important for residents to take part in revising history so that it becomes more inclusive and serves the needs of each generation.

“History is always being rewritten. That’s our job. That’s what we do,” Allured said. “We need to think about starting to get our hands on that history and archiving and preserving it.”

Allured has also partnered with McNeese professor Carrie Chrisco to put on a photography exhibit titled “The Personal is Political: Portraits of Louisiana Second Wave Feminists” in New Orleans. The exhibit is based on her recent book and is now available for viewing until May 31 at Newcomb College Institute at Tulane University.

Allured said she hopes to bring the exhibit Lake Charles in the near future, revising it so that it will highlight influential women from Southwest Louisiana whose stories have yet to be told.

All prospective participants are asked to register by contacting Dena Jourdan at dena.jourdan@cityoflc.us or 491-1465. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m.

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