“We are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual and class oppression.”  In 1977, the Combahee River Collective offered this powerful declaration that has guided much of the intersectional programming offered in the NC State Women’s Center since its founding. The truth and power contained within this statement also set the stage for this year’s Womxn’s HERstory Month theme: Our Voices, Our Bodies, Our Stories: Tools for Radical Transformation.

Throughout the month of March, the Women’s Center and our partners will interrogate systems and ignite radical traditions to make space for critical discourse and the reclaiming of space. Programs aim to provide strategies for:

• Unlearning: To unlearn harmful narratives that allow for acts of mental, emotional and physical violence against others.
• Decolonizing: To decolonize by calling attention to systems of oppression and injustice.
• Retelling: To retell stories, narratives and lived experiences by centering the power and agency of voice.

This Year’s Speakers

In addition to a keynote address by author Charlene Carruthers, we will also welcome Aisha Fukushima to campus through a collaboration between the Women’s Center and the Poole College of Management. Fukushima is a public speaker, educator, singer and ‘RAPtivist’ who uses her talents to link themes such as hip hop, global citizenship, youth engagement and activism. Through her work, she seeks to “challenge apathy with awareness, ignorance with intelligence and oppression with expression.” During her visit to NC State, she will conduct a workshop focused on promoting social justice and healing from historical harm through stories and analysis and host an open mic night.

Many Additional Programs

A full slate of Womxn’s HERstory Month programs is available at go.ncsu.edu/whm, including:

• From Theory to Praxis: Transnational Feminism (March 1)
• Feminist Fridays (March 1, 22 and 29)
• Peer-led workshops by The Movement Peer Educators (March 5, 20 and 28)
• Violence Against Indigenous Women: Healing Our Futures by Reclaiming Our Past with Vivette Jeffries-Logan, enrolled member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (March 5)
• Womanism Teach-In (March 6)
• Keynote Address by Charlene Carruthers (March 19) *Please note that this event is free and open to the public, however tickets are required.  
• Feminist Theory Thursday: Storytelling Like My Abuela (March 21)
• Mixtape Series: The Political Strategies of Academia that Dismember Black Bodies (March 21)
• Workshop and Open Mic Night with Aisha Fukushima (March 27)

To learn more about Womxn’s HERstory Month, including how to submit your own program for inclusion in the online calendar, visit go.ncsu.edu/whm. Program submissions are due by March 1, 2019.