Library to host third annual Women in Leadership symposium

Kent State University Library will be hosting the third annual Women in Leadership Symposium at 9:00 a.m. on March 30. 

Karen Hillman, director of marketing and communications, said there will be several sessions through the day, beginning with a keynote speaker.

Special guest speaker Judith Wellman will discuss her book ‘Brooklyn’s Promised Land, The Free Black Community of Weeksville, New York’, according to the Digital Commons website.

Wellman will also hold a book signing at 11:00 a.m. and concurrent sessions will follow, according to the schedule.

Hillman said the event is set to hold the play, “Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist” which will be held on the fourth floor.

The play is about enslavement, explained Denise Harrison, a lecturer of Pan-African Studies. It portrays a therapist who tries to get the women on the plantation to accept the condition they’re in despite being abused, she said.

“Throughout the 20 minute piece, Harriet sings,” Harrison said. “This (therapist) kind of puts her in a trance to help condition her, and then she gives her a path in which she’s going to escape, and she’s going to leave in spite of how the master uses this (therapist) on the plantation to contain all women there.”

Other sessions to occur during the symposium include: Moving Forward Together: Creating a new Center of the Study of Gender and Sexuality, League of Women Voters; A Historical Overview, Academically Successful African American Women; A Historical Examination of Motivation and Contextual Influences and many more sessions discussing women and African American history, according to the schedule.

In order to register, the online form must be submitted before March 23.https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ec7v61x23e682365&oseq=&c=&ch=  

Kimberly Laferty is the libraries reporter for The Kent Stater, contact her at [email protected].