By Maria Dinh —
The Women’s Center, Women 4 Women Student Board and Student Activities Board hosted the 7th annual International Women’s Day celebration March 3 in Strickler Auditorium.
The event had free food, including decorated heart-shaped cookies, in the lobby which also featured booths from the Americana Community Center and the Women’s Center.
Sidney Garner, president of the Women 4 Women Student Board, started the event by asking the audience which woman in their lives has greatly influenced them. She asked students in the audience, “What does International Women’s Day mean to you?” and “Who was the most influential woman in your life?”
A student answered his grandmother. “Growing up, she took care of me from when I was one to seven years old. I would go [to her house] after school. She immigrated over when my mom was seventeen years old. She’s a very strong woman. She has done all of this by herself without my grandpa.”
SAB Diversity Chairs Taleah Gipson and Sarika Polcum hosted the International Women’s Day performance portion. They started out by dedicating this event to every woman—mothers, sisters, aunts, trans women, women of color, disabled women, gender non-conforming women and all other women across the globe.
Students who attended also had a chance to win a free Women’s Center t-shirt during the intermission in a raffle.
Every performance that night featured women in the community. The first two performances were traditional Indian and Bollywood dances. The women in the Vietnamese Student Association performed a traditional hat dance.
Gloria Fan, a member of VSA, said, “[The dance] is empowering representing not only women, but our culture.”
The Dazzling Cardettes performed a majorette dance with hip hop elements, and The Cardinal K-Pop Dance Team performed two dances to songs from Mamamoo and Chungha.
To finish off the event, Flamenco Louisville gave a grand finale to this empowering event.
As Women’s History Month continues, visit the Women’s Center at www.lousiville.edu/womenscenter for more information.
Photo by Maria Dinh // The Louisville Cardinal
