Middays at the Meeting House

Building Beantown: Exploring the Neighborhoods
that Make Up the “Hub”

Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108
(617) 482-6439

Drop by the Old South Meeting House every Thursday in March 2012 at 12:15 for a noontime helping of local history.

On March 8, International Women’s Day, BWHT board member Mary Smoyer and historian Michael Reiskind talk about the women and men of Jamaica Plain.

March 1 – South Boston
March 8 – Jamaica Plain
March 15 – Chinatown
March 22 – Roxbury
March 29 – Charlestown

All Aboard! Roxbury Women’s History Trolley Tour

Saturday, March 10, 2012  –  9:30 am -12 noon

How many stories do you know about Roxbury’s prominent women? Dr. Z, Susan Dimock, Melnea Cass (pictured), Muriel Snowden, Elma Lewis, and others made important contributions to the neighborhood, Boston, and American society. Explore their histories and see their legacies on a fascinating tour led by members of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

Also…
visit BU’s Huntington Theater to learn about their upcoming production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson

Trolley pick-up locations:
9:30 am: Hotel 140, 140 Clarendon Street (former YWCA)
9:50 am: Roxbury Heritage State Park/DCR, 183 Roxbury Street

Cost $20. Reservations required.
Contact our partner: Discover Roxbury

International Women’s Day – March 8

Two Special Events:

Ending Violence Against Women: Pathways to Power, Resilience & Leadership

A Panel discussion led by Ann Fleck-Henderson, Simmons College of Social Work, Emerita.
With panelists Purnima Mane, CEO and President, Pathfinder International; Audrey Porter, Assistant Program Director and Coordinator of Survivor Services, My Life, My Choice; and Ayanna Pressley, City Councillor At-Large, City of Boston

7:30-9:30 am at Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Linda K. Paresky Conference Center
Suggested donation: $6 (includes light continental breakfast)
RSVP by March 5

End Impunity for Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls

This conference includes panel discussions with lawmakers, law enforcement officers, academics and human rights activists as well as a screening of the short documentary film “Opium Brides.” The event is co-sponsored by Promote Congo, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with Suffolk University Law School, Victim Rights Law Center, and Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights.

5:00-7:30 pm  at  Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington St., Boston.
Free. Part of the Partners in Public Dialogue Program

Cappella CLAUSURA presents

MISTRESS:

Music to celebrate the 400th birthday of Mistress Anne Bradstreet, America’s first poet

Featuring the premiere of Contemplations (8, 9) composed by Hilary Tann especially for Cappella Clausura’s celebration of Anne Bradstreet’s quatricentennial. The piece will be played in tandem with Contemplations (21, 22), written earlier. In addition, we feature two works by Dorothy Crawford: A Portrait of Anne Bradstreet, based on her letters and poems, and a new work, Naushon. Finally, we fold in madrigals and motets by Bradstreet’s equally remarkable musical contemporaries, Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda.
Online ticket sales at: www.Clausura.org

• Saturday, March 17, 8pm, Parish of the Messiah, 1900 Commonwealth Av., Newton
• Saturday, March 24, 8pm, University Lutheran, 66 Winthrop St., Cambridge
• Sunday, March 25, 4pm, First Church in Jamaica Plain, 6 Eliot St., Jamaica Plain

View the flyer and release.

Our Voices Festival V – Boston Area Women Playwrights

March 26, 6:30 pm – Regis College Fine Arts Center Black Box, Weston, MA – Free

Staged readings of Boston area women playwrights – audience feedback, and creative support. Play readings start at 6:30 p.m. with a reception in the lobby; Featured Playwrights include: Kelly DuMar, Wendy Lement, Sybil Roberts Williams, Ellen Davis Sullivan, Geralyn Horton, Madge Kaplan, Phyllis Rittner, Lida McGirr, M. Lynda Robinson, Deirdre Girard, Sandra Weintraub, Leanne Calderone. Co-produced by Image Theatre, Lowell, MA, Kelly DuMar, festival founder & playwright, and Wendy Lement, Regis College playwright and faculty member. Guest Dramaturge and Playwright Sybil Roberts Williams will present a play and moderate discussion.

Remembering the Ladies

A slide lecture by Susan Wilson

March 27, 7 pm – The Watertown Public Library, 123 Main Street – Watertown Savings Bank Room

Did you know that in the era between the Civil War and World War I, Boston women created a world-class museum, a hospital, and a religion? That during a time when ladies were supposed to work quietly on the home-front, outspoken Boston women of all races and classes established schools, settlement houses, journals, associations, and businesses?

To celebrate Women’s History Month, photographer and author Susan Wilson traces the origins and development of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, which has sought to “remember the ladies” of Boston history for more than two decades. Making its debut in 1989 as a project of the Boston Public Schools, the BWHT followed in the footsteps, and filled in the gaps, of Boston’s two earliest historic walking tours, the Freedom Trail (1951) and the Black Heritage Trail (1965).

Wilson’s illustrated, anecdotal talk will include BWHT involvement in creating the Boston Women’s Memorial (2003) on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall as well as the author’s two recent projects with the trail — creating a four-color walking map and guide to historic women’s sites in downtown Boston and writing a chapter for the forthcoming Boston Atlas on “Enterprising Women.”

Lecture attendees will receive a FREE copy of the walking map, Boston Women’s Heritage Trail: 30 Highlights of Boston History. Copies of the 108-page Boston Women’s Heritage Trail Guidebook will also be for sale.

Edith Wharton 150th Birthday Celebration

Prepare for a very special year at The Mount! During 2012, we will be celebrating Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday by hosting a series of events highlighting her significant influence on contemporary culture, literature, entertainment, and design. Wharton is a 21st-century muse whose work continues to inspire, entertain, and resonate.

Events will be held in New York, Florida, and at Wharton’s home in Lenox, Mass. throughout the year.

Complete calendar of lectures and events

Saturday, March 10, 2012 – 9:30 am -12 noon
How many stories do you know about Roxbury’s prominent women? Dr. Z, Susan Dimock, Melnea Cass (pictured), Muriel Snowden, Elma Lewis, and others made important contributions to the neighborhood, Boston, and American society. Explore their histories and see their legacies on a fascinating tour led by members of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

and

visit BU’s Huntington Theater to learn about their upcoming production of
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson
More information on the production

Trolley pick-up locations:
9:30 am: Hotel 140, 140 Clarendon Street (former YWCA)
9:50 am: Roxbury Heritage State Park/DCR, 183 Roxbury Street

Cost $20. Reservations required.
Contact our partner: Discover Roxbury