SOUTHEASTERN TO CELEBRATE WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
      HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University will spotlight Women’s History Month throughout March as the Southeastern Women’s Coalition hosts a lively series of lectures, presentation, dance, poetry, and music.
      The month-long campus celebration joins with similar observances throughout the nation under the umbrella of the National Women’s History Project’s theme, "Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility.” According to the NWHP, the theme “celebrates the hope and sense of possibility that comes to our lives from the inspirational work of women.”
      Special features of Southeastern’s celebration will include a guest lecture by State Rep. Diane Winston; a “community read” of Sue Monk Kidd’s best-seller “The Secret Life of Bees”; “Words Moved Her,” a dance concert directed by Southeastern faculty member Greta Sharp; presentations by internationally recognized visual artist Tova Beck-Friedman; readings by authors Beverly Marshall, Suzanne Hudson, and Alison Pelegrin; and a series of lectures and presentations by Southeastern professors and students. 
      Women’s History Month begins on March 1 with a concert by two members of the Southeastern music faculty, mezzo-soprano Joy Ratliff and soprano Alissa Mercurio Rowe. Accompanied by piano instructor Kenneth Boulton, director of the Community Music School, Ratliff will perform songs and arias by Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz and American composer Samuel Barker. She will be joined by Rowe in three duets by Henry Purcell.
      As a special feature, foreign languages professor Katherine Kolb will contribute remarks about Berlioz’s life and music. Kolb, who teaches German and French at Southeastern, did her doctoral dissertation on the French composer.
      The free concert, which is part of the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts’ spring “Encore!” series, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.
      Also during Women History Month’s first week, Rep. Diane Winston (R-Covington) will speak about the status of women in Louisiana. An annual contributor to Southeastern’s Women’s History Month schedule, Winston will speak at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, in Sims Memorial Library.
      Winston, whose District 77 includes Tangipahoa and St. Tammany Parishes, has been a legislator since 1996. She is chair of  the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus and sits on various legislative committees including commerce, health and welfare, and municipal, parochial and cultural affairs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Orleans and is a fellow of Loyola University’s Institute of Politics. 
      On March 3 English professor Alison Pelegrin will present a poetry reading at noon in Sims Memorial Library. Pelegrin earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arkansas where for two years she served as director of the Arkansas Writers in the Schools Program. She is the author of “The Zydeco Tablets” and “Voodoo Lips,” and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She is the recipient of a $5,000 individual artist fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. 
      On March 4, students in Southeastern English professor Jayetta Slawson’s class “Introduction to Literary Analysis and Interpretation” will make presentations on feminist literary criticism at 11 a.m. in Sims Memorial Library.
      For additional information about Women’s History Month, call 985-549-2330.