The Tribute to Women’s Writers are not here to conform, they are here to challenge, they are not here to be comfortable, they are here to really shake things up. That’s their job.
The event was a total success,according to Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies Department Professor Ana Torres-Bower, having an estimate of 90 students and faculty members in the audience and as the event was in the process of more people arriving.
“For the first hour and half [the event had] a big audience celebrating the complexity and the richness of women’s life, from poetry to history to reflections about the challenges and the great things that women can contribute to the society.”
The presentation took place on Wednesday, March 22 and was coordinated by Modern Language Department Professor Carlos Arce and History department Professor Walter Fernández.
Torres-Bower, who was part of the presenters of the event said, “We decided to invite faculty and students to participate, this event is not new, this is one of the oldest events on campus, concerning women and gender studies, last year was different, it was more students, this year is more faculty, but we have wonderful student participation.”
Pauline Acosta, instructor of women’s and gender’s studies and sociology thought it was a great event for been her first time participating as a planning committee member.
Daisy Gallegos, child development major, said she really enjoyed it was her first time been at this type of event and definitely she will come back for the next one.
The following people participated in the program for TTWW; they engaged with the audience with their pleasant reading performances on stage. They also created a positive atmosphere during the event.
Patricia Kaihara, architecture major, said, this was her third time coming to this event and she really enjoyed all the poetry with all the literature that was displayed.
She said, “I enjoyed very much when Torres-Bower and Hurtado read the poem together. I think it was great, it’s nice to hear a poem in two languages, the feelings are a little bit different, but is good because you have an audience that is bilingual and I think it’s important to be able communicated that with a full audience.”
Arce said that the even is a tribute to women writers and has been a trademarks at Cerritos College for many years.
He has been invited for many years to participate; he specifically wanted to read some literature from “Women of The World Latino America.”
Arce said, “I picked specifically Mexican American female authors like, Ana Castillos, Sandra Cisneros, and I think this year Michele Serros in order to give light to Mexican American women in the academic word and in literature.”
He said this particular event has a special place in his heart, because it puts women in the light as it should.
He continued, “I think the organization of this particular event is really important at Cerritos College because it goes to students and faculty, and that is really beautiful. Here faculty gets to share a lot of their work with students as well as the students sharing stuff for faculty.
“As the room [has] been completely full tonight starting at 6 p.m., I think that students appreciated tremendously [the] work that women [create] as writers.”
He also expressed that he was really happy to see personal friends, favorite colleagues and a lot of students at the event.
Fernandez said, he was glad this tradition was continuing because as far as he knows, its been around for probably 18 to 20 years.
He considers the event an opportunity for professors and students to introduce each other, to writers that in some cases perhaps they haven’t been heard.
“The way I see it, is kind of like a sampler plate, a plate where you get a little taste of different writers and you get to sample them, and then you get to explore much more in the future if you want to,” Fernandez said.
He also thinks enrichment is something the campus should do more of by creating literature events throughout the year.
He said the events “can be on writers in general and development of literature, fiction and non-fiction, poetry and have those kind of activities on campus.”
Fernandez was glad that these types of events were continuing in Women’s and Gender Studies Department, English Department also has kept this tradition going.
According to Torres-Bower the success of the event was due to planning for it beginning in January. The event organizers wanted a comprehensive event that honored women.
For her one of the most significant aspects of the event was students and faculty are learning together, and the event was successful in creating that type of experience.
“People left this with great feelings, fellowship [and] communication, I already heard they want to do another event of this kind again.”
Torres-Bower concluded, “Students stayed here, many of them have been here [on campus] since 7:30 a.m., and we saw them tonight, so they have been here over 12 hours on campus, that tells a lot about the commitment of our students here at Cerritos College, for me, that is what I called success.”
