Clark students, community members encouraged to celebrate bold things women do
Worcester, Mass. - On Wednesday, April 4, Clark University will host Rivka Solomon in "That Takes Ovaries: Leading a Bold Life." The performance and open mike event will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Tilton Hall, 2nd floor of the Higgins University Center, Clark University campus. This event allows Clark women and community members to celebrate the bold things women do, while, at the same time, encouraging and developing leadership skills.
Writer, editor, playwright and executive director Rivka Solomon was born in 1962 and raised in the Northeast. Both of her parents were artists and activists in causes ranging from civil rights to antiwar to women's liberation. Her paternal grandmother, too, was an activist, organizing support groups and classes for young mothers, and later encouraging her elderly neighbors to fight back against neighborhood violence.
Solomon, an outspoken advocate for women's and girls' issues, led her young friends to stand up against discrimination in their school, families, and communities for years. She was equally passionate about diversity and international cultures, bringing this interest to her education and earning a Masters degree in international affairs. In her mid-twenties, Solomon was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was forced to withdraw from a promising career in international affairs. Confined to her bed, she became a writer, using social criticism as her activist medium.
After making a splash at a party by using the phrase "that takes ovaries" to describe a woman's brazenness, Solomon developed the idea for a book with the same title that would celebrate women's acts of courage. She edited and published "That Takes Ovaries" in the spring of 2002 and has since encouraged fans of the book to host open mike nights, where women can come together to talk about the book and share their own brazen, ovary-empowered acts.
This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by Clark's Women's and Gender Studies and Theater Arts Departments. For more information, call 508-793-7358.