Students gathered Tuesday at the Student Union Theater to support one cause — women.
Rachel O’Pry, a graduate assistant for the LSU Women’s Center, coordinated the Women in the Arts Night, an event intended to celebrate Women’s History Month.
“We’re celebrating women-positive and women-focused art,” O’Pry said.
O’Pry said she thinks it’s important to offer events like Women in the Arts Night because it affects women on campus in a positive way.
“There aren’t enough role models out there for female empowerment,” she said.
O’Pry said she found acts for the show from all areas of the University, including the Theatre Department, the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the Women’s Center.
Acts included a harpist, flutist, poets, pianists and guitarists.
The poems focused on gender acceptance and promoting love rather than animosity between women.
“I’m hoping people come away with a positive sense of the talent women bring,” she said. “It’s almost a reaction to the negative images in the media.”
One act that caught many of the audience members by surprise was the One Spirit Drumming Circle, who put on their first-ever indoor performance at the event.
  Video: Women in the Arts Night
 
Members of the circle spoke between songs, and one person said drumming was once a women-centered act but was taken over by men as time passed.
“Our primary purpose is to take drumming back,” one of the members said.
O’Pry said the Women’s Center is hosting a number of events to celebrate Women’s History Month, including the Women in the Arts Night, a networking and business etiquette dinner and a keynote speaker.
Juliana Ratliff, theatre performance freshman, was the emcee for the night.
Ratliff said she was excited to see the amount of talent on stage.
She said she thinks it’s necessary to showcase women in a positive way.
“Women in the arts aren’t always recognized,” Ratliff said.
She said she liked the variety of talent the event offered, from poetry to music.
“To showcase talent of women from all kinds of backgrounds, that’s really cool,” Ratliff said.
Kelsi Dougherty, English literature junior, said she was glad she heard about the event because she’s interested in art on campus.
Dougherty said she also wanted to attend the event to support talented women.
“It’s extremely important,” she said. “Women are faced with so many negative stereotypes every day.”
Dougherty said she thinks events like Women in the Arts Night are steps in the right direction for women at the University.
“In all of history, women have only had a voice for the past 100 years or so,” she said. “We’re playing a long game of catch-up.”
Dougherty said she was happy to attend the event and support her gender.
“I’m always excited to see a sister succeed,” Dougherty said.
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]