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All Lowell Women’s Week events are open to the public! Admission to programs is free unless otherwise noted. All events take place in Lowell unless otherwise noted. 

 If you’d like to get involved with hosting an event, click here or contact Resi Polixa .  Programs offered during the 2021 Women’s Week events are listed below by date.

Please check back often as we will add events or make changes on a weekly basis leading up to Women’s Week. Events take place throughout March

 

Celebrate & Launch Lowell Women’s Week 2021! 

Join us to celebrate the 26th annual, and 1st virtual, Lowell Women’s Week! Performing artist and Women’s Week Weaver Soyinka Rahim will wake us up and get us moving with her powerful voice and spirit! Women leaders who represent and serve the greater Lowell area will greet us and wish us well. We’ll hear about this year’s programming from A to Z – art, activism, and awards to zoom including discussion and reflection, dramatic performances, HerStories and history, improv, innovation, science, STEM, and more! Make sure you follow us on Facebook, and keep your eyes on this page as we share our welcoming video to kick off the month!

 

Celebrate the Power in the Little Girls and the Power in the Women Wednesday, March 3, 7-8:30 PM.

Join us in an InterPlay BIBOLOVE Exformation. Come unlock the wisdom of your body Play: breathe, move, chant, tell your story! Using the easy improvisational tools of InterPlay, we’ll “celebrate the power in the little girls and the power in the women.” Led by Soyinka Rahim, C.C. King, and Anne Mulvey. Young girls are welcome (ages 13 to 113!) as well as all she’s, her’s, and they’s. Email C.C. King at ccking.interplay@gmail.com for more information. 

Soyinka Rahim, GSP, is a Grassroots Spiritual Practitioner, and the founder of BIBOLOVE, which stands for breathe in, breathe out love. She is a performing artist, a conference weaver, and InterPlay leader from Oakland, California. For more info, visit bibolove.us and on youtube. 

 

Mill Girls Musical Interactive EP Release Monday, March 8

Join Lowell National Historical Park and alums from the musical Hamilton in an interactive release of music from the new Mill Girls musical! The Mill Girls musical was conceived and directed by Jess McLeod, with music and lyrics by Diana Lawrence and book by Samantha Beach. On March 8, visit millgirlsmusical.com to hear songs from the musical performed by alums from Hamilton Nikki Renée Daniels, Alysha Deslorieux, and Nikhil Saboo, with Bri Sudia and Lucy Godinez. The EP will also include a bonus file featuring a talk by Park Ranger Allison Horrocks and UMass Lowell Professor Bob Forrant. 

In addition, you can recreate a signature from the mill girls’ 1845 petition in your own handwriting to be part of a special display at Lowell National Historical Park! Send your own version of a mill girl signature to @millgirlsmusical and @LowellNPS on Instagram with the hashtag #WhyWeRise. Tag 3 friends or allies to join in, so we can get as many signatures as possible! 

To find out more about the musical and the EP release, check out this feature in Broadway World magazine! 

 

International Women’s Day Celebration with the International Institute of New England, Monday, March 8, 12 PM

The International Institute of New England will host a virtual International Women’s Day celebration to honor the achievements of women leaders. Join in a festive, supportive atmosphere that honors immigrant women and daughters of immigrants who have made a profound difference in New England and the world. 

This event will highlight the impact refugee and immigrant women have on our economy and our communities, and will celebrate the achievements of women everywhere. Join us for a conversation panel with honorees Roxann Cooke, Kathrin Knauf, Kanika Soni, and host Tiziana Dearing about their life experiences. You can find more information on the panelists and event, and register to attend here. 

About the panel:

Roxann Cooke is the New England and Pennsylvania Managing Director of Consumer Banking at JP Morgan Chase. During the COVID-19 economic crash, JPMorgan Chase was the #1 lender of Paycheck Protection loans that helped save thousands of jobs, and has continued to expand storefronts in communities of color throughout the shutdowns. A native of Jamaica, Roxann moved to Dorchester when she was young and now leads as Managing Director of Consumer Banking for New England and Pennsylvania, where she is on the frontlines of Chase’s outreach to low-income and immigrant neighborhoods. 

Kathrin Knauf is the Vice President of Project Management at Moderna, where she worked on the team manufacturing the company’s COVID-19 vaccine. She led activities across Manufacturing, Quality, and Technical Development to organize a successful start in addressing what would become a pandemic disease, and to ramp up the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine production. An immigrant from Germany, Kathrin formerly led large manufacturing teams and supported projects like Cell and Gene Therapy at Novartis. She first came to the United States at 28 as part of an international work assignment. In 2020, concerned with rising nationalism and political hostility to foreigners, Kathrin accelerated her citizenship application, and was naturalized in December, the same month the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. 

Kanika Soni is the Chief Commercial Officer at TripAdvisor. She is a longtime executive in technology and media, and exemplifies the ingenuity that women from immigrant families bring to their fields. Before moving to Massachusetts and working at TripAdvisor, Kanika was head of Global Digital Marketing at Tesla and SVP of Global Ecommerce at Disney. The COVID-19 shutdowns have highlighted immigrants’ and refugees’ roles in the hospitality industry at all levels. Raised in a refugee family herself, Kanika has a unique perspective on how foreign-born people and refugees respond to the crisis. A passionate advocate for refugees and immigrants, she was influenced from a young age by her grandparents, who escaped from the riots in Pakiston during the partition of India. 

Tiziana Dearing is the host of Radio Boston on WBUR, where she has been a commentator and contributor for more than a decade. Prior to joining the Radio Boston team, Tiziana was a professor at Boston College in the School of Social Work, where she taught social innovation and leadership. A longtime anti-poverty advocate, Tiziana also ran Boston Rising, a startup antipoverty fund to end generational poverty in Boston, and was the first woman president of Catholic charities for the Archdiocese of Boston. 

 

Women Accelerators Presents: Diversity in STEM Panel Wednesday, March 10, 12-1 PM

The UMass Lowell Innovation Hub and Women Accelerators are hosting a panel discussion to learn more about topics from experts in STEM fields such as: diversity in sciences, engineering, and academia; diversity and bias in scholarly publishing; combating a lack of diversity in the workplace; personal experiences of a lack of diversity in STEM; how to support women and the next generation of STEM professionals; how to facilitate and create environments conducive to inclusion. By the end of this panel, you will have talking and action points to support diversity in STEM!

About the panel: Jyoti Agarwal, Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen, Simone Taylor, Evana Gizzi (moderator)

Jyoti Agarwal is the Managing Director of Coqual, a nonprofit think tank whose mission it is to help leaders design diverse and inclusive workplaces where every person belongs. 

Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen is the Assistant Professor of Plastics Engineering at UMass Lowell. Her research interests are focused on plastic recycling, biomass conversion, polymer thermodynamics, material property analysis, microplastic pollutant prevention, and process design. 

Simone Taylor is the Publisher of Ebooks at AIP Publishing, where she develops text for the current needs of researchers, educators, and professionals in physics and the related sciences. 

Evana Gizzi is a UMass Lowell alumna (’13, ’14), an Artificial Intelligence Ph.D Candidate at Tufts University, and a civil servant at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she leads research in artificial intelligence methods for spacecraft resilience. 

This discussion is free and open to anyone interested! Register here for information to access this event. This panel is generously sponsored by Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union and cohosted with the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub. Donations will contribute to future programs and to enriching career opportunities for women. 

 

High Tea with High Powered Women Wednesday, March 10, 12:30 PM

The Middlesex Community College Women’s Leadership Network is hosting its annual High Tea with High Powered Women. Join us for this panel and social networking event showcasing influential MCC alumnae who embody leadership. Register here to attend. 

 

24th Annual Braided Streams: Women of Faith Speak Thursday, March 11, 2-3:15 PM

Women student panelists from diverse faith traditions reflect on their experiences of the intersection between religion and gender. This virtual event will be hosted by Camelia Bouzerdan and her Intro to Gender Studies class at UMass Lowell. 2021 marks the 24th annual offering of Braided Streams! Please email imogene_stulken@uml.edu for information on how to access this virtual event. 

 

 

Health and Wellness of our BIPOC Leaders Series: Women of Color Thursday, March 11, 4-5:30 PM

REACH LoWELL presents: Health and Wellness of our BIPOC Series: Women of Color in collaboration with the Center for Hope and Healing Inc., Enterprise Bank, and Lowell Community Health Center. 

Please join us as we hear from leaders in our community on their perspectives of the importance of self-care and the care of our BIPOC leaders. Please note this is the first in the series, follow REACH LoWELL on Facebook to learn more about future events. 

About the Panel:

Isa Woldeguiorguis, moderator, is the Executive Director at the Center for Hope and Healing.

Cathy Mercado is the Associate Director of the Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership.

Esther Nganga is the Associate Director of Nursing at the Lowell Community Health Center.

Maria Aybar is the Grant Writer at the Latinx Community Center for Empowerment.

Wendell Tavuyanago, MSW is the Community-Based Clinician at Wayside Youth & Family Support Network.

Please register here for event access. 

 

Wellness Workshop with Colectiva Wellness and Healing Thursday, March 11, 6 PM

Middlesex Community College kicks off their HERStory Series with an introduction to mindfulness and self-love with Elizabeth Delgado of Colectiva Wellness and Healing. Open to the public. Register here to attend. 

Hair Tales Screening and Talkback Friday, March 12, 6 PM

Join Middlesex Community College and Free Soil Arts Collective for a screening of our original production, Hair Tales: Stories of Black Hair-i-Tage, followed by a talkback with the cast. Screening is open to the public, and you can register to attend the screening here. The talkback is specifically curated for women of color. Register for the Women of Color talkback conversation space here. 

 

Poetry Workshop with Jessica Grant-Domond Saturday, March 13, 12 PM

Join Middlesex Community College and the Free Soil Arts Collective to listen and learn from Jessica Grant-Domond, a Boston-based poet transplanted from New York and a Community Social Psychology Practitioner. She loves writing on embodiment and describes her poetry as cave diving into grief, love, blackness, ancestry, joy, fear, and everything in between. Jessica holds a graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Community Social Psychology and an undergraduate degree from New York University where she focused on decolonial psychology and public health respectively. Open to the public. Register here to attend. 

 

 

Latinas … We Are  Monday, March 22 6 PM

Latinas … Somos  Jueves, Marzo 25 6 PM

Join CBA for a fun and interactive presentation on a few of the many Latinas who have made history – and our event will include trivia with prizes! Program presented in English on Monday, March 22, en español jueves Marzo 25. Check out the events on facebook for access information: english, español. 

 

 

Community Gardens: Building Sustainable and Accessible Food Systems Wednesday, March 31 4:30 PM

Join the Gulf of Maine Institute for a panel discussion, with Elise Evans of the Beacon Food Forest and Mill City Grows Executive Director Jessica Wilson, about community gardens and food forests! Learn about how they are organized, maintained, and how they address issues of sustainability and social justice. 

Beacon Food Forest, in Seattle, WA. is a leading example of a community-managed food forest in the US, and operates in collaboration with the city of Seattle and their P-patch, community agriculture program. Agroecology and permaculture drive their practice.

Mill City Grows, in Lowell, MA, is a community garden with an educational and community support mission. They host educational workshops and volunteer days and  work with the city of Lowell to provide fresh produce to those in the community that need it. 

Register for this event here.

Special Post-Women’s Week Events!

Day Without Violence Lecture with Fania Davis: Restorative Justice, Racial Justice, and Peacebuilding Tuesday, April 6, 12:30-2 PM

Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance conversation with Fania Davis: The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice: Resources for Cultivating Peace in Our Communities Thursday, April 15, 6-7:30 PM

The UMass Lowell Peace and Conflict Studies Institute will host two discussions with Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies Fania Davis. Fania E. Davis is a leading national voice on restorative justice. She is a longtime social justice activist, civil rights attorney, restorative justice practitioner, writer, professor, and scholar with her PhD in Indigenous Knowledge. She came of age in Birmingham, Alabama during the social ferment of the civil rights era; the murder of two close childhood friends in the 1963 Sunday school bombing crystallized within Fania a passionate commitment to social transformation. For the next decades, she was active in the Civil Rights, Black liberation, women’s, prisoners’, peace, anti-racial violence, and anti-apartheid movements. Studying with indigenous healers, particularly in Africa, catalyzed Fania’s search for a healing justice, and ultimately led her to bring restorative justice to Oakland, CA, where she became the Founding Director of Restorative Justice of Oakland Youth. The recipient of numerous honors and fellowships, Fania was named a New Civil Rights Leader of the 21st Century by the Los Angeles Times. 

To register for either the virtual lecture or conversation, please sign up here.

 

Thank you to our 2021 Sponsors for their continued financial support of Lowell Women’s Week

Gold Sponsors

Lowell Women’s Week is a component fund of Greater Lowell Community Foundation.