The new West Michigan Women's Studies Council, a consortium of professionals from six area college and university women's programs, is announcing its formation by hosting its first public event: a free night of discussion and laughter featuring nationally-acclaimed comedian/actress Margaret Cho.
The award-winning, Korean-American celebrity is perhaps best known for her 1994 television sitcom, All-American Girl, and more recently for her critically-acclaimed off-Broadway show, I'm the One That I Want. Her performance is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 26, at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain Street, downtown Grand Rapids. It is open to the public free of charge.
The event is sponsored by the West Michigan Women's Studies Council, a consortium of faculty members and administrators representing women's studies programs and women's centers at Aquinas College, Calvin College, Davenport University, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, and Hope College. The group was formed in late 2001 with the purpose of increasing awareness of gender issues and to share ideas and work together on community projects that enhance the lives of women in West Michigan.
Collaboration is a key element, said Judy Whipps, coordinator of the Liberal Studies Program at Grand Valley. By bringing people together the council creates a winning combination for all -- particularly for students and the region.
The feminist approach to education is a collaborative approach, said Whipps. We wanted to carry that model into our community work and support each others' projects, students, and careers.
The council grew out of informal brainstorming meetings between Whipps, fellow GVSU philosophy faculty member Maria Cimitile, and Susan Haworth-Hoeppner, director of the Jane Hibbard Idema Women's Studies Center at Aquinas College. Fifteen women now make up the group, which usually meets biweekly and has grown not only in size, but in support and enthusiasm, say participants.
It is exciting to have so many women's programs working together to accomplish their goals collectively, said Haworth-Hoeppner.
The coalition's activities have been saluted by the Nokomis Foundation, which has awarded the Women's Studies Council grants totaling $120,000 to sponsor a speakers series over the next three years. The Nokomis Foundation is a community foundation founded by area resident Twink Frey to support issues concerning women and girls.
The council's first event features Margaret Cho, whose early stand-up comedy routine in the comedy club above her parents' San Francisco bookstore blossomed into performances at hundreds of colleges and, soon thereafter, television appearances that started her on the road to comedy celebrity.
Her groundbreaking and controversial, yet short-lived, ABC sitcom All-American Girl followed, after which Cho appeared in some films and continued performing to sold-out audiences across the country. Of her dozen or so films, John Woo's Face/Off with Nicolas Cage, and Rugrats, where she was the voice of the detective, were the most widely distributed.
In 1999, Margaret's off-Broadway show, I'm The One That I Want, toured the country and was made into a movie. The show and tour set records and won New Yorkmagazine's Performance of the Year award and was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Great Performances of the Year. Released as a movie in 2000, the concert was called the indie success of the year by the Sundance Channel. Her book of the same name is now a national bestseller and will be available in paperback in May.
