Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said she would have been happy to launch the Womanhood Project at the most prominent monument to a woman that stands in San Jose. But there isn’t one. And that has been a driving force behind the campaign to celebrate the accomplishments of women in the city and the surrounding communities.
“What was striking to me was that I had no place to invite any of you to that recognized the role of women in our community,” she said at a reception held Friday night at the MACLA gallery in downtown San Jose. “Womanhood is a public art and digital media project that’s going to honor Santa Clara County women who contributed to this region and the world. Our time for recognition is long overdue.”
The county’s Office of Women’s Policy started the initiative in 2020. A team led by Barbara Goldstein, San Jose’s former public art director, held workshops and conversations about how to represent women in public spaces last year. That led to13 artists being commissioned to create works putting the spotlight on 25 women who have made a big impact in San Jose and the county, especially in the field of performing arts.
These temporary pieces were created by a group of incredible local artists — Tamiko Rast, Sukey Bryan, Yolanda Guerra, Kathy Aoki, Dana Harris Seeger and Alexandra Luong — and include storefront installations and banners that are situated around the downtown core, such as Paseo de San Antonio, the Hammer Theatre Center and QMunity on Post Street. The women they depict are a diverse group that includes former Mayor Susan Hammer, philanthropist Carmen Castellano, artist and business owner Cherri Lakey, Superior Court Judge LaDoris Codell, Cinequest co-founder Kathleen Powell, LGBTQ activist Wiggsy Sivertsen, and poets Arlene Biala and Janice Lobo Sapigao.
Chavez said the plan to spend $5 million to acknowledge women around the county spurred a lot of hate mail, but some of the pushback also came from women themselves, who said the money could be better spent fighting domestic violence or sexual assault. “And we are doing that,” she said. “But let’s do more.”
You can find out more about the Womanhood Project on its website, www.womanhoodproject.org.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF: President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night was a special one for Sunnyvale Community Services Executive Director Marie Bernard. That’s because she was a “virtual” guest of Rep. Ro Khanna, who released a statement saying that the work that Bernard and Sunnyvale Community Services do to help the hungry and homeless was worth celebrating with the honor.
“With Marie at the helm, Sunnyvale Community Services helps over 10,000 clients each year with basic needs, including rental assistance, healthy foods, case management services, and referrals to benefits,” Khanna said. “The organization goes above and beyond for everyone it serves, supplying low-income families with school supplies as well as food and gift cards during the holiday season. They truly are a hub for safety net services in Silicon Valley.”
While in-person capacity limits meant Bernard couldn’t be at the Capitol in D.C. for the big show, she was still thrilled to be invited to a VIP reception online before the speech that included Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to President Biden, several elected officials and other guests working to address hardships across the country.
“This was an unexpected and a very rare honor,” said Bernard, who was allowed to attend a virtual reception for guests before the speech. “I am still a bit speechless.”
That’s OK. President Biden took care of that part.
TELLING THEIR STORIES: The documentary “Queer Silicon Valley” premiered last Friday night at the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San Jose, showcasing the stories of 22 history-making activists who struggled against discrimination from the 1970s to the present day.
The film, directed by San Jose State professor Bob Gliner, is a companion to the exhibition, “Coming Out: 50 Years of Queer Resistance and Resilience,” on display at History San Jose and available online at www.queersiliconvalley.org. BAYMEC Community Foundation Executive Director Ken Yeager, who co-produced the film with Gliner, said each of the people interviewed in the film could have been the subject of their own hourlong documentary.
“Their impact on queer politics and culture has been profound. I’m proud to give them the recognition they deserve,” said Yeager, who broke barriers himself as the first openly gay person to be elected to the San Jose City Council and Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
If you weren’t at the premiere and want to see the film, you can catch it on CreaTV’s channels on Comcast. It airs Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on Ch. 15; Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 2 p.m. on Ch. 27; and Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and Friday at 12:30 p.m. on Ch. 30.
Source: www.mercurynews.com