| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
March Issue 2003
Vista Studios in Columbia, SC, Hosts Artists for Women in Black
Artists for Women in Black is a network of Columbia, SC, area visual, literary, performing artists, and concerned people who have come together to support the work of the Women in Black through artistic expression. Women in Black gather in silence weekly to oppose war and reflect on women elsewhere in the world who feel war's consequences.
The group plans to raise public awareness of their goals through an art event held Mar. 2 - 5, 2003, in Gallery 80808, Vista Studios in Columbia, SC, that will include an art exhibit, performance, and readings. Like the courageous Women in Black, we stand, through the art and performances in this event, in vigil, protesting war, rape as a tool of war, and ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world.
Women in Black is an international peace network. It is not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action. Women in Black vigils started in Argentina in Apr., 1977 with a dozen women looking for their children, "the Disappeared."
In Jan., 1988, Palestinian and Israeli women in Israel joined together to protest against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Women in Black has developed in the United States, England, Italy, Spain, Azerbaijan and in the former Yugoslavia, where women in Belgrade have stood in weekly vigils since 1991 to protest war and the Serbian regime's policies of nationalist aggression. Women in Black New York have been standing in solidarity with the women of Belgrade since 1993.
In Columbia, SC, Women in Black first gathered on Oct. 3, 2002, to oppose war. They stand in silence and hold signs saying "No War" and "Women in Black Against War on Iraq." They plan to stand "until war is NOT declared." Men are invited to participate also. Between 20 and 50 people gather each Wed. at 5pm in front of the State Capitol building, in all kinds of weather, committed to being a presence for peace.
For more information on Artists for Women in Black or the event planned for Mar. 2 - 5 contact Mary Gilkerson at 803/799-1368 or e-mail at (mary@marygilkerson.com). The Women in Black website is at (www.womeninblack.net), and the Carolina Peace Resource Center website is at (www,carolinapeace.org).
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.