WHC to Join with MUSE to Celebrate International Women’s Day

We are so honored to be joining forces with MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir for our second annual BREAD & ROSES: A Celebration of International Women’s Day, Friday March 8 at 7pm in the Foundry Theater, 920 Corry St. in Yellow Springs.

Our title and opening song, “Bread and Roses” comes out of the 1912 women’s textile workers’ strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The song simply states: we want both bread [a living wage, fair compensation, equal pay for equal work] and roses [beauty, art…we also want to flourish].

As is their custom, MUSE, under the direction of interim director Reina Dickey, will perform poignant, powerful songs of protest. For example, MUSE took the song “Bella Ciao,” an Italian folk song that was adopted as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance in 1943, and wrote a verse in Farsi to support the women jailed in Iran after Mahsa Amini was killed by police in 2022. Another song included in their lineup is Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”

Selections from the World House Choir will include a cameo appearance with Columbus-based returning citizen Draye Mitchell singing solo on Audra Day’s stirring anthem “Rise Up.”

Also performing in the program are [L to R] Ashley Perry Smith, Dawn Knickerbocker, and Omope Carter Daboiku.

Yellow Springs resident Dawn Knickerbocker, a citizen of White Earth Nation, will keynote the program. As a grassroots organizer for over twenty years on the front lines of Indigenous and earth-related matters, she serves as the Board President of the Urban Native Collective. She is also Vice President of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest, and most representative Native American/ American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the Tribes and resist U.S. federal government pressure for the termination of tribal rights and assimilation of their People. Dawn holds a masters in Human Rights Practice and is a published author, poet, and national speaker.

Other highlights include the inimitable storyteller Omope Carter Daboiku and dancer Ashley Perry Smith. Yellow Springs’ own string band will accompany two rousing audience sign-alongs.

This is a not-to-be-missed celebration of local, regional, and nationally recognized women coming together to think globally and act up locally. Childcare is available but you must call 937-207-1517 before March 1 to reserve a place for your child.

All are welcome and admission is free. Donations are appreciated.