Three Chicago Cultural Organizations Celebrate Women History Month By Showcasing the Art and Achievements of Latinas, African Americans and Multicultural Women

Chicago Women's History Month
Video from "Voces de Mujeres" exhibit and even in Pilsen
Get News Nearby

South Side Chicago, 60608

All across Chicago, from Pilsen to Hyde Park and online, diverse Chicago community organizations celebrated Women's History Month through art exhibits and blog posts.

The Chicago organizations that celebrated women in March included Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery, Unieros, and The DuSable Museum of African American History, which highlighted the achievements of local Latina artists, African American women, and multicultural women around the world.

Paintings by Patricia Perez
Get News Nearby

On Saturday, March 7, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Chicago artist Amara Betty Martin and Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery organized an all-women exhibit called “Voces de Mujeres."

Get News Nearby

More than 12 Chicago artists exhibited works and female musicians performed at the “Voces de Mujeres” exhibit and cultural event at Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery.

Get News Nearby

Celebrated each year in March, International Women’s Day is an annual global celebration of women’s economic, social, and political achievements. Originally called International Working Women’s Day, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in February 1909.

Participating women artists at Voces de Mujeres were Teresa Magaña, Diana Solís, Amara Betty Martin, Constance Kostrevski, Katherine Del Real, Susan Romero, Erika Doyle, Rosy Gonzalez, Vanessa Sánchez, Victoria Martínez, Patricia Reyes, Alma Domínguez, Lara Kaage, and Alyssa Stone.

Jewelry exhibitors at the event were Madre de Perla Designs, Patricia Carlos Jewelry, and Mano y Metal: Handcrafted Accessories for Him & Her. 

Performances at the event featured Poetry/WordArt with Sandra Treviño, Elizabeth Marino, Irasema González, and Lily Be and live music sets by Vivian García Las Manzanitas.

Online, Chicago-based multicultural organization Unieros honored the achievements of women around the world. Read the Unieros blogpost "10 Inspiring Women From Around the World to Celebrate During International Women's Day" about the women who have made impact in their society both online and offline.

Get News Nearby

On the South Side of Chicago, the DuSable Museum of African American History celebrates Women's History Month with “FREE AT FIRST: The Audacious Journey of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.”

The exhibit salutes the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is curated and designed by three dynamic, visionary women: jazz advocate Janis Lane Ewart, retired CEO of DuSable Museum Dr. Carol Adams, and muralist and fine artist Dorian Sylvain.

The women have assembled historic and iconic photographs, a musical soundscape inclusive of AACM founders and the newest generation, films and videos, performance costumes, uniquely crafted awards of recognition, and performance posters from around the globe all displayed on beautifully designed backgrounds. It includes original instruments like the frankiphone modeled on the African mbira by Kelan Phil Cohran and the "StepHopThread Airbone," an interactive installation piece by Douglas Ewart.

"The celebration of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is the culmination of a conversation that I had with [co-founder] Muhal Richard Abrams and Jeff Donaldson about the energy that created a level of cultural institution building in Chicago that is unsurpassed," said Dr. Carol Adams, co-curator and catalyst for the exhibition.

"We dreamed about a single exhibition that would celebrate many of our iconic cultural institutions including the grandmother of them all -- the Southside Community Arts Center. We should have known that all that was too powerful for one show! But we are proud to have inaugurated a series that presents the ongoing work of these iconic organizations and hope they rekindle the energy that inspired their great accomplishments for generations to come."

FREE AT FIRST exhibit is on view at DuSable Museum located at 740 E. 56th Place through September 6, 2015.

ABOUT THE AACM

The AACM is marking its 50th anniversary with a year-long series of concerts, discussions, and other programs. Founded in Chicago in 1965 in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, it took its cue from the movement to define itself. The exhibition's title is derived from the AACM's audacity to compose, perform, publish, own, and institutionalize their own music and to prepare future exponents of their genre-bending, experimental form through the free AACM School of Music.