By Priya Shahi & Isabelle Desilier
To celebrate Women’s History Month, a free folk music concert, “Images of Women,” will be performed at Peninsula Public Library in Lawrence, New York on March 14.
Held one week after International Women’s Day, the concert performed and written by Robin Greenstein, is a reworking of traditional folk and Afro-folk music focused on highlighting and empowering women. The performance is named after the paintings that her late mother conceived in 1974, the Sister Chapel.
“There was an air of consciousness raising everywhere,” Greenstein said. “Women were realizing they’re being paid less, they weren’t getting the same promotion- there was a tremendous amount of sex discrimination.”
Greenstein, who was signed to Bob Dylan’s publishing company, has performed this show predominantly in colleges and universities, only recently taking the time from recording her albums to perform at local libraries in order to educate as many people as possible.
“We are excited about offering this original programming experience to our patrons,” Janet Schneider, Programming Director at Peninsula Public Library, said. “Robin’s acclaimed folk music combines with her unique historical perspective of the Women’s Movement.”
Images of Women was inspired by Greenstein’s late mother’s, Ilise Greenstein, cooperative art piece, The Sister Chapel. The Chapel, 11 images of varying women who represent the artists’ female heroes, was on display from 1978 till 1980 due to lack of room at P.S.1, an experiential exhibition space on Long Island City. It will be reopened permanently the evening of Greenstein’s performance.
“The paintings are 9 ft. tall,” Mary Salvante, Rowan University Gallery Director, said. “When you enter the installation, all of the paintings together, while you’re standing inside the Chapel, kind of engulfs you and there’s this feeling of the tremendous amount of energy from knowing the accomplishments of the women subjects in the paintings.”
The Sister Chapel and Images of Women are both results of women who were influenced by the courage shown in a time when women were often shut down and disregarded. Throughout history, women’s achievements have been overlooked or stolen by men more powerful than them.
“The #Metoo movement I think is terrific,” Greenstein said. “Its exposing what women have endured for decades. There are women in more accomplished positions now, and that has really changed. But it’s still not where it should be. Women artists are complaining about how the major museums, their collections are way less women than men.”
In art and in history, women have been struggling to get recognized, Salvante said. Non-profit organizations have sprung up in order to help young girls and women not only get recognized, but achieve as much as they possibly can, while also giving them the tools to effect change to ensure that they are not overlooked in the future.
“I think we are living in a very unique time,” Lesley Mazzotta, president and executive director of One World Girls, a non-profit organization, said. “Women in many different platforms and ways have been able to use their voices to shed light on issues that having been affecting us for a very long time and that’s exciting for us, when even as early as ten years ago, that may not have been possible.”
Long Island Activists is an activist group born out of the Bernie Sanders movement comprised of over 1,000 members. They use their platform to support women’s rights and issues by attending demonstrations and being on the front line of communication with elected leaders.
“it is useful to have a month of the year when we remind people that women existed historically and that they are half the story of America’s past,” a member of the activist group said about the importance of Women’s History Month. “Perhaps there will come a time when our studies of the past will accomplish this, making women’s history month unnecessary. But we are not there yet.”
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