Photographer Paula Allen will give a lecture entitled “Against All Odds: Women Around the World Demand Justice” at 7 p.m. February 20 in Milliken Auditorium. Sponsored by the NMC Office of Student Life; admission is free.
Allen has been an ‘activist with a camera’ for more than two decades. She has concentrated on photographing women around the world in their courageous and often invisible confrontations with violence and oppression. Her lecture will include photographs from her travels documenting women’s determination to pursue freedom, truth and justice. Among her destinations:
- A safe house in Kenya where girls escape female genital mutilation
- A village in Kosovo in which only the women and children survived the war
- The streets of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where women march to demand investigations of the murders of young female factory workers
- Asia, where ‘comfort women’ break decades of silence by telling their stories of military sexual slavery by Japan during World War II
Allen’s appearance is part of V-Day Traverse City 2012, a collaboration by NMC Student Life, student groups and Third Level Crisis Center to bring awareness and attention to the issue of violence against women and girls. V-Day will culminate with an April 30 performance of The Vagina Monologues in Milliken Auditorium.