“The Celebrating Women’s History series is designed to give our community a clearer understanding of the valuable contributions that women have made throughout history. We’re fortunate that our speakers have also written books and give regular lectures, so they can share additional resources with participants who are interested in a deeper study of these topics,” says FCPL Programming Manager Tracy Walker.
Susan Swann, author of Sister Suffragists, will sign books at the Post Road Library on Thursday, March 5 following her presentation, “Suffragists: The Battle for the Vote in Utah,” at 7:00 p.m.
Sister Suffragists is set in Utah, where women had been able to vote since 1870, when the area was a U.S.-governed territory. Swann will explain how the women of Utah were outraged when the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 abolished voting rights they had enjoyed for 17 years and how they fought back.
Though Swann’s book is a work of historical fiction, the novel brings the history of women’s struggle for basic rights, such as the right to vote and the right to control any wages they might earn, to life for contemporary readers.
Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado will present “Matriarchs of Atlanta's Civil Rights Movement” on Saturday, March 7 at 3:30 p.m. at the Post Road Library.
Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, author of Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement 1944-1968, will use images included in the book, as well as those she helped curate for the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden and at Time magazine’s virtual reality exhibition, The March, at the DuSable Museum in Chicago, Illinois, to tell the stories of the unsung heroines who worked tirelessly to usher the Civil Rights Movement into Atlanta.
Dr. Jonathan Beall will describe the roles and contributions of women in guerrilla warfare in modern military history in his “Women in War” presentation at the Hampton Park Library on Sunday, March 8 at 2:00 p.m.
Dr. Beall lectures on modern military history and his presentation is expected to describe the different ways that guerrilla and revolutionary movements rely heavily upon women for political and military leadership, in important support roles, and in combat.
Dr. Johanna Luthman, author of Love, Madness & Scandal: The Life of Frances Coke Villiers, Viscountess Purbeck, will present “Monstrous Regiment of Women: Queens of Europe” at the Sharon Forks Library on Saturday, March 14 at 3:00 p.m.
Dr. Luthman will explain how ruling queens and female regents were more common in the period from 1400 to 1700 than in the 1800s, or even most of the 1900s. Her profiles of Elizabeth I of England, Isabella of Spain, Christina of Sweden, and Catherine the Great of Russia will describe how people harbored misgivings about female political power and the challenges these women faced in leading their kingdoms.
Laura Forczyk, founder of the space consulting firm Astralytical and author of Rise of the Space Age Millennials, will discuss the role of female astronauts and other women leaders in science, policymaking, and business at “Women in the Space Industry” at the Cumming Library on Sunday, March 15 at 2:00 p.m.
In addition to her work as a NASA Subject Matter Expert for planetary science missions, Forczyk has researched astrophysics and planetary science at three NASA centers and frequently comments on space-related policies and initiatives in the national media. Forczyk is expected to discuss the roles of both commercial and government astronauts and give an overview of the NASA’s Artemis project aiming to land the first woman on the Moon by 2024.
Admission to each event in the Celebrating Women’s History series is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.forsythpl.org.
