The Gender Fairness Heart hosted the seventh Unique Womxn’s Narratives (OWN) on April 23, the place performers introduced unique items revolving round womanhood.
The “x” in girl permits individuals to replicate on communities which were excluded from womanhood and “it represents the unknown, the futures and imaginations that may exist past systemic oppression,” in keeping with the OWN pamphlet.
This yr, OWN featured 10 poems centering round various facets of womanhood experiences and identities, together with home violence, misgendering and most cancers. One among these poems, titled “Patent Poems #3077812: Staple,” was written by English lecturer Katrina Prow and mentioned the subject of miscarriage.
Liberal arts and engineering senior Analisa Viloria carried out the poem because the character Molly, who was her interpretation of the piece.
“I personally haven’t been by way of the expertise of getting a miscarriage, however I think about that piece describes the grief, the method of dealing with, like processing [the] feelings and experiences that include having a miscarriage,” Viloria mentioned.
Viloria had been part of the OWN solid for 3 years with this yr being her first time doing it in-person. She carried out one other piece –– “4 Half Poem” –– with fellow solid members Zeya Longid and Kelly Mok. The piece was written by Cal Poly alumna Caprial Koe and talked about anti-Asian harassment and sexual harassment.
“It touches on [Asian and] Asian American historical past and the stereotypes that Asian and Asian American ladies have fallen into for the previous a whole lot of years and the way that historical past has affected us now,” Viloria mentioned. “After which additionally, not less than in my part, the final half touches on our reference to our ancestors and actually honoring what they’ve completed and the work that they’ve completed to get us right here.”
OWN Co-Director and mechanical engineering senior Chloe Chou additionally wrote a bit titled “phrases (or lack thereof),” which was carried out by liberal arts and engineering junior Kelly Mok.
“It’s about my girlfriend, who I’ve been courting for over two years now,” Chou mentioned. “It’s a end result of all of the occasions I’ve tried to jot down a poem encompassing how a lot she means to me, one thing I’ve truthfully struggled with regardless of being a contributor to OWN previously.”
Chou had co-directed the digital OWN 2021, however this was her first time directing “such a big scale operation,” she mentioned.
“I’ve had many members of the group attain out and inform me how appreciative they had been to expertise an in-person OWN once more and the way highly effective this one was,” Chou mentioned.
Soil science junior Sarah Ramirez was one of many many who attended the present. She believed the solid and manufacturing group “did a very wonderful job in encapsulating so many various points, however they did it by way of a number of lenses and made it tremendous numerous.”
“I really feel like everybody within the viewers related indirectly to one of many performances in the present day,” Ramirez mentioned.
