NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—The Douglass Women’s Center will be hosting their first “Open Mic Against Oppression” event on Wednesday, October 22 at 9:15 PM, in the Douglass Campus Center, located at 100 George Street.
Taking place on the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, the event is intended to be a forum for creatively confronting different forms of power through performance.
“While we’re hoping to bring awareness to that campaign, we will also be talking about oppression in general,” said Kaila Boulware, the Douglass Women’s Center’s event coordinator.
“People can express their ideas about any type of oppression, including gender, race, and class issues.”
Anyone can sign up to perform at the open mic by emailing [email protected].
“We’re expecting poetry, spoken word artists, monologues, and songs,” Boulware said. “But in general, anyone is welcome to just come up and say what’s on their mind.”
“Open Mic Against Oppression” will feature event co-sponsor Verbal Mayhem, the Rutgers University spoken word poetry collective.
Located on the third floor of the Douglass Campus Center, the Women’s Center was founded in 1973 and is intended to be a safe space on campus that provides peer support and a place to organize and raise awareness for social justice and gender causes.
According to its Facebook page, the volunteers who run the center are trained to ensure that the space remains safe and inclusive for all identities.
The center recently held its first “Stich n’ Bitch” event, where volunteers crocheted washcloths and sewed sanitary napkins that were sent to girls in Kenya through the non-profit Days for Girls.
The event is also co-sponsored by Speak Out: Exploring Womanhood, a magazine about gender perspectives and social justice activism published by Rutgers University students.
Editor’s Note: Kaila Boulware is a reporter with New Brunswick Today
