2016 West Hollywood Women's Equality Day Celebration! 

RVSP Now! 

 

Join the West Hollywood City Council, the West Hollywood Women's Advisory Board and the National Women's History Project for an empowering and inspirational event commemorating the 96th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote in the United States.  The celebration will feature a screening of the short film Inez Milholland ~ Forward into Light  by fimmaker Martha Wheelock.  This short documentary tells the story of American icon, Inez Milholland who broke conventions with her striking conscience, advocating for gender equality, pacifism, racial justice, unions and free speech in the early Twentieth Century.  She became the voice of suffrage.

Program

5:45 pm– Check In Opens

6:00 pm – Interactive Festivities Begin!  Voter registration pop-up booth/Photo Booth/Interactive Tables/ Silent Auction/Raffle & Reception

6:30 pm  - Digital Shorts

6:45pm – Formal Program Begins with an Official Welcome by the West Hollywood City Council & Film Screening of Inez Milholland-Forward Into Light  by Martha Wheelock

7:15 pm – Special Performance featuring actress Amy Walker and  Panel Discussion with Maria Montero, Martha Wheelock, Zoe Nicholson and Amy Walker, moderated by Councilmember Lindsey P. Horvath

7:45 pm – Interactive Festivities & Dessert Reception

8:05 pm - 2nd Screening of Inez Milholland - Forward Into Light 

8:15 pm – Silent Auction Closes/Raffle Prize Winners Announced

 

The West Hollywood Women's Equality Day Celebration
will also feature speakers:

  

María Montero, Co-President, League of Women Voters of Los Angeles (LWVLA)

María Montero received a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a M.A. from CSULA, both degrees in Political Science. She teaches American government and global politics in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH). Prior to joining CSUDH, she taught politics at Santa Monica College and was a bilingual teacher at LAUSD. Originally from San Francisco, María has lived and worked internationally, including several years in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ecuador. She is a member of the Western Political Science Association and has served as a consultant with various organizations. María became an active member of League of Women Voters of Los Angeles (LWVLA) in 2011 when she worked on the Common Core Consensus and the Realignment Program. She served on the LWVLA board as secretary and chair of the Program Committee before becoming Co-President in 2015.

Martha Wheelock, Filmmaker 

Martha has combined education and filmmaking for over three decades when she discovered that there were so very few films about women and women’s history for the “new” subject area – Women’s Studies. Frustrated that she had to teach only male writers in her American Literature course caused her to make films on eclipsed women writers like Kate Chopin, May Sarton, and Madeleine L’Engle.  For over 40 years, Martha taught English, Ethics and Women’s Studies in both high school and college, East and West Coast, most recently, at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.

Martha is on the board of the National Women’s History Project, and Girls Learn International, a mentor at Girls Today, Women Tomorrow, a member of the Alliance of Women Directors, and a graduate of Earlham College (BA), New York University ( MA, PhD) and AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women. She is the Executive Director of Wild West Women, Inc, a non-profit company she co-founded to produce films on women in order to provide positive role models for women and girls.

Zoe Nicholson, author and activist

Activist, author and speaker, Zoe Nicholson holds a B.A. in Theology, Quincy University, 1969 and a M.A. in Ethics, USC, 1975. She began her professional life teaching high school for five years. In 1976, she opened and operated The Magic Speller Bookstore, a women’s bookstore in Newport Beach, CA. In 1982, she joined six women in Springfield, Illinois., in a public and political fast for 37 days in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Her memoir is The Hungry Heart ~ A Women's Fast for Justice, from Lune Soleil Press.

 

Amy Walker, actor

Amy Walker is an actress, singer, and writer/producer, who has been featured on TEDx, the TODAY Show, NPR, Inside Edition, and more.Her passion is performing in productions that entertain and inspire positive change. Her online videos have garnered over 40 million views on her YouTube Channel and beyond, from the viral "21 Accents", to memorable characters, songs, and inspirational insights. She relished collaborating with Jack White and Third Man Records, to produce "A Discourse on Accents", available from iTunes and Third Man Records. In 2015, she toured internationally with her one-woman show, Amy Walker: Inside Out.   In 2015, actress Amy Walker, performed Inez Milholland’s powerful, final speech, “If Democracy Means Anything” in her one-woman variety show, Amy Walker: Inside Out.  Inez's transcendent activism resonates with Amy's mission as an actress, singer, and writer to perform in productions that entertain and inspire positive action in fulfilling our true potential.

 

There will be a silent auction of suffrage movement memorabilia, raffle prizes, a pop-up voter information booth hosted by the West Hollywood City Clerk's Office and a reception.  

This is a free community event open to all!

Co-sponsors:

• West Hollywood Women's Advisory Board
• National Women's History Project - The National Women's History Project is an American non-profit organization dedicated to honoring and preserving women's history.  

                       

Organizational Partners:

California Women's Law Center

National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles

California NOW

Women in Film Los Angeles

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles

June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives

Hollywood NOW

Ms. Magazine

Feminist Majority Foundation 

Women's Intercultural Network

Iranian Circle of Women's Intercultural Network