Submitted by Women’s Intergenerational Living Legacy Organization
In conjunction with Tacoma Arts Month, Pierce County’s newly formed Women’s Intergenerational Living Legacy Organization (WILLO) is hosting the WILLO First Annual Storytelling Festival Sunday, October 12, noon to 3:30 p.m. at the Broadway Center for Performing Arts Theater on the Square, 901 Broadway.
This free to the public Festival will introduce the initial ten Tacoma women whose stories will be featured via WILLO’s interactive, multi media mobile display at various public arts, education and cultural venues in Tacoma throughout the 2015 calendar year. The featured WILLO women include Lea Armstrong, Eva & Ali Brooks, Rosa Franklin, Theresa Pan Hosley, Melissa Jorgensen, Griselda “Babe” Lehrer, Dawn Lucien, Maxine Mimms and Cindy Niemi.
This particular group of women provides an intergenerational perspective on current and historic issues affecting the lives of women and girls living in the South Puget Sound—from both well established and emerging voices of women and girls residing in the greater Tacoma community.
The debut WILLO Storytelling Festival will be ‘birthed’ with a traditional Native American blessing by Connie McCloud, welcome by Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland, featuring local storyteller Elaine Grinnell and WILLO story by founder Seong Shin. The ten women will be interviewed by Amanda Westbrook in an informal, living room style “conversation” about their personal ‘her stories’ of family, professional and cultural life located within the context of the greater South Sound/Tacoma community. The event will also feature interactive activities for all ages including mosaic art and one minute videos.
WILLO is a grassroots effort spear headed by Seong Shin, principal at McGranahan Architects in Tacoma, who envisioned a women’s museum/gathering space dedicated to sharing and vocalizing the stories of local women and girls. A steering committee formed in Spring 2014 to launch the first annual storytelling festival, with the intent of producing ten women’s stories per year to be featured in multi media, travelling displays that will anchor WILLO’s story collection.
WILLO Story teams are forming currently with girls from local high schools teaming up with Bates Technical College digital production students to compile, edit and produce the final stories to be featured in the displays. Eventually, WILLO plans to identify a permanent site to house the collection and function as a gathering/event space.
The Broadway Center for Performing Arts has signed on to a community partnership agreement with WILLO acting as fiscal agent until the organization can acquire official non profit status. The debut WILLO event is sponsored by DaVita Healthcare Partners, BNY Mellon, Key Bank, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and contributions by local donors.
