Relive the Celebration! Invitation from Jamey Dobbs, President of League of Women Voters Knoxville-Knox County...
We invite you to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the League’s 90th birthday in a special joint presentation on
Saturday, August 7 from 10:30-12:00 noon at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. It's a perfect time to bring your mom, your daughter, your neighbor's daughter, a girlfriend, or grandmother to celebrate and share our exciting history. Afterward, have lunch together and enjoy more activities in the afternoon as part of the East Tennessee History Fair in neighboring Krutch Park. We invite you to wear white in the spirit of our celebration, or come in period-style costume for our contest, or just come as you are!
Woman's Suffrage Coalition leader Wanda Sobieski, and League of Women Voters president, Jamey Dobbs will kick off the event at 10:30 on Market Square stage.
We will have ample seating in front of the stage. For this event, the Coalition is sponsoring a new musical play by Candace Corrigan – the Nashville producer of the movie, “How Southern Women Won the Vote. Corrigan’s new play, "A Vote of Her Own", brings the three Tennessee suffragists in the Suffrage Memorial Statue on Market Square to life, with dialogue taken from their own witty, entertaining, and bold writings, much of it set to original music. The 20 minute musical play will be performed at 11:20, 2:00 pm and 4:30 pm (the 2:00 performance takes place at the Krutch Park music stage). Prior to the play, members of the League will announce the winner of the new Making Democracy Work award, given to a nominee who shares the suffragists’ commitment of strengthening democracy in our own community.
After the play, we will give a prize for the best-dressed suffragist and share a large birthday cake and lemonade. After lunch, visit the League and Suffrage Coalition booth in Krutch Park, with a living "tableau" of suffragists who were jailed for their beliefs will talk to visitors behind bars. Young students will be "living statues," who come alive to tell you the story of a famous character in the Suffrage Movement. You can also have your photo taken with a wonderful re-enactor of the famous suffragist and lawyer, Inez Millholland (profile here), who dressed as Joan of Arc while leading a parade on Washington, and helped win legal battles on the way to the vote.
At 3:30 pm, see a showing of Candace Corrigan’s How Southern Women Won the Vote inside the East Tennessee History Center. This is the musical movie donated to all Knox County public schools and libraries, along with a free curriculum, by the League of Women Voters and four top women business owners. It’s a high quality one-hour film, first shown on public television. Don’t miss this great chance to hear the stories of the passionate and courageous women from our own state and learn about the victorious campaign for women’s voting rights here in the South.
Parking: Parking is free on Saturdays in City lots. The Market Square lot with entrances on Walnut and Wall St. will fill quickly that morning due to the Farmer's Market and Fair. The Farmer's Market starts at 9am. The State Street lot and the Walnut/Clinch lot will have spaces and are both within a short walking distance of Market Square.
Questions? Contact event coordinator Jamey Dobbs, League President, at 548-0818.
Notes from the playwright Candace Corrigan:
On Market Square in Knoxville, Tennessee stands a monument to all the Tennessee women who gave their time (and their money) in support of amending the U.S.
Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Three women, representing all three grand divisions of Tennessee, stand cast in bronze; Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, from Memphis, Tennessee, author, suffrage lecturer, and first woman to vote in Tennessee, Lizzie Crozier French, from Knoxville, Tennessee, teacher, activist, and first woman to address the Tennessee State Bar association on the subject of women's rights, and Anne Dallas Dudley, socialite, and nationally recognized suffragist from Nashville, Tennessee.
On August 7, 2010 these women will be joined by National Woman's Party's founder, Alice Paul, in a new play entitled "A Vote of Her Own", a short one act play based on all of these women's writings and speeches. "It will feature excerpts of speeches and interviews of all four of these women and will also feature music of the suffrage movement, and some of it is quite funny. The actresses will be in period costume, and, in effect, will be stepping out of the statue, and coming to life," says Candace Corrigan, playwright and writer/producer for the public television special 'How Southern Women Won the Vote'. Candace says it will be very entertaining, as well as inspiring.
We invite you to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the League’s 90th birthday in a special joint presentation on
Saturday, August 7 from 10:30-12:00 noon at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. It's a perfect time to bring your mom, your daughter, your neighbor's daughter, a girlfriend, or grandmother to celebrate and share our exciting history. Afterward, have lunch together and enjoy more activities in the afternoon as part of the East Tennessee History Fair in neighboring Krutch Park. We invite you to wear white in the spirit of our celebration, or come in period-style costume for our contest, or just come as you are!
Jamey Dobbs, President
League of Women Voters Knoxville-Knox County
jameydobbs@yahoo.com
(865) 548-0818 cell, (865) 691-6728 home
www.lwvknoxville.org
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
