Women make impression on the arts

by Beth Conahan a&e editor

Women's History Month is almost over. It's time to give a moment to the women who made a difference in literature and didn't get a whole lot of credit for it in their own time.

Kate Chopin (1851-1904)

She didn't start out with the goal to write a novel that would shock the socks off the critics of her time but that's exactly what she did. At the age of 32, she lost her husband and had to find away to support her six children. So she began writing. She started out with Creole tales and made a name for herself as an author with a talent for portraying local color. But in 1899, she dropped the bombshell by publishing "The Awakening." It threw her conservative, 19th -century critics into a whirlwind. It deals with the taboo subjects of women's sexuality and infidelity. It's not hard to imagine why this book didn't get too much credit in her lifetime. It was such a scandal that she actually stopped publication on the book and it wasn't heard of again until the late '60s just in time for the women's rights movement. Not bad for a single mom trying to pay the bills huh?

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

You've heard the name and you've no doubt heard of her novels, too. She was born the seventh of eight children. She never married but is thought to have had one proposal. She wrote from the time she was a young girl and even finished her first novel when she was 14. When I was 14, I was playing dodge ball in gym class. Maybe you haven't heard of this one, "Love and Friendship." But you definitely know her first major novel, "Sense and Sensibility." If you haven't seen the movie, give the book a shot. When she was 21, she published what is perhaps her greatest novel, "Pride and Prejudice." Clearly her books still hold an appeal today. I mean, there was a while when they kept making movies out of them. organization, saved the Keswick in order to convert it into a perforrning arts center.

Sappho (?-580 B.C.)

All right, so no major motion pictures are being made out of her poetry. She's still probably the greatest female poets of the classical world, inspiring poets of her time and winning critical acclaim centuries later. She lived on Lesbos, an island in Greece. It was an awfully long time ago, so the details of her life are sketchy. Some say she was married. Some say otherwise. Although only fragments of her poetry still exist, you have to love a scandal and her life and works caused enough of that. She ran a school for young, unmarried women. They learned the importance of social graces, composition, singing and how to recite poetry. After she died, however, something hit the fan. People started to wonder about her sexual preference. In fact, people even began to wonder what the women really learned at her school. It became such a big deal that they say the term "lesbian" started because of Sappho and her home, Lesbos.

The Keswick soon went under major renovations and reopened under private ownership. The theater now has a 300,000watt electric service, sprinkler systems, and a fire warning system.

Recently, the building's facade was refurbished and the ornamental plastering in the inner lobby, main stairwell, and mezzanine was completed.

One of the theater's most historic pieces is a 1,700 pipe 19rank Moller Theatre pipe organ, which is also undergoing restoration.

The Keswick is now one of the most diverse and active venues on the East Coast. Such acts as Judy Collins, Phish, Ani DiFranco and Gallagher have graced the stage of the Keswick Theater.

Check out Lucia Mad on March 30, 31, April 5, 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. at the Red Cloud in Grace Hall. On Saturday, March 31, the show is free with a Cabrini College l.D.