She Creates, a multi-event festival

SHE CREATES (March 8 – 26th)

Neruda Arts shines a light on women in the arts during this month-long festival of live performances in theatre and music, art exhibitions and installations, and social engagement. Events will be presented throughout the Waterloo Region including at Neruda Arts Studio in St. Jacobs, at the Kitchener Farmer's Market, in Waterloo near the Perimeter Institute as well as a private event at Conestoga Public School.

• She Imagines
• She Enchants
• She Speaks
• She Resists
• She Illustrates
• She Performs

Join us at one, two, or all of these events celebrating women in the arts. Many of the events are free; studio performances are $25 and seating is limited! Get your tickets now!

SHE IMAGINES

• Opens March 8th, International Women's Day
• An exhibition at Neruda Arts Studio
• 6-9 pm
• FREE ADMISSION

Let us introduce you to eight female local and international visual artists throughout the month, in the gallery in our Studio in St. Jacobs. These amazing artists represent a myriad of cultures, where their visions and imaginings are born of diverse and interesting experiences.

Featured Artists:

• Maria Fernanda Ibarra (Local-Colombia)
• Tania Iraheta (Chile-Toronto)
• Victoria Cobo (Colombia-Toronto)
• Olena Leus (Ukraine)
• Roxana Bahrami (Local-Iran)
• Cathy Goudie (Local Emerging)
• Alexandra Porter (Local Emerging)
• Laura Viatela (Local-Colombia)

The exhibition will be open throughout the month of March. If you can't make it to the opening on March 8, you can view the exhibition when attending one of our other "She Creates" events or arrange a private viewing by contacting Isabel at 519-502-9677‬ to arrange an appointment.

SHE ENCHANTS

• Friday, March 10th
• Reading to children at Conetogo Public School
• PRIVATE

Paddy Gillard-Bentley and Maria Fernanda Ibarra will each read their short stories to a classroom at Conestogo Public School. The children will be delighted by The Twilight of Enchantment, a Celtic tale of how the sun and moon came to be, authored and read by Paddy Gillard-Bentley, and Por Amor (For Love) A Spanish story of an orphan seeking story by authored and read by Maria Fernanda Ibarra (in Spanish).

SHE SPEAKS (Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th) - [Free Event]

• Saturday, March 11th - 7 pm & Sunday March 12th - 2 pm
• Performances at Neruda Arts Studio
• FREE ADMISSION

Flush Ink Productions is partnering with Neruda Arts to celebrate women in theatre. Readings of 8 short plays or monologues will be performed, book in hand. The plays are written by local, and international playwrights with a talkback to follow. This will be the 17th annual "She Speaks" for Flush Ink Productions.

Donations gratefully accepted at the door will go to The Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region.

SHE RESISTS

• Friday March 17th, 7 pm
• Concert at Neruda Arts Studio, St Jacobs
• TICKETS: $25.00

She Resists begins on Friday evening, with a concert by Saba Zameni. Saba, who recently moved to Canada after being arrested in Iran for being a female singer, has been adding her voice to the growing protest and will perform her music, live. At the recent concert we had with Saba, the audience was mesmerised by her talent as she emotionally and beautifully expressed herself through her music.

• March 18th, 11 am
• Kitchener Market Plaza
• FREE

A free, live performance by the Saba Zameni musical artist from Iran. Neruda Arts stands with the women of Iran. Join us on Saturday March 18th at the piazza at the Kitchener Market, in support of a country fighting for their rights and lives.

SHE ILLUSTRATES

• Sunday March 19th 2 – 4 pm
• Behind the Permiter Institute, Caroline St, Waterloo
• FREE

This exhibition is taken from the catalog Chilean Women in Comics a book that showcases the talent and works of 56 professionals from the current graphic novel scene.

We are celebrating Women in Comics on Sunday, March 19th when the exhibition will be installed along the Laurel Trail behind the Perimeter Institute, near the Clay and Glass Gallery, at Caroline St N and Erb St W. Join us at the Waterloo Visitors Centre (the old Waterloo train station) betwen 2 and 4 for opening comments and refreshments.

Although 47% of comic artists are women, they are not given the same status as men. For the same work, they are paid 86 cents for every dollar a man earns, and only 16% of the total number of comic artists are BIPOC.

SHE PERFORMS

• Saturday, March 25th and Sunday, March 26th 7-9 pm
• Two plays and a concert each evening at Neruda Arts Studio
• TICKETS: $25.00

The first play Scarlet Rain by Paddy Gillard-Bentley, and directed by Pam Patel will be performed by Hiyam Mahrat.

The second, Isabel Cisterna's The Twelve Step Recovery Program or How to Survive Cultural Shock, is directed by Paddy Gillard-Bentley and will be performed by Isabel herself. This will be the 20-year anniversary of her first incarnation and performance of this piece of theatre.

Each play is approximately 30 minutes.

LUTA CRUZ - Following the plays, join us for the amazing Luta Cruz – an incredibly heterogeneous Afro-Chilean woman: performance artist, songwriter, singer, and anti-racist activist. She is the daughter of a migrant Brazilian woman in Chile, from whom she inherited Portuguese. Luta has traveled through an endless number of musical styles, such as jazz, opera and evangelical music and composes original songs. Luta is an activist for the rights of racialized, hairy, peripheral, migrant women... and her story is about someone who has embarked on a journey towards her own identity recognition, in a context where that was denied to her by all parties.

Luta Cruz can be found on YouTube and Instagram at @lutacruz

Made possible with the generous support from: