CORVALLIS - Tayyibah Taylor, founder of the only Muslim women's magazine nationally distributed in the United States, will serve as keynote speaker for Oregon State University's three-day Conference on Gender and Culture, which starts on Wednesday, April 20.

"There is no registration - the conference is a free event and open to the public," said Cynthia Briggs, an OSU graduate student who is coordinating the conference for the campus Women's Center.

For a complete list of conference events, check the Web site at http://oregonstate.edu/womenscenter/conference.htm or contact the OSU Women's Center at 541-737-3186.

Taylor's hour-long keynote address, "Women, Power and Leadership," starts at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, in Memorial Union Room 206.

Taylor is editor-in-chief and publisher of Azizah magazine. The magazine's name means "strength and daring" in classic Arabic. Before launching Azizah, Taylor worked as the administrator of the Islamic School of Seattle; an institution she helped found more than two decades ago. She has presented lectures on Islam and Muslim women at national and international conferences.

Headline event for the conference, the university's sixth annual, is Guerrilla Girls On Tour, a feminist theatre collective that performs original plays, street actions and visual work designed to combat sexist, racism and discrimination. Their two-hour show starts at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 in OSU's LaSells Stewart Center. The performance, "Feminists are Funny," is an edgy, humorous take on the history of feminism. The group, based in New York, has performed throughout the world.

The conference opens at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, in MU 206 with the University Honors College Women's Symposium, "Gender and Cultural Equity in the Workplace."

 

Source: 

Cynthia Briggs, 541-737-3175

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