<div dir="ltr"><div>Three years ago, dozens of Southern Oregon women and women's organizations planned to celebrate Women's History Month and the Year of the Woman to commemorate the centennial of suffrage. After months of planning, an Oregon Heritage grant to document second wave feminism in Southern Oregon and just days before the Day of Women's History on March 15th, our communities were locked down to control the spread of Covid-19. It was a fearful time, with not a lot of information, and everything just stopped. Tangren Alexander wrote of this moment in Reclaiming. <br></div><div><br></div><div>As all of you did at that time, we pivoted to digital and remote. The Day of Women's History was streamed through Facebook, just a few participating face to face. Tangren's poem opened the event. Today as then, we celebrate Southern Oregon's women - past, present and future and also honor Tangren who died on March 26, 2021 surrounded by friends and family.</div><div><br></div><div>We invite you to listen to oral histories collected as part of the Rogue Valley Women's Movement, women telling of their lives in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, times of gratitude, of freedom, of hope. You'll hear Beth's demand for justice, Tangren's hidden life, Jackson County's women mayors who forged a way, Tanya who speaks of difference, women who asserted their right to freedom and taught others to do the same and so many more voices. Here are their stories, in the Rogue Valley Women's Movement playlist in the Stories of Southern Oregon collection. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/StoriesofSouthernOregon">https://www.youtube.com/c/StoriesofSouthernOregon</a> . Maureen.<br></div><div><br></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Reclaiming<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">By Tangren Alexander<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Friday, March 13, 2020<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Corona: 1. A rare and glorious sight during full eclipse of
the sun, radiance made visible.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Corona: 2. In the night sky, a constellation, a circle of
stars<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Corona: 3. All outer events called to a halt, no going to
gatherings. Performances and performings vanish alike.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">At 7:30 this morning, I make a grocery run. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The Co-op so quiet, the surprisingly many shoppers not
stopping to hug in the aisles.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">We quickly fill our carts.<span>
</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Back home, groceries unload in the still chilly day.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Hands washed.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Catfood, nut milk, cans for making bone
broth-coconut-pumpkin-onion-celery soup, <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">and yes, TP, stowed.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Hands washed again.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Now the sun is warm, the sky a vivid blue, the fir trees
very forest green,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">the day all my own.<span></span></p>
<br><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">_____________________________________</span></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">Maureen Flanagan Battistella, MLS (she, hers)<br></span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">Oregon Heritage Commissioner, 2022-2026<br></span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">Southern Oregon University Sociology/Anthropology</span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)"><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)"><a href="http://storiesofsouthernoregon.com" target="_blank">Stories of Southern Oregon</a> on <a href="http://youtube.com/c/storiesofsouthernoregon" target="_blank">YouTube</a> in the</span></span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)"><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)"><a href="http://soda.sou.edu" target="_blank">Southern Oregon Digital Archives at SOU</a> and</span></span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)"><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">in the Stories collection in the <a href="https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22Stories+of+Southern+Oregon%22" target="_blank">Internet Archives</a><br></span></span></i></div><div><i><span style="color:rgb(153,153,153)">TA117 541-552-0743</span></i><br></div></div></div></div></div>