Chicago Women's History Center

04/09/2025

It was great to attend yesterday hosting a variety of conversations on community engagement projects conducted in partnership with UIC. It spoke to different ways in which institutions can co-create and co-produce projects with community rather than 'to' and 'at'. Big thanks to Phillip Nyden for giving a shout out to our President, Maureen Hellwig for her decades of service to working with communities in partnership. Teresa Cordova led an interesting panel called Reflecting on the Commitment to Build Great Cities.

04/03/2025

Big thanks to everyone who presented, participated and registered to attend the first Chicago Women's History Conference on Saturday March 22 at Roosevelt University. The community connections that happened throughout the day, the knowledge building, the public history expertise that were shared, it was inspirational. Here is an article about the day by celebrating three students who were awarded scholarships to attend:

Thanks to scholarships, students attended the 2025 Chicago Women's History Conference, gaining insights into women's history and the future of women’s rights.

03/26/2025

Happy Equal Pay Day on Tuesday March 25! Economic equity is a practice and our ED, Carron Little has been creating an interactive performance where she calculates what people haven't received in the working life due to racial, gender, LGBTQ+ and disability pay inequity. Carron has a special equation she uses and writes people a special check. Economic equity is economic justice and part of the project documents the statistics and how they have slowly improved since she began the project in 2013. To learn more about the current pay statistics visit the Pew Research Institute: https://conta.cc/4hF6NKd

03/22/2025

The fun begins! Big thanks to for creating all the design for our Conference that opens tomorrow. Today we were getting Roosevelt University getting ready for tomorrow - the stage is built, the poster designs are made, has put together a wonderful exhibition celebrating their 110th Anniversary, dropped off their books for the exhibition ready for installation.
To find out more visit: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

03/22/2025

This Saturday! We welcome poet, singer, and storyteller as the keynote speaker of the Chicago Women’s History Center Conference. You don’t want to miss it! 🎤✨

With a voice that blurs the lines between poem and song, the South Side native has released three acclaimed albums—Heaven, Legacy! Legacy! and Water Made Us—and her writing has been featured in POETRY, https://conta.cc/3QW82K7, and The Offing. She is an award-winning poet and arts educator. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.”

Join us as we dive into “Past & Present Strategies to Advance the Rights of Women” at this year’s conference. The event is in-person & virtual at Roosevelt University this Saturday, March 22. Learn more: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

03/20/2025

One of the special programs that we are super excited about happening at our upcoming Conference on Saturday March 22 is the Plenary performance. This is going to be created by and a group of her mentees known as , , and in response to the Conference content. Fostering cross-generational partnership but burst with engird at the end of the day to inspire is just one part of this exciting day
To learn more visit: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

About Pinqy Ring
Pinqy Ring is a radical, rooted, and revolutionary Puerto Rican MC, decolonizing minds one rhyme at a time while aligning her destiny through Hip Hop. Born and bred in Chicago, she embodies her vision for a more just world as a multi-hyphenate rapper, Hip Hop educator, speaker, Recording Academy member, and U.S. Hip Hop Cultural Ambassador. Her artistry thrives at the intersection of culture and community, where stories are unearthed, voices are amplified, and rhymes become rallying cries for justice.

03/17/2025

Register for Chicago Women's History Conference on Saturday March 22 with as the Keynote Presenter. There are fifteen panels, presentations and workshops to choose from with a finale plenary performance with HipHop artist, .

Through the generous support of our partners, sponsors and donors we have been able to provide eighteen scholarships to local students studying at the neighboring Universities to attend. Looking forward to the upcoming Conference !

03/17/2025

One of the highlights at the upcoming is a panel with Audrey Peeples, Patricia Novak and Catherine Marienau talking about the weekly podcast called and the panel conversation is called: Making History Wile Making Change. To find out more about the Conference check out the website: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

03/17/2025

We look forward to welcoming you to Chicago Women's History Conference. There is one day to register. Full registration includes membership to for one year. The full program is up on the website: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

One of the presentation by is going to explore the history of discrimination in the music industry with a specific focus on the jazz. Even the title is musical: Gender Equity in Jazz Jazz...

03/14/2025

We are thrilled to announce that eighteen people have been selected to receive scholarships to the upcoming - .
Big congratulations to , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

These include six students for , four students from and one student from . These scholarships have been generously supported through our partners Consortium , and Women and Leadership Archives from .

03/13/2025

The Center has hosted four field trips over the last two weeks from generating conversations about Chicago women's history. Each workshop is adapted to the curriculum needs of the class. One workshop was on Illinois Women's Suffrage, another was on Oral History Interview techniques.

03/11/2025

Community news: On Tuesday March 11 at 7pm the Midland Authors are organizing a panel conversation called Jane Addams for All Ages at UIC Library with panelists Marlene Targ Brill and Louise W. Knight. This event will be moderated by Carron Little, 's Executive Director. This event is free and open to the public.

03/11/2025

Today is the closing date for scholarships to attend Chicago Women's History Conference on Saturday March 22. We are thrilled to announce that Jamila Woods will be our Keynote Speaker for our first inaugural Conference. To apply for a scholarship click here: https://conta.cc/43vtzki
Here is more information about Jamila Woods:
Jamila Woods is a poet, singer, songwriter and performing artist from Chicago's South Side. Jamila has released a trio of acclaimed albums: Heaven, Legacy! Legacy! and Water Made Us. Her writing has been published in POETRY, https://conta.cc/3QW82K7, and The Offing, and was featured in the 2023 anthology “Black Love Letters.” She has been awarded writing residencies at Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, BLKSPACE on Ryder Farm, and Civitella Ranieri. As an arts educator, she served as Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors for many years, and recently she served as artist-in-residence at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.”
To register for the upcoming conference please visit: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

03/10/2025

We are thrilled to announce the Keynote Speaker for our first Chicago Women's History Conference will be - a Chicago world renowned poet, songwriter, and lyricist. Today is the last day to apply for scholarships for the Conference through our online portal: https://conta.cc/43vtzki
Here is more about Jamila Woods:
Jamila Woods is a poet, singer, songwriter and performing artist from Chicago's South Side. Jamila has released a trio of acclaimed albums: Heaven, Legacy! Legacy! and Water Made Us. Her writing has been published in POETRY, https://conta.cc/3QW82K7, and The Offing, and was featured in the 2023 anthology “Black Love Letters.” She has been awarded writing residencies at Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, BLKSPACE on Ryder Farm, and Civitella Ranieri. As an arts educator, she served as Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors for many years, and recently she served as artist-in-residence at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.”

03/09/2025

The scholarship for Chicago Women's History Conference closes tomorrow at midnight CST. We are thrilled that and will be our guest performers.
For more information about the scholarships please visit:
https://conta.cc/43vtzki

03/08/2025

We are thrilled to announce the Keynote Speaker for our first Chicago Women's History Conference will be Jamila Woods - a Chicago world renowned poet, songwriter, and lyricist.
Here is more about Jamila Woods:
Jamila Woods is a poet, singer, songwriter and performing artist from Chicago's South Side. Jamila has released a trio of acclaimed albums: Heaven, Legacy! Legacy! and Water Made Us. Her writing has been published in POETRY, Poets.org, and The Offing, and was featured in the 2023 anthology “Black Love Letters.” She has been awarded writing residencies at Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, BLKSPACE on Ryder Farm, and Civitella Ranieri. As an arts educator, she served as Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors for many years, and recently she served as artist-in-residence at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.”
To register for the upcoming conference please visit: https://www.chicagowomenshistory.org/conference-2025

03/08/2025

Wishing you a Happy International Women's Day from all of us at . We had a morning meeting with all of the phenomenal women who are doing the work to document, preserve and share women's history who are presenting at our upcoming Conference. These women are: Linda Low (President of WILPF US), Carron Little (Executive Director of CWHC), Rima Lunin Schultz (Co-Editor of Women Building Chicago 1790 - 1990, A Biographical Dictionary), Fiona Maxwell (UChicago), Sally Elfishawy (University of Minneapolis), Tabitha Andrews (Lakeforest College), Dorothy Clarke (League of Women for Community Service) Radhika Sharma Gordon (Northeastern University) Sherryl Engstrom (Retired Adjunct Faculty) Beth Loch (Senior Archivist at Harold Washington Library), Marin Burke (Loyola University Chicago) Kalimah Knight (League of Women for Community Service), Ella Grace (DePaul University) Catherine Marienau (Emerita from DePaul University) and Ana Shin - Olp (UChicago). To find out more about the Conference please visit: https://conta.cc/401kn3K

03/06/2025

We are delighted to announce that through the generosity of Chicago Hyde Park Village we have added two more scholarships for the upcoming Chicago Women's History Conference on Saturday March 22 from 9:30am - 5:30pm. This year's conference explores the theme: Past & Present Strategies to Advance the Rights of Women and the program has been co-created with and Women and Leadership Archives at . Representatives from these organizations will be selecting the eleven scholarship candidates to attend the conference this year.
To find out more and submit an application please visit: https://conta.cc/401kn3K