The four-day weekend festival and celebration is associated with the opening of Suffrage Wagon Café (http://SuffrageWagon.org), an online entertainment and educational platform featuring news and views of the suffrage movement. Suffrage Wagon Café highlights special programs, including video and audio, that focus on women’s rights activism in the United States from 1848 to 1920.
The Women’s History Month coverage on Suffrage Wagon News Channel also includes book reviews, commentary, travel columns, a cooking school, and action campaigns. The news channel has a Vimeo video channel with more than 100 short informational and entertaining clips about the suffrage movement. See Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/kearnsmarguerite/videos
The news channel's videos include the award-winning music production, “Suffragette Anthem: The “Spirit of 1776” by performer and songwriter Eighty Bug. The music video was directed by Edwin Carungay and Lesha Maria Rodriguez. The production honors the "Spirit of 1776" suffrage campaign wagon used by suffragist Edna Kearns that is in the collection of the New York State Museum. The music video is available on YouTube (http://youtu.be/Aga11k5s0Bc) and the Suffrage Wagon web site.
The Suffrage Wagon Café schedule during Women’s History Month 2015 is as follows:
Saturday, March 28, 2015:
The opening of Suffrage Wagon Café. A welcome message from host Marguerite Kearns, “Save Suffrage History.” Plus an introduction to the café menu.
Sunday, March 29, 2015:
Special Program about America’s early press women: “Nellie Bly goes undercover as immersion journalist,” the first of a program series about women reporters, writers and editors.
Monday: March 30, 2015:
Video and book review. “No Votes for Women” features the movement to keep American women from winning the vote.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015: Special video feature. Descendant of Emmeline Pankhurst: Dr. Helen Pankhurst’s special message to American women today. Enjoy the “Spirit of 1776” music video.
“Our goal during Women’s History Month is to build awareness and support of the tens of thousands of suffragists across the nation who were involved in organizing for support of the votes for women cause from 1848 to 1920. They remind us of the struggles and success of the movement to win votes for women that must be honored today. Our job is to link the past with the present and future,” noted Marguerite Kearns, anchor for Suffrage Wagon News Channel and host of Suffrage Wagon Café.
“We’re providing historians, parents, educators, and women voters with resources and stories about the past, as well as information about the historic sites that preserve this legacy. It’s a way to honor those who are a bridge between the social concern of the past with what faces us today,” Kearns continued. She said Suffrage Wagon News Channel and the Suffrage Wagon Café are proud to be hosting a SWAN Day activity. WomenArts is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women artists get the resources they need to do their creative work, with an emphasis on women in film, video, and theatre.
Other Suffrage Wagon News Channel coverage during Women’s History Month includes suffrage news and features, action campaigns, as well as columns about travel, food, history, books, and human interest articles. The Suffrage Wagon Café festival and celebration is designed to prepare the public for the 2020 suffrage centennial when American women will have been voting for 100 years.
“Citizens and public officials in New York State, for example, are taking a serious interest in their upcoming suffrage centennial in 2017,” Marguerite Kearns continued. “NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo identified the suffrage movement as a key part of the state’s identity in his 2015 inaugural address. State agencies and legislative representatives are discussing the possibility of a state-funding centennial planning commission. Numerous opportunities exist for heritage tourism and the economic development of upstate New York. The Finger Lakes region is considered the ‘Cradle’ of the women’s rights movement in the United States because of the 1848 women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, NY."
For information about suffrage celebrations, visit Suffrage Wagon News Channel and the Suffrage Centennials web site (http://SuffrageCentennials.com). They are partners in the campaign to bring the suffrage movement to the attention of American women voters, as well as men voters of all ages.
