By Abby Wheeler '04

In a small group session during the 16th annual Maine Women's Studies Conference, "Women in the Arts," in November, one woman hesitantly explained her interest in writing. "I don't really write," she said. "I journal, I write down my own thoughts, but I never write anything that anyone else would be interested in reading."

As many of the women in the room nodded and sighed in agreement, Charlotte Agell, one of the group presenters, responded, "Is that the arts? Or is that [the plight of] women in the arts?"

Agell, an author living in Brunswick, Maine, who writes and illustrates children's books, was a panelist at one of the 24 sessions offered during the all-day conference. Three other female writers and publishers joined her in a discussion titled "Get Started Writing, Secretly." Other session topics covered women in film and performing arts, family, race and body image.

Associate Professor of History Elizabeth Leonard, the key organizer of the event, believes "it offers an opportunity for women-and men-interested in women's studies and women's issues to come together and discuss ideas, learn new things, participate in sessions, develop connections, hear others who are accomplished in various fields associated with women's studies."

Canadian poet Nicole Brossard and documentary filmmaker Salem Mekuria addressed two plenary sessions. Mekuria, associate professor of art at Wellesley College, spoke of the responsibility she feels as an African exile, a woman, a creator and an academic at a small, private college.

She has produced four documentaries and is currently working on her first fictionalized screenplay, based on interviews with Ethiopian prisoners. Each of her documentaries has dealt with a different aspect of struggle in Ethiopia, her homeland. Until recently, there have been no wholly Ethiopian films; Ethiopian theaters market films primarily from Italy, India and Hollywood.

Mekuria said she sees her films about the ignored stories of women in Ethiopia "as a way to rectify my own ignorance, as well as that of the rest of the world." Her most recent documentary, "Deluge," incorporates the essence of autobiography. Using the tale of the Queen of Sheba as its backdrop, "Deluge" blends narratives from three perspectives-those of her friend, her missing brother and herself. Through her films, Mekuria has been able to tell her story.

It is this honesty and embracing of personal story that the coordinators of the conference strive to emphasize, they say.

The Maine Women's Studies Conference is held annually on a college or university campus in Maine. The host campus is responsible for organizing and running the conference, with support from the Maine Women's Studies Consortium (which consists of faculty, students, staff and allies associated with women's studies programs across the state) and the University of Maine System. Held at Colby in its first and second year, the conference returned to Colby for the first time since the 1980s. This year's conference included an exhibit, "Maine Women in the Visual Arts," which remained in place until Dec 28 at the Colby College Museum of Art.

Leonard was pleased to see that the conference attracted 200 participants from all over the state, even from as far away as Lubec. She sees it as "an event that is valuable on many levels, and is typically very well attended."