University of Idaho freshman Veronica Smith didn’t need to be a college student to recognize what the University of IdahoWomen’s Center has to offer. After her time in “The Vagina Monologues” during her senior year of high school, the Women’s Center became her place of refuge on a bad day, she said.
Andrew Deskins | Argonaut
Women’s Center Director Lysa Salsbury honors Traci Craig with the Vagina Warrior award before Thursday’s opening show of the Vagina Monologues. The Vagina Monologues will play at 7 p.m. tonight and Saturday at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center in downtown Moscow. ASUI President Max Cowan directed this year’s performance.
Smith isn’t the only woman to find solace there. She is just one of the many who have taken part in the monologues and became an active member of the Women’s Center because of their experience.
One woman, Kelli Foutch, is a non-traditional student who was cast in the monologues for three years in a row. This year, she said she didn’t want to star in the performance but still wanted to be involved. Foutch helps with various parts of the production, because the monologues mean that much to her.
“She has three children,” said Lysa Salsbury, director of the Women’s Center. “That gives her, I think, a unique perspective on the context of the monologues. I think they have a different personal meaning for her than they do for some other members of the cast. But that’s usually how students come to be involved, is that they find something in the monologues that resonate with them and their life experiences.”
Smith was one of only two people who have starred in the monologues while still in high school. She planned to be in this year’s production, but had to drop out due to a heavy workload — much of which comes from her dedication to the Women’s Center.
Salsbury met Smith when she was Smith’s youth group coordinator at church, and she suggested Smith go to “Take Back the Night” when she was a sophomore. The event changed Smith’s outlook on issues such as gender inequality and rape culture.
Smith’s first experience with “The Vagina Monologues” was when she was just 15 years old. Her parents took her to see the show and she said she was hesitant, because she was at an age where she didn’t exactly want to know anything about the subject.
“I went with my parents,” Smith said. “I thought it was going to be really funny. And I cried. I cried, because there were so many things that you don’t really think about.”
Smith is constantly connected to the Women’s Center and all the outreach programs and activism. She now works as a volunteer and is in the center, almost every day, doing something to help deal with what Smith said is the most important thing society must be concerned about regarding women’s issues: safety.
“It’s not about changing people,” Smith said. “It’s about getting facts out there, so people can make educated decisions about life in general. So my hope is that learning new things like I do every day here, about society and about life in general that I can bring a diverse perspective to the other people in my life. So, that people can be more open minded and whether or not they want to change their beliefs, because everyone is entitled to their own opinions, it’s still important to be able to hear things from both sides.”
Whether she is attending a green-dot training session, or making promotional posters for “The Vagina Monologues” the sense of community is what keeps Smith returning to the Women’s Center. Smith said the center is great because a student can come in and sit down next to anyone, even if they don’t know them, and get anything and everything they need.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]