50th Anniversary

50th Anniversary Dance Party + Silent Auction!

The fourth week of September is Gender Equality Week in Canada, and the perfect time to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre! 

We’ll have some fantastic silent auction items from local businesses up for grabs (more on that soon), and the fabulously fun Gloria Ranger will help us get our groove on!

This is a dry/sober event with complimentary alcohol-free beverages and appetizers.

Admission is by donation–five bucks or whatever you can afford is great (nobody will be turned away due to lack of funds). Bus tickets are also available for attendees.

Please direct any questions to our Event Coordinator, Sherrie-Lee: [email protected]

50th Anniversary OPEN HOUSE

Drop by the Women’s Centre anytime between noon and 3pm on September 27th!

Enjoy a snack, a coffee or tea and cupcake, make your own personalized button, and get an anniversary t-shirt!

Staff will also be on hand to chat about our programs and services so you’ll know how the Women’s Centre can help you, your client, or someone else in your life.

Bus tickets will be available.

No registration necessary, just drop by on your own–or bring a friend or client with you!

SAVE THE DATE: 50th Anniversary Dance Party + Silent Auction

Now Available: Anniversary T-shirts + Collaborative Zine!

T-shirts come in lilac, garnet, antique sapphire, and heathered military green in various sizes. Get yours (subject to availability) for $25 at the Women’s Centre.

What started as a simple commemorative zine turned into 68-pages of femorabilia because it’s impossible to compile 50 years’ worth of herstory into a single issue!

Pick up a copy for $10 (or pay what you can) at Loud Women Collective or the Women’s Centre. Limited number of copies available!

Anniversary Activities Update

We have already realized some of our 50th Anniversary plans: a 50th anniversary logo, printed t-shirts, and a zine chronicling some of our herstory. During an April blizzard, we hosted a dinner at In Common to honour the volunteer service of long-standing board members, past and present. It was a wonderful evening shared by colleagues, mentors and friends where we heard stories from our first coordinator and other trailblazing women whose determination, hard work and humour have made the Women’s Centre the bustling feminist hub that it is today.

And we aren’t finished celebrating–stay tuned!

Since 1973, the Women’s Centre has continued to act as a meeting place and catalyst for feminist organizing and women-led efforts. We are relying entirely on unrestricted revenue sources, like fundraising and donations, for these anniversary initiatives. If you have the means, please consider supporting our fundraising efforts! We welcome donations of any amount by cash or cheque, e-transfer, pre-authorized deposit, and through CanadaHelps. We provide charitable tax receipts for monetary contributions over $20. Get in touch with Lori at [email protected] for more information. 

Coming Soon: T-shirts!

We’ll have new t-shirts printed by Seven Oaks in early April!

A variety of colours and sizes will be available for purchase in support of the Women’s Centre.

Save the Date: DANCE PARTY! — POSTPONED

Zine Workshop #2!

New to zines? Here’s some background from the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity (University of Kansas) called Making Zines, Doing Feminism: 

What’s a Zine?
A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for fanzine) is a DIY medium with roots in 1930s science fiction fandom, 1970s punk rock culture, and the riot grrrl feminist movement of the 1990s. In her classic text Stolen Sharpie Revolution, zinester Alex Wrekk defines zines as “physical, printed, self-published creations that can consist of a single sheet of paper or many, fastened together, usually with staples; independently made for the love of creating and rarely make a profit; created by one person or with a group of people; usually photocopied.” Today, zines are also made and disseminated digitally. 

Why Make Zines?
As zine scholar Alison Piepmeier argues in Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism, zines enact what bell hooks describes as “a pedagogy of hope.”  Zine making allows women, gender minorities, and other marginalized people to engage in creative self-expression, to speak for themselves in a society that often silences them. Zines allow makers to critique, question, resist, and reappropriate the patriarchal mass media by taking the means of production into their own hands. Zines are a powerful medium for advocacy and social change. They are at once personal and political. Moreover, zines promote community-building by fostering a gift economy of sharing and exchange; often, they are made collectively or in community with others. Share your ideas, experiences, and knowledge — make zines!

The Planning Continues!

March Update: Organizing is well underway for our 50th Anniversary Celebration, including a dinner for honourees and a dry dance party.

Stay tuned here and keep an eye out for next month’s Feminist Dispatch for further updates!

Zine Workshop

We’re hosting an in-person zine-making workshop with artist Jayal Chung at the Women’s Centre!

We hope everyone can start (and maybe even finish!) their own small zine on the subject of their choice, and also make a contribution to the collaborative zine celebrating our 50th anniversary!

Refreshments will be served. A zoom option is available but may not offer the same teaching/sharing opportunities as in-person.

Register online by January 26th: Zine Workshop with Jayal Chung

Call for Submissions: stories, poems, clippings, artwork

Send inquiries and/or submissions to [email protected] by April 3rd!

This spring we’re celebrating five decades of undaunted feminist advocacy, activism and community, and we hope you’ll be part of our collaborative zine! 

Have you been a supporter of the Women’s Centre for a long time? Do you happen to have archival materials or other memorabilia you’d like to contribute to our zine? Or are you newer to the Centre and interested in sharing your thoughts or some artwork? Perhaps a quick sketch or sentence or two about what the Women’s Centre or feminism means to you, or how the Women’s Centre is important for women in our community, or how you knew you’re a feminist!

We’re seeking contributions of all kinds: 

  • clippings from the Northern Woman Journal, Hotflash!, local newspapers or other publications,
  • buttons, badges, other memorabilia*
  • posters, flyers, handouts
  • stories, memories, reflections, original poems, drawings, or photos
  • 10 words that come to mind when you think of the Women’s Centre 

No writing, art or zine experience necessary! And no need to send in your originals, we’ll happily accept scanned copies or photos. You’re also welcome to drop by the Women’s Centre to make a photocopy. *We would also love to borrow these items to display at the anniversary celebration in April (date & details TBD)!

How to submit materials: by email to Stacey at [email protected] or in person (M-Th, 9:30-5) or by mail to the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre, 73 N. Cumberland St., Suite 101, Thunder Bay ON P7A 4L8

Questions: Are you thinking about submitting something, but you aren’t sure if it’s what we’re looking for or how to get it to us? Please email Stacey with your questions at [email protected] anytime!

Job Opportunity: Event Coordinator – POSITION FILLED

Full job description: Event Coordinator

Anniversary Announcement + Call for Donations

Dear Members and Supporters: 

The Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre is about to celebrate 50 YEARS of feminist organizing and advocacy–and we need your help to do it! 

For five decades (1973-2023), the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre has worked to improve women’s safety and access to justice. As an equality-seeking, social justice informed and intersectional feminist organization, run by and for women in the Thunder Bay area, we have engaged in community outreach and public education efforts, advocated for systemic change, and provided a safe space for all self-identified women to gather. We’ve launched programs to address economic inequality, food insecurity, and gender-based violence, while empowering women to share creative strategies with one another and be their own best advocates.  You can learn more about past and current projects on our websites: nwowomenscentre.org, actiontoanalysisgbv.org and GoodFoodBoxtb.org.   

We have big plans to mark our 50th Anniversary! Of course we’ll be dancing, but we’ll also create a special anniversary logo and produce commemorative merchandise, publish a zine featuring historical/archival and current contributions from our community, and host a celebratory event to honour the volunteer service of our long-standing Board Members.   

For 50 years, the Women’s Centre has continued to act as a meeting place and catalyst for feminist organizing and women-led efforts. If you have the means, please consider supporting our fundraising efforts! We welcome donations of any amount by cash or cheque, e-transfer, pre-authorized deposit, and through United Way Thunder Bay and CanadaHelps. We provide charitable tax receipts for monetary contributions over $20. Get in touch with Lori at [email protected] for more information. 

Follow us on Facebook @nwowc and subscribe to our new e-newsletter, Feminist Dispatch, to stay in the loop about our anniversary plans and join us in the celebrations! 

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