Actress and author Christine Rausa (Image provided)
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, SUNY Geneseo’s Women’s and Gender Studies program and the Livingston County Historical Society present Susan B. Anthony: Is It a Crime to Vote?, a one-woman reenactment of critical moments in the life of the suffragist.
The dramatization by Christina Rausa will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Friday, August 30, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 31at the Alice Austin Theatre, SUNY Geneseo. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased online or at the door. Presale adult tickets are $18, $20 at the door; presale student and senior tickets are $8, $10 at the door.
A Q&A will follow each one-hour show. After the 2 p.m. show on Saturday, a panel discussion that includes Geneseo scholars will take the place of the Q&A.
Moderator
Catherine Adams, associate professor of history and Women’s and Gender Studies at Geneseo
Panelists
Christina Rausa, author and actress of “Is it a Crime to Vote,” SUNY Fredonia
Geneseo Provost Stacey Robertson
Justin Behrend, professor and chair of Geneseo’s Department of History
Deborah Hughes, president and CEO, National Susan B Anthony House and Museum
Saturday’s 3 p.m. panel discussion is free and open to the public.
It became legal for women in New York to vote in 1917—nearly 70 years after the women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, which Anthony attended. Ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women across the nation the vote.
“Now, in 2019, when rights that our foremothers fought for are under attack, remembering our achievements and putting them into historical context is important not only for Geneseo students, but the whole community,” said Melanie Blood, professor of English and director of Geneseo’s Women’s and Gender Studies program.
“Women’s and Gender Studies is partnering with Livingston County Historical Society to underscore the importance of the right to vote well beyond an educational context,” Blood said. “I hope this presentation will remind us that women’s right to vote is not something to take for granted. Real women—many of whom lived near us—fought for decades to earn this right.”