The University will celebrate Women's History Month this month with lectures, films, performances and music. The events are sponsored by the Women's Center and the Women's Studies Program.

A talk by writer Sonia Sanchez will formally open the month-long observance, on March 2 at 5 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom. Nominees for the Women's Center's "Women of UConn" project will be recognized during a reception following the lecture.

A writer, professor, activist and mother, Sanchez will talk about women's issues at the start of a new millennium.

Sanchez has been in the forefront of the Black Studies movement and taught the first course in the United States on black women, at the University of Pittsburgh. She now holds the Laura Carnell Chair in English at Temple University.

She has authored 16 books including, Homecoming, We a BaddDDD People, I've Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems, and Homegirls and Hand Grenades, winner of the 1995 American Book Award. Shake Loose My Skin is her most recent book. She has edited two anthologies and is a contributing editor to the Black Scholar and Journal of African Studies.

She has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment of the Arts award; the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women; the Community Service Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators; the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Humanities for 1988; and the 1988 Peace and Freedom Award from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Sanchez has given lectures at more than 500 campuses throughout the U.S. and has read her works all over the world.

The March 2 event is co-sponsored by the African American Cultural Center.

After Sanchez's talk, 40 women who were nominated for excellence in academic achievement, community service, athletic ability, leadership, activism, humanitarianism, overcoming obstacles, and feminism will be recognized for their achievements. Ten of the women will be profiled in a special edition of the Women's Center newsletter.

For more information on events during Women's History Month, call: (860) 486-4738.

Sherry Fisher