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Women's art alive at 'Joint'
 Media Credit: Adam Masloski Nashana plays for the crowd at Estro-Fest. The Women´s Center-sponsored event was held at the Java Joint Thursday night.
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Women's Studies was given a boost Thursday night with a benefit that was held at the Java Joint to raise money for the program, which, like many others at SCSU, has felt the impact of budget cuts.
Estro-Fest, a celebration of women's art, was the brainchild of SCSU senior Christine Fetterley.
Fetterley gave several reasons for wanting to do this.
"Women's art has always been under-appreciated through history, always. I felt like it would be a really good forum to show off women's art, especially art that isn't appreciated as such, like the pottery we have here which is considered to be more of a craft," Fetterley said.
The event was held at the Java Joint because Fetterley works there.
"(This was) something that I wanted to do for a long time," Fetterley said.
"Any time you go to a gallery, it's primarily men's art, so I wanted an open forum, something supportive for women to show off," Fetterley explained.
In keeping with this theme, the Java Joint's already eclectic decor was enhanced with the work of several local artists. There were paintings on the wall, some photography work and ceramics on display. All of these works were available for purchase through a silent auction.
The Women's Studies program was also involved. Karen Flynn, the director of the program, was also at Estro-Fest.
"Christine (Fetterley) is an intern in the program. One of the ideas she came up with was this fund-raiser for the program," Flynn explained. She also went on to say that the money is used for scholarships and to pay speakers. The money also helps to "disrupt the ideas that people have about women's studies, that 'Oh yeah, they're a bunch of lesbians,' or that 'All we do is bash men.'"
The second half of the evening was devoted to music.
"It's the same with music and concerts. You rarely see female bands or female musicians play, so I figured we would lump it all into one (with the art) and that's what you've got," Fetterley said.
The first act was an SCSU sophomore by the name of Nashana. Nashana played mostly mellow acoustic folk, with vocals reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan. The highlight of her set was an emotional rendition of an old Leadbelly song (later made famous by Nirvana) called "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
The next highlight of the evening was a Minneapolis-based female punk trio Euphio. When they heard about this show, they jumped at the chance to play. "They e-mailed me back within a day of me e-mailing them, letting me know that 'Yes, for sure we'll play,'" Fetterley said.
Euphio has been together for a little over a year. They count Sleater-Kinney and La Tigre among their major sound influences, and the influence shows. Jenny Hanson, Euphio's guitarist, says the band is no stranger to shows like these which benefit women.
"It's pretty much all we do," Hanson said. "We play a lot of benefit shows. We put on our own women's art festival back in August called 'Shake The Lake.'"
Later in the evening, once the cigarette smoke had cleared and the last cup of coffee had grown cold, Fetterley, who earlier in the evening had expressed concern over how many people would come, happily reported that the benefit was a success, raising $268 for the Women's Studies program.
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