EAU CLAIRE - Storyteller, folk singer and women's historian Gerri Gribi will perform her one-person show "Womenfolk: Celebrating a Heritage" at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Tuesday, March 11.

An informal presentation of folk songs that tell of women's roles in history and modern society, her show will begin at 7 p.m. in The Cabin, Davies Center.

"Think of Gerri Gribi as a historian with a guitar pick" wrote the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Gribi graduated with top honors in history from Thomas More College in Fort Mitchell, Ky. Well aware that conventional history is largely the story of the wealthy and educated, Gribi looks for songs that preserve the history of other people, especially women. Folk songs are a valuable historical resource, Gribi says, because "for a song to have survived the oral process, it had to have relevance to succeeding generations. Songs have much to tell us not only about history, but about people's attitudes and opinions."

Her research took her to the Library of Congress, where she listened to one traditional song after another as she searched for the image of women presented in the music. The songs she heard there, Gribi says, "make one think that our foremothers had only two options in life: killing themselves because they couldn't marry the man they loved, or killing themselves because they did marry the man they loved, who turned out to be a jerk."

After more than a decade of research, Gribi found enough women-positive folk songs to fill two albums. She began performing her "Womenfolk" show in 1982, and continues to change it as she discovers more songs and stories.

Admission is free. Donations of cash or household items are requested for the Bolton Refuge House for battered women.

The show is sponsored by the University Activities Commission of the UW-Eau Claire Student Senate.
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Updated: March 25, 1997