A group of students organized a series of events this week to celebrate women in conjunction with International Women’s Day last Tuesday.

Throughout the week, they distributed paper and markers in the grill and photographed people holding up their signs reading, “I celebrate women because …” followed by a reason. The photographs will be collected and displayed in the JRC. Bob’s Underground Café hosted a special open mic that included a communal poem for which each attendee wrote a sentence on why they celebrate women. The final event is tonight’s GRL POWER dance party in Gardner featuring music exclusively by or about women.

The idea for these events came from Jumi Bello ’13.

“I wanted to create a week for women because I wanted to celebrate them actively. Women hold up half the sky,” Bello said.

She came up with the idea at the beginning of March when talking with friends and realizing that the second Tuesday of the month was International Women’s Day. She then sent out an email to about 200 students asking for help, including all Sociology and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies majors along with others she knew were interested in feminism.

“People are really coming out of the woodwork,” Bello said. “First-years through fourth-years are helping me out.”

Bello carries “I celebrate women because” posters in her backpack and when people ask to help she hands them some to hang around campus.

Similar series of events have occurred at Grinnell around International Women’s Day in the past.

“I had really great memories of this same week of events happening in previous years,” said Felicity Slater ’11, who helped Bello come up with the idea to organize events for this year. “This week is not in response to any event in particular, but is an annual event, and is meant to be a celebration of women in general.”

Gigi Dichosa ’13 is one student who joined in the celebration, making a poster for the photo project in the grill on Wednesday. Hers read, “I celebrate women because we are fierce.”

“The importance of women is really looked over,” Dichosa said. “It’s not all about men. If it weren’t for women they wouldn’t be here.”

Bello pointed to one goal in particular that she hopes the week’s events achieve.

“Although we certainly share common experiences with other sexes, we certainly have a different perspective on the world because of our sex,” she said. “This is what I wanted the community to recognize this week.”