Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Helen Frederick's age. The article has been updated to reflect these changes. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.
When Diane Faison gets on the stage, she exposes herself to the struggles of her past.
She blinks her eyes furiously, letting the tears breach her bottom lashes. As a Black woman who protested during the Civil Rights era, she has experienced both the wrongs and the rights of the Black community.
Tomorrow, Faison will continue her activism by speaking for women. Through the poetic words of Maya Angelou, she will show the older generation of women at the Orange County Department on Aging, or OCDOA, that they also have power.
“Some of the things (Maya Angelou) writes about, I have gone through,” Faison said. “And if you live long enough, most of us have gone through — women, that is.”
As the #MeToo movement has unfolded, so has the third and newest wave of feminists. But in light of the movement, it seems that the second and older wave of feminists is being pushed aside.
Only two months ago, third-generation feminists like Lauren Hudson, culture editor of the Verge, tweeted, “Age tends to correlate with not being on board with progress, and older woman are specifically the ones who have been most vocal about standing in the way right now.”
But it’s Women’s History Month, and OCDOA project coordinator Cydnee Sims wants to remind and thank the older generation feminists for all their accomplishments. She knew that Faison would be the perfect fit.
Faison is well-known for her one-woman play interpreting Harriet Tubman, which evokes lots of tears — and tomorrow, she plans to do the same with the works of Maya Angelou.