Standing in front of her artwork, Grand Valley State University student Penni Kimble presented her project to the group of students and facilitators.

Gesturing toward the painting – a black woman dancing in red ballet pointe shoes, facing an obscured mirror – the 20-year-old broadcasting major spoke about her experience facing racial discrimination in ballet.

“The ballerina is brown-skin for a reason and there is something in the reflection for a reason,” she said. “I think that the painting was beneficial in that it really helped me sit and reflect on the things that I’ve went through, what other women have went through, in other to share stories and show that we are not alone in expressing ourselves.”

To encourage students to share their stories and express themselves, Grand Valley State University’s Women’s Center hosted a reflection showcase on the storyteller series in the Kirkhof Center on April 1.

Inspired by this year’s Community Reading Project, “Citizen,” by Claudia Rankine, workshops were conducted throughout the winter semester focused on giving participants the opportunity to explore themes of racism, social justice and intersectionality through a variety of art forms.

Allison Montaie, assistant director of the GVSU’s Women’s Center who led the reflection showcase, said the reflection gives students the chance to explore the art in a more nuanced way.

Ultimately, she said, the series helped provide women of color the chance to explore and reflect on their voice as a tool for personal and social self-expression.

“I wanted to bring other faces and other women, in particular women of color, to facilitate these workshops,” she said. “It really allowed us to get those facilitators who show that what they do and gives students the space to tell their stories, especially in relation oppression and social justice.”

Ericka “Kyd Kane” Thompson, a Grand Rapids-based poet, facilitated the workshop “Speak Your Power” on Jan. 27 and presented one of her poems to the group during the showcase.

Focusing on reconstructing the negative mindsets she finds in modern society, Thompson used spoken word poetry to relay her frustrations of the global beauty standards set by the cosmetics industry.

“When will we understand that the extensive need for artificial add-ons and extensions stem from the world constantly insisting that everything that we are born with is insufficient?” she said.

As future plans for other storytelling series are in the works, Montaie hopes there will be further connections made between students and facilitators in order to create a cohesive space for expressing of one’s social and artistic endeavors.

“The plan is to potentially have this again next year,” she said. “Exploring some things around hip-hop and feminism and continuing to add on the social justice twist on a smaller and more often scale.”

For more information about GVSU’s Women’s Center and its events, visit www.gvsu.edu/women_cen.