TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Troy University recognized Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day during a two-part event titled “Beauty and the Mind.”

The series was presented by the College of Communications and Fine Arts as well as the John M. Long School of Music.

On Tuesday, March 7, people from across TROY’s campus and the city itself gathered in the International Arts Center for the first event, titled “An Evening of Music and Poetry.”

“The whole purpose is just to connect and the promote and the collaboration between our female faculty not just inside the school of music, also outreach to the female, especially international female, faculty from the different departments,” explained event organizer and Interim Director of the School of Music Dr. Hui-Ting Yang.

The event was created in 2022 after Yang noticed the pandemic isolated many musicians and prompted her to give women from all different departments a chance to share their love of the arts.

“Last year, it’s kind of this crazy idea and they tried,” Yang explained. “The music and art and then the poetry were perfect together, so I reached out to our female faculty.”

Each presenter either sang a song, played an instrument, or read a poem about the beauty of women.

“I got to perform an original song that I wrote and played and performed on guitar,” said Associate Professor Tori Lee Averett. “It’s called ‘Cut Her Down’ and it’s really about sort of the concern about how we tend to cut people down as opposed to build them up.”

Beauty and the Mind gained popularity over the past year. So much so, First Lady Janice Hawkins also attended.

“The talent that we have and the fact that these are mostly professors working with students and passing that on is just amazing,” Hawkins told TrojanVision. “I am so grateful and so happy to be reminded of the talent that we have.”

Hawkins hopes the events of the evening inspired and benefited those who attended.

“I told my husband about what was happening tonight and he started just reeling off all of these people that could benefit from being here, so I hope to pass some of that along and just make it possible for others to to be a part of this.”

After the performance audience members were invited to attend part two of Beauty and the Mind, “A Discussion of Perceptions of Beauty.”