Dances, duets, poems and artwork will be presented at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center’s annual Herstorical Tea Program to celebrate Women’s History Month.

A tea party is assembled to recognize the history behind women’s movements, said Anna Marie Coveny, art gallery director for DAWC. When women didn’t have the right to vote or assemble, they would meet in each other’s homes for tea and strategize ways to achieve those rights, Coveny said.

The program will feature local women in a multi-arts program, including vocal and instrumental music as well as dance and visual art, she said. The eight “intergenerational” performers include 11-year-old Ellen Conley, who will play a harp solo, and Dorothea Bilder, a retired NIU art professor.

Bilder, referred to as “professor emerita” by Coveny, “will engage the audience in an art talk about the works that surround the audience,” Coveny said. These artworks were created by women faculty and graduate students of the NIU School of Art.

Other performers include Jill Bartels and her mother Elizabeth, Sally Zeeman, Lila Dole, Danielle Jay and Judy Neumann.

“We enjoy inclusion,” Coveny said. “We like to include everybody.”

DAWC welcomes everyone from NIU and DeKalb to the tea party. Coveny said the program will be suitable for children and inspirational for women. In addition, DAWC hopes for some support from men, Coveny said. Anyone interested in fine arts appreciation is advised to attend.

The NIU Chapter of Association of Women in Communication will serve tea to the guests, who must pay for admittance. DAWC asks for a $3 donation. One Sacagawea golden dollar or one Susan B. Anthony silver dollar coin also can be donated to raise the value of coins with women’s images, Coveny said.

“It will be enjoyable education and a way to promote women artists,” Coveny said.