The Women of Ohio project is a celebration of the achievements and diversity of accomplished women from Columbus and Ohio. It will feature poems written by local poets and the public, honoring notable Ohio women such as artist Aminah Robinson, architect Maya Lin, novelist Toni Morrison, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes, and YA author Jacqueline Woodson. The project will culminate in events in the late summer of 2025 when there will be public readings and exhibitions as well as much online activity on this dedicated website. The project aims to inspire creativity, engage local communities, and preserve the voices of Ohio women.
“Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.” – Jacqueline Woodson, author, born in Columbus, Ohio, 1963
This project was inspired by writer and editor Zoë Brigley while watching her 9-year-old son in an elementary school production of Wright!—a play about the famous Wright Brothers. Her son often came home with stories about the aviators, but he also talked about Katherine Wright, their sister, who played a pivotal role in managing their careers and was also a suffragette.
Zoë began to suspect that other women from Ohio may have similarly remarkable, untold stories, and that curiosity sparked the idea for the Women of Ohio project. Thanks to support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and an Artist Project Grant, this idea has now become a reality.
Zoë Brigley is a writer and editor originally from Wales in the UK, who has lived in Columbus, Ohio for 12 years. She has three award winning collections of poetry, most recently Hand & Skull. She won an Eric Gregory Award for the best British poets under 30, and she was long listed for the Dylan Thomas prize for the best international writers under 40. She has a collection of nonfiction essays, Notes from a Swing State, among other publications. She works in The Ohio State University English department, and she is editor of the magazine Poetry Wales.
Zoë has curated several exhibitions and installations featuring art and poetry. At the Ohio State University Library, she curated ‘Poetry Broadsides and the Poetry Film’, and ‘Consciousness Raising and Anti-violence Advocacy’. She organized the exhibition ‘The Little Cage of Ellis Bell’ at the Urban Art Space Summer Series in Columbus Ohio; the installation featured poetry, art and historical items of clothing from the 18th and 19th century from the Ohio State Costume and Textile Collection. She took part in an exhibition of poetry alongside Amanda Dalton with the poems placed alongside artifacts from the home of the famous writers, the Brontë Sisters. She also took part in an exhibition of art and poetry with British artist Anna Cady (2014) at Winchester Art Center, England.
Press
‘Zoë Brigley awarded GCAC Artist Project grant’, OSU English Department Newsletter
Women of Ohio 