Righteous Ladies Rebelling is an organization created by and for women as a support group for artists who identify themselves, or their art, as dealing with feminine issues.

Anna Gagne-Hawes and Jey Johnson spawned Righteous Ladies with "To Reign in Hell" last year. Since then the group has coalesced into a grassroots campaign to raise awareness for women's issues, and to create venues to support female artists.

Both Gagne-Hawes and Johnson, theater majors, star in "Picnic" and have previously been seen in "Oleanna," so the focus of the group tends to be theater productions.

"You can say things in art that you can't say in normal conversation," said Gagne-Hawes. "You can tell a story in the theater that people might not be able to digest in any other format."

This March, the Righteous Ladies organized a student production of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" for V-Day, a day dedicated to ending violence against women. Proceeds from the production went to the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living.

The minimum intent of the Ladies is to do something every March to commemorate women's history month and to encourage the study of history from a female perspective.

"There are classes called women's history because all you learn in history is the men's stories," said declared Gagne-Hawes. "Where are the women? That's the question you have to ask yourself."

Sine Anahita, an assistant professor of sociology, is the advisor for the Righteous Ladies. When Gagnes-Haws came to her last year she was excited about the prospect of having "The Vagina Monologues" performed at UAF.

"Talking about sex, vaginas and women's sexuality is something that just isn't done on campus," Anahita said.

The return of "The Vagina Monologues" on campus next year is something that may or may not happen.

The V-Day organization only allows a person to produce the play twice, since this is Gagne-Hawes second year someone else is going to have to take over next year.

Outside the theater, Righteous Ladies Rebelling plan on organizing a potluck and poetry reading featuring works by unknown female poets or famous poets' lesser-known works.

The group is also open to artworks submitted by local artists who work with any medium. Specifically they're looking for self-identified female playwrights who have scripts. Then the Ladies would then put the word out and organize a reading. If there was enough interest they could make a production out of it.

Gagne-Hawes specifically mentioned her interest in doing some sort of spoof mocking the recent advisory vote. Her background has a great deal to do with why she is involved in projects like Righteous Ladies; she was raised in a nuclear family of two mothers.

"I grew up with a strong sense that things needed to change," said Anna. "Our society was created by and for white heterosexual, men but the beautiful thing about our country is the possibility of change from the inside. Because it was founded on racist, sexist ideology, there is a constant and slow revolution."