Idaya Sasikumar, a first-year psychology student, took to the stage to read her personal story. The audience responded with nods, hums and tiny snaps. This slowly progressed into a chorus of applause upon the end of her reading. 

This is one example of the comradery fostered at the HerStory Slam, an event hosted as a series of Women’s History Month events by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Attendees congregated in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium the evening of Monday, April 15. The gathering revolved around storytelling and aimed to celebrate women and nonbinary members of the Pitt community — from faculty and alumni to undergraduate students. 

Presenters told their origin stories in a conversational style, highlighting their upbringings and connections to the female-identifying people in their lives. Others performed original spoken-word poetry, highlighting topics like love, loss, family and trauma, in relation to concepts of femininity. Some accompanied their work with photography and song. The event also included a video from student organization Strong Women Strong Girls and a spoken portion from multilingual organization AddVerse who read works from other poets in English, French and Haitian languages. 

Sasikumar learned of the event from the Center for Creativity mailing list and decided to submit to the night’s list of performances. Titled “Generational,” the piece commentates on the passing of physical and emotional traits between family members, referencing the writer’s relationships with her mother and sister in relation to the challenges she has faced throughout her first year away at college. Sasikumar hopes that listeners can reflect on and learn from her story.

“Honestly, I just really wanted to get this out there … I hope that people were able to reflect on what I said and get something out of it,” Sasikumar said. “I think just being able to hear other peoples’ stories, and learning more, and being able to reflect on ourselves, I think that’s really important. I feel like I learned a lot just by listening to other women speak today.” 

There was a wide range of emotions throughout the night — some smiled with pride at their peers’ bravery and honesty, while others were moved to tears by the performances. Zachary Davis, the director of equity & inclusion programs, moderated the event. Davis works with students, faculty and staff to create programs which spark productive change within the campus community.

“Creating experiences for our students to diversify thought, and grow and expand, but not only that — engaging with faculty and staff. Most faculty and staff that I have the opportunity to work with on a daily basis consider themselves to be lifelong learners, and just as you students are here, so are we,” Davis said. “And so, being able to listen to people’s stories, to take those experiences and put that action into power and create positive, sustainable change, I think is what we’re all doing here.”

Davis hopes the HerStory Slam might expand to other artistic mediums in the future as submission numbers increase. 

“If we do get a plethora of submissions, we might be able to do some film media — a campaign — so, [we’re] hoping to expand for the future,” Davis said.

Kelly Tatone, a volunteer, was one of the original founders of the annual HerStory Slam. Tatone is also a co-chair of PittWomen, which falls under the umbrella of “Pitt Communities.” This is an initiative by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to link Pitt affiliates by a common interest or ideology. While PittWomen has not been regularly active since the COVID-19 pandemic, Tatone and her colleagues are working to re-establish the group. 

“We’re hoping, by the beginning of this summer, to have something. This was our first big promotional event to all of the people who’ve been clamouring to get involved — we were like, ‘Show up for this.’ I don’t know what it will look like … we’ve reached out to prior members, we have a team started and we have some ideas,” Tatone said. 

Tatone expressed her joy with the lasting impact of the annual event. She highlighted the importance of the diverse voices who present their stories that provide new, valuable perspectives to Pitt’s community. Tatone describes the process of others’ personal retellings sparking internal change.

“There were a bunch of storytellers. It was an amazing evening … we had no idea how great it was going to be,” Tatone said. “Every year, I’m just blown away by the different experiences, the different voices, the variety of the stories being told and the way they’re told, and it makes all of us better. We all leave a little different. We’ve all grown. We’ve all felt something. We’ve learned about other people and what the world looks like through their eyes.” 

For information about future events, those interested can sign up for the OEDI Newsletter or check the University Events Calendar. The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion plans to host the annual event once again in 2026, uplifting the female and nonbinary people on Pitt’s campus and beyond.