Monday, April 4th, 2011
Sold-Out Screenings Benefit Gage Foundation
A white stretch limo pulls up in front of the Palace. Out step elegantly gowned women and groomed men and walk onto the red carpet. The paparazzi snap away, while a mother-daughter team asks the new arrivals for designer names and the press pushes for interviews. An up-and-coming teen actress from Germany mingles with the crowd inside, charming fans with her poise and youthful enthusiasm.
Hollywood? No, Syracuse at the smashing Red Carpet Premiere of the movie Pope Joan Saturday, April 2. This sold-out screening was followed by a full house for the Sunday matinee the following day.
How does one thank a Shero like Donna Woolfolk Cross? First she gives us the gripping narrative of a powerful woman whose unbelievable story was forbidden to be told. Then she dedicates a decade of her life to transforming 
the Pope Joan story into a movie. And finally, she brings this European hit home to us, this Red Carpet Screening a gift to her own community, with the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation as the recipient of the proceeds.
How does one respond to this generosity of spirit? By enjoying ourselves thoroughly at this event, as Donna wanted us to do; and as we did, having fun and partying like rock stars. And then by recommitting ourselves to continue to repopulate history (as Mary Beard calls it) with the myriad of magnificent women — like Pope Joan and Matilda Joslyn Gage — who have been banned from our richwhiteguy history.
We inhabit a different world when we know that women have never been just a footnote in history, a helpful assistant to the male shapers of the future. If we know that a woman announced her candidacy for President in 
1872, and another one actually carried out a presidential campaign in 1884, why don’t we have a history of women presidents today? If we know that a woman in our own community (Matilda Joslyn Gage) worked for everything in her lifetime from treaty rights and sovereignty to equal pay for equal work and an end to trafficking, how can we do less? And if we know that there was once a female Pope, then why not another one?
Thank you, Donna, for giving us this historic event. Let the movie travel forth from Syracuse to the country!
Sally Roesch Wagner
Executive Director, The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
Photos by Melyn Richman
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Sponsors of the Pope Joan Red Carpet Premiere
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