Atlantic City will celebrate International Women’s Day with a free event Thursday evening.
“Women need to know they have a voice,” said Nycole Lyles-Belton, who is hosting the event at Coco’s Chicken & Waffles. “If we can speak, we can cause change to happen.”
The theme is “Oh, she will!”
There will be poetry and giveaways and Lyles-Belton will speak.
She founded
Greatness In You, Inc. in 2010 to help women and girls understand their greatness.
“We need to feel comfortable and confident knowing that our voice does have power and our voice does have purpose,” Lyles-Belton said.
Atlantic City teachers have been invited and there will be girls as young as 8 years old.
“We want them to be able to see even as a child to look forward to becoming a woman one day and know what that means other than the outward appearance,” she said. “To understand we have the power within.”
Lyles-Belton is the youth pastor at Atlantic City’s
New Shiloh Baptist Church and Community Life Center, where her father — Bishop Dr. James Washington — is senior pastor.
He, too, will share his message.
Atlantic City councilmen have also been invited.
The event begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, 1009 Arctic Ave. in Atlantic City.
“We’re hoping people will come out and have a great time, and also celebrate women,” Lyles-Belton said. “We’re in a great time and space to celebrate each other.”
