Carrie Secrist Gallery, in association with NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative, will host an educational session about ovarian cancer on Saturday, August 5th at 2:00 pm. The gallery (located at 835 W. Washington St. in Chicago) is currently hosting an exhibition called AKR: A Beauty Salon. The show celebrates the life and legacy of author Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who died from ovarian cancer in March 2017. In addition to being an author of over 30 children’s books and several memoirs, her viral essay, “You May Want to Marry My Husband,” was published in the “Modern Love” column in The New York Times a week before her passing.

Guest-curated by Ruby Western (Rosenthal’s assistant for the last 3.5 years) in collaboration with the gallery, the exhibit features never-before-seen drawings, notebooks, and other inspirational materials. The show will be open through August 12th and includes programming featuring Rosenthal’s many collaborators, which serves to highlight and extend the author’s life work.

The educational session, entitled “Sisterly Advice to BEAT Ovarian Cancer,” is designed to empower women to recognize the subtle symptoms of the disease, assess their personal risk and to seek medical attention for the best outcome. The event is free and open to men and women. Light refreshments will be served. It is led by Jodie Shagrin Kavensky, founder and CEO of the NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative. She lost her mother (Norma) and aunt (Leah) to the disease and has inherited a genetic predisposition for both breast and ovarian cancer.

“Ovarian cancer has commonly been called a silent disease,” Ms. Kavensky said. “The only thing silent about it are the voices that have been silenced by it.” She explained that without a screening test, women must be vigilant self-advocates for their reproductive health. “Many women mistakenly believe there are no symptoms, that a pap smear screens for ovarian cancer, and that if they don’t have ovaries, they won’t get the disease. We are changing that misconception and saving lives,” she added.

All women are at risk for ovarian cancer and approximately 1 in 75 women will develop the disease during her lifetime. Less than 50% of women diagnosed with the disease survive beyond five years. When detected in early stages, the survival rate jumps to more than 90%.

NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative, headquartered in Rock Island, enriches lives through early detection education, patient support services and research funding for ovarian cancer. The gallery is honored to host the session and help to raise awareness about a cause so important to Amy and the Rosenthal family.

For more information about this event please contact NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative at 309.236.6625 or visit their website at www.normaleah.org.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal (b. 1965, Chicago – d. 2017, Chicago) was a person who liked to make things. She wrote both adult and children’s books, created tiny films, and worked with TED and NPR as a collaborator and speaker. Rosenthal graduated from Tufts University and built a career in advertising before she published her first children’s book, Little Pea, in 2005. Over the next 12 years, she wrote more than 30 children’s books including I Wish You More, Uni the Unicorn, Duck! Rabbit!, Exclamation Mark, and many other New York Times bestsellers. She penned groundbreaking memoirs including Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Her best-known film project is The Beckoning of Lovely.

In February 2017, Amy wrote an essay entitled “You May Want to Marry My Husband,” which was published in The New York Times. Within one week, it had been read by over four million people and featured on many national news outlets. She and her husband Jason raised their three children on a tree-lined street in Chicago.

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Tags: Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, near west side, Ovarian Cancer Educational Session at AKR: A Beauty Salon