On Thursday, April 12, the Northern Iowa Feminists will be hosting two female comedians, Megan Gogerty and Lyn-z Harney, at the Lutheran Student Center Coffeehouse from 8 to 9 p.m. as part of Women to the Front.

Women to the Front is a progressive, intersectional feminist non-profit action group that fundraises for organizations that defend issues they support. The organization hosts semi-annual events that celebrate female entertainers.

“Often women in the entertainment industry face barriers that men do not, which we have seen with the #MeToo movement,” said Hannah Gregor, vice president of Northern Iowa Feminists and coordinator for the Women to the Front event. “Our goal in the Northern Iowa Feminists with this event is to actively support local female entertainers and make their work accessible to students on campus.”

Harney, a feminist comedian, will be opening for Gogerty at the event.

Gogerty is an award winning playwright and stand-up comedian. She is also a professor at the University of Iowa where she teaches playwriting, musical theatre and dramatic literature.

She also teaches “Comedy and Society,” a course that takes a look at the correlation between comedy and western culture from the 19th century to the present.

Gogerty has published many different plays, including “Bad Panda,” a solo show titled “Megan Gogerty Loves You Very Much,” which later morphed into “Hillary Clinton Got Me Pregnant,” and a musical called “Love Jerry.”

In 2008, “Love Jerry” was produced in the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), an annual three-week summer festival that presents and awards new musicals in theatre venues in New York City’s midtown theatre district. It earned four NYMF awards and three Talkin’ Broadway Summer Festival Citations, including Outstanding New Musical, before touring England and premiering in Atlanta at the Actors Express Theatre, where it was nominated five times for an Atlanta Suzi Bass award.

The Women to the Front event will be collecting donations for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an advocacy group created in 2012 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The purpose of this organization is to shed light on school shootings and demand action from state and federal legislators, companies and educational environments to enact gun reforms.

The Lutheran Student Center Coffeehouse will provide free smoothies, tea, coffee, Italian soda and cookies for those who attend.