Magna Carda rapping to an excited crowd, satirical commentary, late night covers of Cyndi Lauper’s anthem, and storytelling: the V to Shining V Texas Party, hosted by Jo’s Coffee on South Congress was a free Saturday evening even with a feminist line up. A regular crowd in Austin, but the stories told were the valuable part of the night.

V to Shining V in Austin was one of over a hundred events nationwide under the organization Lady Parts Justice. LPJ was founded by Lizz Winstead, co-writer for “The Daily Show,” when she realized that her satirical voice could tell the story of reproductive rights issues in a new way. The pro-abortion rights organization has used the event to better educate people nationwide about the political and legislative concerns surrounding birth control, abortion laws, and other reproductive issues.

Perhaps the youngest performers, who drew one of the biggest crowds for the night, was Magna Carda. The band’s rapper, Megz Kelli, chatted with Hilltop Views about why the group decided to do the event.

Known to the St. Edward’s community as Megan Tillman, a 2015 graduate from the writing and rhetoric program, Kelli says Magna Carda is “all about the cause.”

 “It’s important to us. We’re all part of the community,” said Kelli. “We’re all human beings and believe in something. Trying to uplift, fighting for fairness.”

 When asked to play V to Shining V, Magna Carda already had another gig lined up for the weekend at Weird City Fest, but chose to open the night anyway. Of the first ever Weird City Fest, Kelli said she was pleased to see the growth of the Austin hip hop scene in the last few years.

While most of the organizations tabling at the event were geared toward women, there were a good number of men in attendance at the event. Julian Praxis, with The Bridge Collective, a reproductive health provider, said he was there to help “ensure that every pregnant person has safe legal options.”

By supporters the movement is referred to as “reproductive justice,” not merely reproductive law. Hillary-Anne Crosby, editor-in-chief of the zine Vagina, explained why. 

“Obviously Vaginais trying to be supportive of women and Texas, but also supporting access, otherwise rights are just rights, not justice.”

The last words of the night went to emcee Julie Gillis, and she read a story about discussing sexual health with her son. As she tells it, he would sometimes randomly ask her questions that she had a hard time answering.

“Do girls ejaculate?”

“Does the whole uterus come out when a woman has her period?”

Gillis explained that it is because of questions like that that she works within sexual education, because she considers the Texas public education on sexual health to be seriously lacking. Whether you went out Saturday night for poems, stories or the rapping styles of Megz Kelli, at V to Shining V, you got an earful of ideas mixed in with all the music.

Follow Jackie on Twitter @365photopoems