Calendar of Events

RISKING  LIFE & LIBERTY: When Women Pursue Justice, an illustrated talk by Jane Weissman

When asked how she wanted history to remember her, Shirley Chisholm dismissed her milestone achievements as the first woman and/or African American. Instead, she replied that she wanted to be known as “a catalyst for change” – words emblazoned on the pennant she holds aloft in Artmaker’s 2005 mural When Women Pursue Justice (45' x 72').

Sharing the wall with Chisholm are 89 women whose accomplishments influenced all spheres of American life – 13 additional twentieth-century “movement leaders,” 67 “activists” and 9 nineteenth-century “ancestors” who paved the way. Native and foreign-born, Native American, and women of color, these women – many jailed, several severely injured, some killed for their efforts – were undaunted in their struggles to achieve voting rights, civil rights and racial justice, health and reproductive rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, environmental justice and protection, and workplace/arts access and equality.

In her illustrated talk, Jane Weissman – the mural’s project director and a participating artist – discusses their achievements in the larger context of twentieth-century activism. While many of them are well known and easily recognizable, several are unfamiliar to most Americans – their struggles never properly recognized or faded from memory. As Jane points out their placement in this mural that restores these remarkable women to their proper place in history, she will guide the audience to those visual “conversations” that connect them within and across generations. Their endeavors give truth to the words Susan B. Anthony penned at age eighty-six: “Failure is impossible.”

During the Q & A following the presentation, audience members will be encouraged to share personal recollections and stories about activism and the women in the mural.

Funding for When Women Pursue Justice and related activities was provided, in part, by New York Council for the Humanities and the Puffin Foundation.

About Jane Weissman
Jane Weissman is co-author of the cultural history, On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City (with Janet Braun-Reinitz, University Press of Mississippi, 2009). In conjunction with the publication of On the Wall, Jane developed and curated the traveling exhibition "Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals." A longtime member of Artmakers Inc., she has been the project director and a participating artist for several Artmakers murals including the award-winning When Women Pursue Justice (2005).