Vol. 2, No. 10
October  2015

Last days to view an art retrospective of a Chicago activist "Evanston Legend: The Art of Peggy Lipschutz"

The retrospective of Peggy Lipschutz' work at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center (927 Noyes St. in Evanston; admission is free) closes on Sunday, November 1st. There will be a closing ceremony, that Peggy will attend, from 2 - 5 pm.
 
Peggy Lipschutz , an artist, an activist, a unionist, and a feminist, has been painting and drawing for over 50 years. In December Peggy will turn 97. She still paints and still gets around. (She attended the memorial for Bobby Hall, our founder, on September 27.)

Born in England, a child of a wool merchant who put out an anti-fascist paper, Peggy developed her social consciousness at home. Her family emigrated to New York City because her father thought he could better pursue his anti-fascist work here in the U.S. She moved to Chicago to teach in a progressive school aimed at workers with very little education, many Black workers who had come up from the South. She used her cartooning skills in her teaching.

Peggy is famous for her "chalk-talks." She would draw while a musician played and sang. Peggy could coordinate her drawing to have the strokes of her chalk come in with the beat of the song. She performed with the likes of Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Studs Terkel, and Win Stracke among others. Her performances celebrated workers rights, civil rights, and peace and justice.

The current retrospective has paintings from the 1950s next to others from the 2000s.   The show is curated by her manager and friend, Jerri Zbiral, who also created a documentary of Peggy's life titled "Never Turning Back: The World of Peggy Lipschutz."
We at WWHP are honored that Peggy created a drawing to illustrate our2008 conference: Women and Work: Climb That Ladder to Equality!
 
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Mollie West, 1916-2015

Mollie West, whose labor activism spanned decades, died on August 7, 2015, at the age of 99. Born in Poland in 1916, she emigrated to the United States in 1929. After several years, she learned enough English to progress to high school, where she engaged in what she told Florence Hamlisch Levisohn of the Chicago Reader in 1993 was her first act of political rebellion. She openly challenged a stenography teacher who dictated a passage that disparaged African Americans. Mollie was expelled from that class, but other teachers spoke up on her behalf, and eventually she earned a passing grade. Then, in 1934, she organized a committee to oppose cuts the school board proposed in music, art and gym. The group was arrested in the street the night before their protest, as they were assembling their banners. The following year, Mollie graduated from high school.

On Memorial Day 1937, she joined a demonstration in South Chicago to support striking steel workers. That demonstration became known as the Memorial Day Massacre as ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets and many injured. Following that experience, she became a union activist.

After high school and a stint as a factory worker, Mollie landed a job with the Farm Equipment Workers of America, one of the early CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) unions. Years later, Mollie worked as a proofreader at Commerce Clearing House, and enrolled in night classes at Washburne Trade School. The classes led her to be able to join the Chicago Typographical Union No. 16, where she took an active role, which was not common for women in that era. In 1973, she was named a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor-Industrial Union Council. That year, women activists from all over the country met in Chicago to organize the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW).

Mollie was a founding member of the Chicago chapter and served on its board. In her 60's, she earned two B.A's (one from the Weekend College of Mundelein College, now part of Loyola; and a second from Roosevelt University's Labor Education Division). At age 74, she was inducted into Chicago's Women's Hall of Fame. In her later years, Mollie spent many years volunteering with the Illinois Labor History Society, and in 2002, was inducted into the Illinois Labor History Society's Union Hall of Honor.

Mollie West's commitment to labor and women's rights will long be remembered by social justice activists in Chicago and beyond.


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"Why Child Care is Important in Chicago"
Child Care in Chicago Committee
Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.
November 18, 2015 5 - 7 pm


Save the date AND MAKE SURE TO RSVP
to the League of Women Voters
(312-939-5949 OR League@LWVChicago.org)
to enable the League to set up for all attendees
 
In the last newsletter we told you about our upcoming program on child care on Wednesday, November 18. That evening we will show, for the first time, the documentary that we have created from our interviews and the Vice President of Policy and Strategic Partnerships of Illinois Action for Children, Sessy Nyman, will speak.

About the documentary : "Taking A Closer Look at Child Care." Our Child Care in Chicago committee has videotaped 36 interviews with parents of young children in child care and with child care practitioners of various stripes - home child care providers, people who work in Head Start or in private centers, social workers, and mentor teachers. We wanted our documentary to capture their ideas in their own voices. Arleen Prairie, the director of this project, who is most familiar with the interviews, trolled through the interview transcripts excerpting statements that seemed to capture message and voice.
 
About Sessy Nyman: Sessy directs state and federal legislative strategy and coalition building for Illinois Action for Children. In addition to negotiating legislative outcomes and spearheading administrative advocacy to state agencies, Nyman manages statewide campaigns for policy change and increases in fiscal expenditures; creates partnerships with community organizations, parents and faith-based initiatives; and develops grassroots organizing activities and strategies. Sessy will address the current issues of subsidies in Illinois that affect many working families and the cost to all of us of NOT providing quality child care.

The program will include lively discussion about the state of child care at the present time, plus Q and A with Sessy Nyman and Child Care Committee members.


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SAVE THE DATE

Saturday, December 5, 2015   2:00 - 3:30pm   Cost: $10
Join AAUW for a celebration of Jane Addams Day
featuring singer and songwriter Kristin Lems
at the Hull House Museum Residents' dining hall   800 S. Halsted Street.

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