UMarmot » Women & feminism

Diamond, Arlyn, 1941-

rscox — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:20:49 +0000

As a member of the faculty in the English Department at UMass Amherst in 1972, Arlyn Diamond became one of the founding members of the Program in Women’s Studies. A scholar of medieval European literature, Diamond received her doctorate from Berkeley in 1970 and became an early proponent of feminist criticism. Among other works, she was author of Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism (1988) and editor (with Lee Edwards) of American Voices, American Women (1973). Diamond retired from the University in 2004.

This small collection consists primarily of notes for research and teaching. Of particular interest is a series of women’s studies bibliographies, readings for the Five College Women’s Studies Faculty Seminar (Autumn 1977), graduate level feminist theory courses, and notes related to the history of women’s studies. Also included among the papers are financial records from the 1977 Five College Women’s Studies Faculty Seminar.

WFCR (Radio station : Amherst, Mass.)

rscox — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:09:47 +0000

The first public radio station in western New England, WFCR Five College Radio has provided a mix of high quality, locally-produced and nationally syndicated programming since May 1961. In 2012, the station reached over 175,000 listeners per week, with a mix of classical and jazz music, news, and entertainment.

The WFCR Collection contains nearly 4,500 reel to reel recordings of locally-produced radio programs, reflecting over fifty years of the cultural and intellectual life of western Massachusetts. Drawing upon the talents of the faculty and students of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and UMass Amherst), the collection offers a remarkable breadth of content, ranging from public affairs to community and national news, cultural programming, children’s programming, news and current events, scholarly lectures, classical music, and jazz.

King, Anita

dkovacs — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:32:25 +0000

A lifelong activist and organizer, King graduated from Smith College in 1937 and completed her master’s in social work at Columbia University. By the 1960s she was active with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and later went on to work as an administrator with the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1988, King returned to the Pioneer Valley and opened up a small family therapy practice from her home in Williamsburg. Soon after, she began her affiliation with the Sierra Club’s population program recruiting students as interns and volunteers from her alma mater. After volunteering as the chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club population committee for 19 years, Anita King retired at the age of 95 in 2011.

Part of the Global Population and Environmental Program of Sierra Club, the population program was headed by Anita King for nearly two decades. During that time she organized 20 lectures with speakers from a variety of organizations, such as Thoraya Obaid and Margaret Catley-Carlson. Her papers contain correspondence, speeches, administrative and subject files she kept on various issues through the early 2000s.

Avakian, Arlene Voski

rscox — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Arlene Avakian arrived at UMass in 1972 as a graduate student working on the social history of American women, but quickly became a key figure in the creation of the university’s new program in Women’s Studies. As she completed her MA in History (1975) and EdD (1985), she helped in the early organization of the program, later joining the faculty as professor and program director. Through her research and teaching, she contributed to an engaging departmental culture in which the intersection of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality were placed at the center, building the program over the course of 35 years into the nationally-recognized Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Avakian has written and taught on topics ranging from the lives and experiences of Armenian American and African American women to culinary history and the construction of whiteness. She retired in May 2011.

Documenting the growth and development of Women’s Studies at UMass Amherst, the collection includes valuable material on the creation of the department (and Women’s Studies more generally), second- and third-wave feminism, and Avakian’s teaching and research. The collection includes a range of correspondence, memoranda, notes, and drafts of articles, along with several dozen oral historical interviews with Armenian American women. Also noteworthy is the extensive documentation of ABODES, the Amherst Based Organization to Develop Equitable Shelter, which established the Pomeroy Lane Cooperative Housing Community in South Amherst in 1994.

Class Action

rscox — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:41:58 +0000

Since incorporating as a non-profit in 2004, Class Action has been dedicated to exploring issues surrounding class and identifying means of dismantling classism. Founded by Felice Yeskel (an activist and founder of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst) and Jennifer Ladd, Class Action offers training, workshops, and organizational consulting to raise awareness of the impact of class barriers and class privilege on the lives of individuals and communities and of the intersections between race and class. Their goals include making class a diversity issue and promoting a broader vision of economic and social justice that will create lasting systemic change.

The records of Class Action include administrative files for the organization along with a range of materials used in training sessions and workshops.

Graham, Julie

rscox — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:07:53 +0000

The economic geographer Julie Graham (1945-2010) and her colleague Katherine Gibson have been influential in envisioning alternatives to capitalist economics and economic development. After studying at Smith College (BA, 1965) and Clark University (PhD, 1984), Graham joined the faculty at UMass Amherst where she helped shape the new graduate program in geography. From early in her career, she worked so closely with her Australian colleague Gibson that they often published jointly under the pen name J.K. Gibson-Graham, and Graham developed close working relationships across several departments at UMass. A prolific author and inspiring mentor for students, Graham’s academic work drew upon an innovative mix of political economy, poststructuralist theory, feminism, and community-based research. Among her more significant publications are the now-classic The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (1996), on representations of capitalism and their political effect, A Postcapitalist Politics (2006), which explores alternatives to capitalism, and two edited volumes, Class and Its Others (2000) and Re/Presenting Class (2001). Graham died in Nashville on April 4, 2010.

The Graham Papers offer a detailed perspective on the radical geographer Julie Graham. The collections documents Graham’s life and career beginning in her undergraduate years and extending through her last research projects in community economies. Through correspondence and writings, photographs, and research — closely intertwined with her colleague Katherine Gibson — the collection gives shape of Graham’s radical challenge to human geography tinged with an optimistic economic and social possibility. The collection also includes letters, photographs, and genealogical matter relating to Graham’s family, extending back to the time of the First World War.

Stokes, Daniel M. J.

rscox — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:45:27 +0000

From 1987 through early 1988, Daniel and Joyce Stokes published Into the Night, “a newsletter for freedom for political prisoners held in the United States.” Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., this simply-produced publication offered updates and commentary on Americans imprisoned for politically-motivated acts. Reflecting both the legacy of 1960s radicalism and the resurgent activism associated with U.S. imperialism in Central America, Into the Night offered news on the Ohio 7 sedition trial, the MOVE organization, and the fate of Plowshares war resisters.

The Stokes collection contains correspondence from subscribers and supporters of Into the Night, fleshing out their political philosophy and the conditions of imprisonment. Drawn from groups including the MOVE organization, the United Freedom Front, Black Liberation Army, and Plowshares, the correspondents include Ramona Africa, Alberto Aranda, Philip Berrigan, Marilyn Buck, Carl Kabat, Ray Luc Levasseur, Ruchell Cinque Magee, and Carol Manning. The collection also includes copies of other radical publications and a complete run of Into the Night itself.

Historical Note

A poet and writer, Daniel M. J. Stokes was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 27, 1950, the son of Ervin William and Elizabeth (Ray) Stokes. A former editor of the East River Review, Stokes has contributed work to a number of magazines and published several books of poetry, beginning with Wired/LSD: Poems (New York: Culture Review Press, 1974) and including The World and Other Places (Cambridge, Mass: Chthon Press., 1975), Poems from Mexico (Mexico City: s.n., 1987), and Poems on the Run, 1984-1988 (Mexico City: In Exile Press, 1995).

From 1987 through early 1988, he and his wife, Joyce, published Into the Night, “a newsletter for freedom for political prisoners held in the United States.” Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., this simply-produced publication offered updates and commentary on Americans imprisoned for politically-motivated acts. Reflecting both the legacy of 1960s radicalism and the resurgent activism associated with U.S. imperialism in Central America, Into the Night offered news on the Ohio 7 sedition trial, the MOVE organization, and the fate of Plowshares war resisters.

Sent free of charge, the newsletter reached an audience of prisoners convicted of draft resistance, antinuclear protest, and anti-racist and anti-imperialist revolutionary activity, and it was read by others who had become radicalized during their imprisonment. From the outset, Into the Night generated significant resistance from prison authorities, and for unclear reasons, it appears to have ceased publication after its fifth number in March 1988.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Centered around the newsletter Into the Night, the Stokes Papers contains correspondence from a range of self-identified political prisoners, accompanied by an interesting, but ultimately miscellaneous suite of publications from the radical press. As small and tightly focused as it is, the collection provides a valuable window into the radical edge of the late 1980s political spectrum, and particularly the conjunction of antiracist and anti-imperialist groups within the prison system.

Although some of the correspondence is at best mundane — mostly requests for subscriptions — several prisoners provide compelling analyses of their political views and the conditions of imprisonment. Most correspondents are represented by only one or two letters, however the Ohio 7 “seditionists” (Ray Luc Levasseur and Carol Manning), the MOVE organization (Ramona Africa and William Phillips Africa), and members of the Black Liberation Army are somewhat better represented.

Among other noteworthy items in the collection are letters from Chicano revolutionaries Alberto Aranda and Alvaro Hernandez, including protests filed with the Texas Department of Corrections regarding the decision to deny Aranda access to Into the Night, and two lengthy letters from Aranda discussing political prisoners. Marilyn Buck’s letters provide a sharp analysis of the need for political ideology along with a copy of court proceedings filed by her and Mutulu Shakur (see also the folder relating to the Resistance Conspiracy Case). Several African American revolutionaries discuss their political motives and life in prison, including Ramona Africa (filed under MOVE), John Albury (Born Allah), Anthony Bottom (Jalil Muntaqim), Eric Clemmons-Bey, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad Jenkins, Ruchell Cinque Magee, and Richard Williams.

Finally, the collection includes a small number of radical antiwar and antinuclear resisters, most notably Philip Berrigan, Carl Kabat, George Ostensen, and Gillam Kerley.

While editing Into the Night, the Stokes kept copies of other radical publications, many intended for political prisoners or fellow revolutionaries, the more uncommon of which have been retained within the collection, which also includes an apparently complete run of Into the Night, including paste-ups of four of the five extant issues.

Information on Use

Terms of Access and Use

Restrictions on access:

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Daniel and Joyce Stokes Papers (MS 661). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

History of the Collection

Acquired from Robinson Street Books, 2010.

Processing Information

Processed by Dex Haven, July 2010.

Additional Information

Language

English

Contents List

Albury, John (a.k.a Born Allah)	1987-1988	3 items	Box 1:1
On Black consciousness, becoming a revolutionary

Anarchist Black Cross	1988		Box 1:2

Arafat, David	1988		Box 1:3

Aranda, Alberto	1987-1988		Box 1:4
On political prisoners, politicization behind bars, Alvaro Hernandez.

Barnes, Bill	1996		Box 1:5

Berrigan, Philip	1987		Box 1:6
Information flyers on Plowshares.

Bibliography and notes	1988		Box 1:7

Bottom, Anthony L.	1987		Box 1:8
On the definition of political prisoner.

Breakthrough: Political Journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, no. 14, 1	1990 Winter		Box 1:9
Includes an article on victory in the Ohio 7 sedition trial.

Brock, Melvin	1988		Box 1:10

Buck, Marilyn	1988		Box 1:11
On ideology and sustaining a revolutionary consciousness; brief filed with Mutulu Shakur on status of political prisoners.

Clemons, Darryl	1987		Box 1:12

Clemons-Bey, Eric D.	1988		Box 1:13

Committee for Justice to Stop the McCarran Act Deportations	1987		Box 1:14
Includes issue no. 1 of Call for Justice, the Committee’s newsletter.

Community Church of New York. Social Action Committee, We Want Peace: People of Nicaragua	1986	2 items	Box 1:15

Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, Vol. 1:1, 2:4	1987-1989		Box 1:16

Dandar, George	1987		Box 1:17

Dysentery: Red Balloon Magazine, no. 23	1992		Box 1:18

Ebner, Jerry	1987		Box 1:19

Fellner, Gene, John Brown and the Issue of Terrorism, GLF Occasional, no. 2	1987 Summer		Box 1:20

Gaye, David	1987		Box 1:21

Gelabert, Ana Lucia	1987-1988		Box 1:22
On her near disappearance as a prisoner; willingness to be exchanged to Cuba.

Gilbert, David	1987-1988	3 items	Box 1:23
On his political history and involvement in the “Brinks case.”

Guerre, Brian	1987		Box 1:24

Harden, Donald Sanga	1987	2 items	Box 1:25
On attempting to be classified as a POW

Hernandez, Alvaro L.	1987	10 items	Box 1:26
On Prisoners United for Revolutionary Education; copy of Arm the Spirit, vol. 1:1 (newsletter of PURE); “The Prisoners Defense Committee report on brutality and torture in Texas Department of Corrections;” background to becoming a political prisoner while imprisoned

Into the Night, no. 1	1987 Sept. 24	5 copies	Box 1:27
Articles: “United States at war with innocent Palestinians,” Palestine, captive Iranian sailors, Philip Berrigan and Plowshares, Soviet Union and human rights, Alvaro Hernandez.

Into the Night, no. 1: paste-up	1987 Sept.		Box 1:28

Into the Night, no. 2	1987 Oct. 24	6 copies	Box 1:29
Articles: Escape of Assata Shakur; MOVE, Brian Wilson, Ramona Africa on “Long live John Africa! Long live John Africa’s revolution!”

Into the Night, no. 3	1987 Dec. 14	4 copies	Box 1:30
Articles: updates on MOVE and other political prisoners, “The Government calls it conspiracy — we call it resistance” (on the Ohio 7), Ray Luc Levasseur on “VVAW article,” “Kazi Toure: Community threat?”

Into the Night, no. 3: paste-up	1987 Dec.		Box 1:31

Into the Night, no. 4	1988 Jan. 29	11 copies	Box 1:32
Articles: “The crime is treason the punishment” (on Felipe Noguera’s testimony regarding the Ohio 7 Sedition trial), Gillam Kerley on “Political oppression and the struggle against the draft.”

Into the Night, no. 4: paste-up	1988 Jan.		Box 1:33

Into the Night, no. 5	1988 Mar.	6 copies	Box 2:1
Articles: “For freedom, nothing less,” on the spirit of Malcolm X and John Brown and Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck, “State of California trying to silence Ruchell Cinque Magee,” on censorship of Into the Night, Ray Luc Levasseur’s “Memere” (poem), Ray Luc Levasseur on “Free the Ohio 7.”

Into the Night, no. 5: paste-up	1988 Mar.		Box 2:2

Into the Night: Miscellaneous	ca.1987-1988		Box 2:3

Into the Night: subscription requests	1987-1988		Box 2:4

Jenkins, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad	1987 Sept. 8		Box 2:5
On unjust conviction, racial disparities in prison system, revolution.

Jonah House	1987		Box 2:6

Jones, Ted	1988 Oct. 9		Box 2:7

Kabat, Carl	1988-1989		Box 2:8
Circular letters on political prisoners.

Kerley, Gillam	1987		Box 2:9
Committee Against Registration and the Draft

Kirklin, Andrew	1988		Box 2:10

Krueger, Jack	1988		Box 2:11

Levasseur, Ray Luc	1987-1988		Box 2:12
On Ohio 7 sedition trial; Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Libertad: Official Organ of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War, vol. 9:3	1988 Mar.		Box 2:13

Magee, Ruchell Cinque	1987-1988		Box 2:14
Copies of three legal briefs, letters, “Black August,” Kazi Toure.

Manning, Carol Saucier	1989		Box 2:15

Miscellaneous	ca.1987-1988		Box 2:16

Mordechai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund	1987		Box 2:17

MOVE	1987-1989		Box 2:18
News releases from Ramona Africa and Wiliam Philips Africa.

Nuclear Resister	1987 Sept.		Box 2:19

Ogun, Iyapo Olugbala	1990		Box 2:20

Ohio 7	1987-1988		Box 2:21
Transcript of testimony of Felipe Noguera, Sedition Committee updates, posters and publicity

Oluyomi, Geoffrey	1987		Box 2:22

On Gogol Boulevard, vo. 1:1-2	1987		Box 2:23

Ostensen, George	1987		Box 2:24

Palestine Focus, no. 22	1987		Box 3:1

Palestine Solidarity Committee	1988		Box 3:2

Peltier, Leonard	1989-1991		Box 3:3

Perotti, John	1988		Box 3:4
Appeal for help from “IWW union organizer and jailhouse lawyer.”

Plowshares-Disarmament Actions, September 1980-November 1986	1986		Box 3:5

Plowshares Newsletter, vol. 4:4, 5:1, 5:2, 5:4	1987-1988		Box 3:6
Vol. 5:2 enclosed in letter filed with Gillam Kerley.

Prison News Service, no. 21, 22	1989		Box 3:7

Progressive Periodical Directory	1987		Box 3:8

Resistance Conspiracy Case	1989		Box 3:9

Rosenthal, Harold	1987		Box 3:10

Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, vol. 6:1-2	1989-1990		Box 3:11

Taylor, Brent	1987-1988		Box 3:12
Member of the Squamish Five; includes two poems.

Thomas, Martha	1993		Box 3:13

Thompson, Harold H.	1988		Box 3:14

Turning the Tide: LA Anti-Racism Newsletter	1989		Box 3:15

Williams, Richard	1988		Box 3:16
Includes update on Ohio 7 Sedition trial and information on Kazi Toure.

Woodson, Helen	1987		Box 3:17

World Socialist, no. 1	1984		Box 3:18

Year One	1987		Box 3:19

Zeller, Barbara	1988		Box 3:20

Gyorgy, Anna

rscox — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:59:26 +0000

As a member of the Montague Farm community, Anna Gyorgy became a leader in the movement against nuclear energy. In 1974, she helped organize the Alternative Energy Alliance in Montague, Mass., and two years later, she was part of the coalition that founded the Clamshell Alliance. An author, ecofeminist, and peace activist, she has lived In Ireland, West Africa, and Germany since 1985 and remains deeply involved in international movements for justice and peace.

Tightly focused on Anna Gyorgy’s activism from the mid-1970s through late 1980s, the collection contains important documentation on the early antinuclear movement in western Massachusetts with some material on the international movement in the 1980s. In addition to a small run of correspondence, the collection includes writings, news clippings, publications, and ephemera relating to antinuclear activism during the 1970s and 1980s and to other related causes, including the Rainbow Coalition and Jesse Jackson’s run for the presidency in 1984. The balance of the Gyorgy Papers are housed at Smith College.

Gordon, Ann

rscox — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:09:47 +0000

Ann Gordon served as the editor of the Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton papers as a member of African American Studies department from 1982 until the project’s conclusion in 1989. While at the University, Gordon, along with John Bracey, Joyce Berkman, and Arlene Avakian planned a conference discussing the history of African American Women voting from the Cady Stanton’s meeting at Seneca Falls to the Voting Rights Act. The conference, called the African American Women and the Vote Conference, was held in 1988.

The collection is comprised of proposals, reports, meeting transcripts, and correspondence from Gordon’s work planning the 1988 African American Women and the Vote Conference. Also included is preliminary work by Gordon to organize the papers given at the conference into book form.

UMass Amherst. Division of Continuing Education

rscox — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:38:21 +0000

The Division of Continuing Education was established in 1970 as the de facto academic outreach arm of the University. Designed to improve access to the academic resources of the University for part-time students, this entailed both the development of a specialized admissions process and an integrated counseling, advising, registration, and records operation geared to the needs of part-time students. The Division continues to provide specialized services and programming for part-time students including Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Model for Public School Students (TEAMS) and the Arts Extension Service, which acts as a catalyst between the fine arts resources of the University and the people in the Commonwealth.

The record group documents the activities of the Division of Continuing Education (1970-2007), Everywoman’s Center — including the Women of Color Leadership Network (1971-2007), and the University Conference Services (1906-2007).

Historical Note

The Division of Continuing Education was established in 1970 as the de facto academic outreach program for the University. Its goal was to improve access to the academic resources of the University for part-time students. Shortly after its inception, this included the development of a specialized admissions process approved by the Faculty Senate and an integrated counseling, advising, registration and records operation geared to the needs of part-time students.

The Division of Continuing Education continues to provide specialized services and programming for part-time students including Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Model for Public School Students (TEAMS) and Arts Extension, which acts as a catalyst to stimulate interaction between the fine arts resources of the University and the people in the Commonwealth.

Scope and Contents

The bulk of the Continuing Education records is contained in three major series:

Division of Continuing Education, 1970-2007
Everywoman’s Center (including the Women of Color Leadership Network), 1971-2007
University Conference Services, 1906-2007

00. Publications (except as noted below)
1. Administration of Continuing Education as a Whole
2. Everywoman’s Center
00. Publications
C3. Chomo Uri
N3. Everywoman’s Center Newsletter
1. Administration and Finance
2. Programs and Services
1. Educational Alternatives
2. Feminist Arts Program
3. Resource and Referral
4. Poor Women’s Task Force
5. Third World Women’s Programmer
6. Counseling Services
7. Career Counseling
8. Counselor/Advocates Against Rape and Sexual Violence
9. Women of Color Leadership Network
3. University Conference Services
4. Mental Retardation Project
5. Arts Extension Service
6. Northeast Metric Research Center
7. Legal Assistant Training Program
8. Women’s Program Development
9. Citizen Involvement Training Project (CITP)
10. Energy Education Center
11. University Writing Program
12. Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Model for Public School Students (TEAMS)