New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Noted historian and author Michael Helquist will speak about his recently published book Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions at the Rotch-Jones- Duff House and Garden Museum on Tuesday, September 13th at 7:00 PM. Meticulously researched and presented with compassion and insight, Marie Equi’s life story is truly remarkable.
Born in New Bedford in 1872, she endured childhood labor in a textile mill in the city before moving to Oregon with her longtime female companion. Self-motivated and ambitious, she studied medicine and became a physician as well as a staunch advocate for reproductive rights. Her beliefs and undaunted activism included marching for worker’s rights and civil liberties, fighting with the police, a night in jail with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and a three-year conviction at San Quentin for speaking out against World War I.
Nancy Krieger of Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health notes that “…Helquist vividly narrates how this passionate, keen, and caring woman dared to live openly as a lesbian and to fight fiercely for social justice, as a physician, suffragist, (and) abortionist…” Join us to learn more about this determined woman’s life, struggles and accomplishments. Members: $10; non-members $12.
