The library was to hold material relating to women's work, too. This year's centenary is an opportunity to celebrate the institution's unique holdings.
Founded in 2014 as a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the esteemed Whitney Biennial, the Every Woman Biennial has evolved into an intergenerational showcase that mixes emerging talent with established feminist art stars while maintaining the scrappy, activist energy that inspired it in the first place.
During World War I, women in Russia went on strike. They demanded "bread and peace." Among the results of their four-day protest: the Czar abdicated and women gained the right to vote. This bold strike began on Feb. 23, 1917, according to the Julian calendar then used in Russia. That date translated to March 8 in the Gregorian calendar that much of the world uses.
Griffin-Gracy, born in Chicago, spoke about her move to NYC in her youth on the LGBTQ&A podcast in 2021. "The trans community was everywhere," she reflected, "I went immediately to 42nd Street. Everybody went to 42nd Street: trans girls, everybody. Finding them was not a problem.... I found an apartment that I moved into. It was six floors of nothing but trans girls. It was fabulous. There were so many of us that it was a full life."
The citywide LGBTQ political club honored the work of Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who recently took office as the first out Manhattan borough president; Mateo Guerrero, who is the trans justice and leadership director at Make the Road New York; and Nadia Swanson, the director of advocacy and global programs at the Ali Forney Center.
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was a religious reformer, Puritan dissident, midwife, and alleged prophetess whose beliefs and influence brought her into conflict with the magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially its governor, John Winthrop (1588-1649), in 1636-1638. She was the central voice of the so-called Antinomian Controversy, which divided the colony and, to the magistrates, threatened its mission and continued existence.
In the 1960s, after protesting for the Free Speech Movement and marching through the streets of Berkeley in support of women's liberation, Laura started accumulating pamphlets, manifestos, posters and newspapers from the early days of feminism. The collection became so voluminous it morphed into the Women's History Research Center, with more than a million pieces of paper. Now microfilm of those archives is spread in libraries around the world.