Women Mobilized for Change 1966 - 1974

Collaborative Ensemble Members: Karen Yates, Cristal Sabbagh, Jill Woods, Jackie Colquitt, Katherine Berghoff, Xyla Gatilao and Monica Brown
Videography: Carrie Ruckel, Ifa Olatunji, Laurie Little
Photography: Jamie Gannon

This was an archive performance project that came out of Neighborhood Magic after meeting the participant, Norma Flynn. Her story demanded deeper research and through research at the Richard Daley Library at the UIC archive I was able to look through all the original archive documents of this women’s collective that started in 1966. The materials belonged to Joan Brown aka Abena Brown who was at the time Executive Director of the YWCA. This women’s collective grew out of a meeting with Coretta Scott-King in 1966 at the YWCA in Chicago. Within a couple of months they had over 400 hundred members and in the first year it grew to 700. There were lots of off-shoot groups and through my research I have discovered that many cultural organizations grew out of this collective including ETA which is a Theater organization in South Shore founded by Abena Brown.

This was a collaborative performance project with Karen Yates, Cristal Sabbagh, Carron Little, Jill Woods, Jackie Colquitt, Katherine Berghoff, Xyla Gatilao and Monica Brown. They used aspects of the poem I wrote for Norma Flynn and Roberta Wilson who were original members of Women Mobilized for Change. The performance also included historical information inspired by the archives.

By magical happenstance Martin Luther King’s memorial sculpture was to be installed a week prior to our first performance in Marquette Park. The sculpture was built out of clay bricks with students and by chance in the poem I wrote in 2015 I finished with the lines quoted above: We built these bricks, we live in these stones… The second performance was at Austin Park around the corner from where Roberta Wilson lived. At each of the performances an original member from Women Mobilized for Change was present to share stories in the community conversation held post-performance. Snippets from these conversations are in the documentary that has been shown in schools in Chicago and two years running at a film festival in Naples, Italy.

Big thanks to Chicago Park District for supporting this project, to all the performers and the documentation team that worked on this project and everyone who came and supported the performance.