Meet seven remarkable women who visited and joined the Brook Farm utopian community (1841-1847) in West Roxbury, Mass. Then, consider the threads connecting their progressive social agenda and 19th century abolition and suffrage movements to 21st century issues of race and gender equality.
Sunday, November 4, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
Community discussion led by Dr. Kerri Greenidge, Tufts University.
Women played an important role in the Brook Farm transcendentalist Utopian community in the 1840s, where they enjoyed rights and privileges equal to the male members of the community. After the demise of Brook Farm, many went on to become active in the suffrage and abolitionist movements.
In this ‘living history’ presentation, you will meet Margaret Fuller, Sophia Ripley, and other remarkable women who joined and visited this short-lived but influential community. How did they understand and live the “social contract” at Brook Farm and afterward?
Then, join a discussion of the social contract in the 21st century. What are the threads that connect women’s suffrage to #MeToo? Abolitionism to Black Lives Matter? What are our rights and responsibilities as members of a diverse community?
Dr. Kerri Greenidge, interim Director of American Studies at Tufts University and co-director of the African American Trail Project at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, will set the stage for the presentation and guide the discussion.
Admission is free. Refreshments provided.
This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities. We are also grateful to the Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women for helping bring our presentation to the Cambridge Public Library.