Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1613321503 ISBN 13: 9781613321508

Publisher: New Village Press, 2022

Synopsis

Candid and intimate accounts of the factory-worker tragedy that shaped American labor rights

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in Greenwich Village, New York. The top three floors housed the Triangle Waist Company, a factory where approximately 500 workers, mostly young immigrant women and girls, labored to produce fashionable cotton blouses, known as “waists.”

The fire killed 146 workers in a mere 15 minutes but pierced the perpetual conscience of citizens everywhere. The Asch Building had been considered a modern fireproof structure, but inadequate fire safety regulations left the workers inside unprotected. The tragedy of the fire, and the resulting movements for change, were pivotal in shaping workers' rights and unions.

A powerful collection of diverse voices, Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire brings together stories from writers, artists, activists, scholars, and family members of the Triangle workers. Nineteen contributors from across the globe speak of a singular event with remarkable impact. One hundred and eleven years after the tragic incident, Talking to the Girls articulates a story of contemporary global relevance and stands as an act of collective testimony: a written memorial to the Triangle victims.

About this title

About the Authors

Edvige Giunta is a professor of English at New Jersey City University. She is the author of Writing with an Accent: Contemporary Italian American Women Authors and co-editor of five anthologies, including The Milk of Almonds and Embroidered Stories. Born in Sicily, she first became interested in the Triangle fire as a young activist. She has trained scores of students in the art of memoir and created the first course devoted to the Triangle fire.

Mary Anne Trasciatti is President of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition. The daughter and granddaughter of garment workers, she has devoted the past twelve years of her life to ensuring the creation of a Triangle Fire Memorial. She is a professor of Rhetoric and Director of Labor Studies program at Hofstra University in Long Island. She is co-editor of the forthcoming Where are the Workers? Labor’s Stories at Museums and Historic Sites.

Edition details

• Publisher: New Village Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1613321503
• ISBN 13: 9781613321508
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Giunta Edvige, Trasciatti Mary Anne