[Three Calendars Promoting Feminism and Women's Rights].; Women

Three 11" x 11" hanging wall calendars. Generally very good plus: covers minimally scuffed and spotted, each with price sticker affixed to rear; internally near fine and fresh. This is a set of wall calendars featuring inspirational feminist messages, histories of important women and compelling black and white images taken by female photographers. The Crossing Press (CP) was founded by Elaine Goldman Gill and her husband John around 1970; Goldman Gill had been fired from her faculty position at Ithaca College, and per an interview "didn't have the courage to sue them." Students had protested and John, a tenured professor there, quit. The couple started their small press, focused on poetry, far left politics and feminist theory, and it took off. Nancy Bereano, who edited and wrote the introductory essay for two of these calendars, was editor of CP's Feminist Series, which also published titles like Movement in Black by Pat Parker, Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology and books of poetry by Judy Grahn. Bereano later founded Firebrand Books, an influential lesbian feminist press. These three calendars were entitled "Women's Work" (1983), "Heroines" (1984) and "The Strength of Women" (1985), and all attacked racism as well as sexism. Each month of "Heroines" featured a portrait and write-up of feminist icons such as Shirley Chisholm, Carrie Chapman Catt, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Golda Meir. Lesser-known women were also included, like renowned pediatrician Helen Rodriguez-Trias, Emily Ivanoff Brown, "the acknowledged Alaskan leader in bilingual education and curriculum" and Edmonia Lewis, "the first Black American to receive international recognition as a sculptor." It was edited by Andrea Fleck Clardy, a self-described "writer, married feminist, mother, School Board member, and Director of Promotion" for CP. Clardy is an award-winning playwright and a longtime educator, community organizer and activist. The other two calendars each boasted powerful photographic images, all taken by women, as well as inspiring quotations, messages of uplift and of injustice. "Women's Work" showed employees of the Greater Chinese American Sewing Company on strike, women providing childcare while at work and engaging in manual labor. November read, "We do it all: earth mother, wage laborer, housekeeper, mover and doer. If our power to affect the direction and quality of life on this planet equalled our ability, our energy, our passion, who can say what would be possible?" "The Strength of Women" focused on the hurdles overcome in the everyday, with fantastic images of women "raising up those who come after," "creating community," "doing work we believe in, earning our own respect in spite of being devalued" and "achieving against heavy odds . . . surprising even ourselves." Each calendar listed the sources from which text and quotations were lifted, serving as ample bibliographies of feminist works, as well as brief biographies of the photographers. Each month also listed the phases of the moon. Rare and extraordinary feminist ephemera. OCLC shows one holding of "Heroines" and none of the other two. …