Alliance Program: Left on Pearl – Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion

Left on Pearl is a 55-minute documentary about a highly significant event in the history of the women’s liberation movement.  In 1971 hundreds of Boston-area women staged a takeover and occupation of a Harvard University-owned building.  The ten-day occupation by women demanding a Women’s Center and low income housing for the community in which the building stood, embodied within it many of the hopes, triumphs, conflicts and tensions of Second Wave feminism. One of the few such takeovers by women for women, this action was transformative for the participants, and led directly to the establishment of the longest continuously operating Women’s Center in the U.S.

We will have the opportunity to watch the film together as a community, followed by a panel discussion featuring Rochelle Ruthchild, a founding member of the Women’s Center who was involved in the making of the documentary, and FP members Mary Fusoni, Joyce Thompson, and Jo Ann Preston, who took part in the 1971 action.