CWLU Herstory

At the time that I joined my first consciousness raising group, I was fifteen, the youngest member of the CWLU, only two years in the United States, and a prolific journal writer, filling a hardbound notebook every three months. I’d been entranced with writing since my mother Rosario taught me the magic of the alphabet, and even more so when my first grade teacher Eleanor Jane West made a whole room of first graders understand that they were poets, but that year, 1969, I was writing for my life.

by Judith Arcana

by Judith Arcana

by Yamani Hernandez 06/18/12

Jenny Knauss (1937-2012)- adovocate for reproductive rights, women's health, and improving the health and welfare of the disenfranchised

Before abortion was legal, Jody Howard co-founded a group that helped women with unwanted pregnancies. It went by the innocuous name "Jane," and over just a handful of years, some 11,000 women used its services by calling a telephone number and asking for "Jane Howe."

by Bob Simpson (2001)

It was an unusual agenda item, even for one of our commune’s house meetings. Usually house meetings discussed items like dirty dishes, leaving peoples’ vinyl LP’s out of their cases, or why someone had bought 6 bags of pinto beans when everyone was sick of them.

by Vivian Rothstein (1998) — There are some things you should never do when your marriage is on the rocks. One of them is join a commune.

by Naomi Weisstein (1996) — In Chicago, one cold and sunny day in March of 1970, I decided to organize a feminist rock band. I was lying on the sofa listening to the radio -- a rare bit of free time in those early days of the women's movement. Perhaps a meeting had been canceled.

by Estelle Carol (2000) — In 1973, we worked in an old run down second floor office on Belmont Ave that we shared with the main offices of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union. They call it New Town now, but in 1973, there wasn’t much new about it. We weren’t the only artists in the building though. Downstairs was a tattoo parlor.