PROGRAM
This event has been postponed.
Roosevelt House, the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI), and the Hunter College Department of Women and Gender Studies present Leandra Ruth Zarnow on her new book Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug in conversation with Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Harold Holzer with a special welcome by Liz Abzug.
Join us at Roosevelt House to launch the 100th birthday year of a New York legend, feminist icon, and Hunter alumna, Bella Abzug, as we welcome author Leandra Ruth Zarnow to discuss her new book, Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug. It tells the story of one of the original galvanizing forces behind the rise of the Democrats’ women-led “New Politics”: Bella Abzug (Hunter ’42).
Long before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, or Hillary Clinton, there was Bella. With a fiery rhetorical style forged in the 1960s antiwar movement, Abzug vigorously promoted gender parity, economic justice, and the need to “bring Congress back to the people.”
The 1970 congressional election season saw Abzug, in her trademark broad-brimmed hats, campaigning successfully on the slogan, “This Woman’s Place Is in the House―the House of Representatives.” In Congress, she advanced the feminist agenda in ways big and small, from gaining full access for congresswomen to the House swimming pool to cofounding the National Women’s Political Caucus and introducing the ERA. Beyond women’s rights, Bella promoted gay rights, privacy rights, and human rights, and pushed legislation relating to urban, environmental, and foreign affairs. She opened still more doors in the 70s as the first New York woman to run for the U.S. Senate and Mayor.
Leandra Zarnow’s deeply researched political biography highlights how, as 1960s radicalism brought protest into electoral politics, Abzug drew fire from establishment politicians across the political spectrum―but also inspired generations of women. Zarnow will be in conversation with Letty Cottin Pogrebin, writer, activist, Ms. Magazine co-founder, national lecturer, and longtime Abzug ally and advisor; and Harold Holzer, the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of Roosevelt House and award-winning historian who served as Bella’s press secretary in Congress and her campaigns for U.S. Senate (1976) and Mayor of New York (1977).
Liz Abzug, who will greet on behalf of the family, is founder and president of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI), which is headquartered at Hunter College.
