Women's History Month at the CPL: "Left on Pearl" Screening and Talkback

"Left on Pearl" chronicles a highly significant but little-known event in the history of the women's liberation movement, the 1971 takeover and occupation of a Harvard University-owned building by hundreds of Boston area women. The ten-day occupation of 888 Memorial Drive 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.

About the moderator: Erin Trahan has reported on and reviewed film and television with an emphasis on independent filmmaking and exhibition in New England for the last two decades. She's been a regular contributor to 90.9 WBUR, the Boston Globe, among other outlets. She also teaches in Emerson College's journalism and media arts departments. She loves hearing artists speak about their process and using film as the seed for important public conversations.

Co-sponsored by the Cambridge Women's Commission and Friends of the CPL.