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Lauren R. Taylor papers

 Collection
Identifier: SSC-MS-00773

Scope and Contents

Flyers, pamphlets, posters, meeting notes, writings, clippings, photographs, correspondence, organizational and activist material, subject files, electronic resources, audiovisual material, and publications. The papers include the 1979 founding of My Sister's Place and the organizing of the city's first Take Back the Night march. The material also reflects the rise of the feminist self-defense movement, including Taylor's self-defense organization, Defend Yourself. - abridged version of note provided by Katie Seitz; see papers for Seitz's full scope and content description

Dates of Materials

  • Creation: 1967-2012

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is written in English and Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

To the extent that she owns copyright, Taylor has assigned the copyright in her works to Smith College; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Taylor, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.

Biographical Note

Lauren Taylor was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to the Washington, DC, area when she was one and a half. Taylor matriculated at Oberlin College in 1975, attending for five semesters and completing her bachelor's degree at George Washington University in 1980. Taylor's commitment to activism began in high school, when she marched against the war in Vietnam and organized a local chapter of Youth for McGovern. She also worked at Preterm, an abortion clinic in DC, and was politically involved in college. Upon her return to DC in 1978, she again worked at Preterm and co-organized the first Take Back the Night march in DC. She went on to work for or volunteer with the Women's Legal Defense Fund, the DC Area Feminist Alliance, the Lesbian Health Center, and others. With the Task Force on Abused Women, she co-founded My Sister's Place, the first shelter for battered women and their children in DC, which opened its doors in 1979. In 1987, she was part of an affinity group arrested at the Supreme Court in a civil disobedience protest against Bowers v. Hardwick, the anti-sodomy decision, the day after the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. She was a founding member of an informal group of Jewish lesbians that began with 13 members meeting in 1981 to discuss Jewish lesbian identity and that still meets today. That group included photographer Joan E. Biren (JEB) and Evi Beck, editor of the Nice Jewish Girls anthology. They developed a lesbian haggadah, hosted the first lesbian community seder and a reading to mark the publication of Nice Jewish Girls, and raised money to send women to the first and only national Jewish lesbian conference in California in 1982. Taylor's community activism has also included organizing discussions around race and racism between feminist activists, and in 2002 founding Free Rads, a social-justice-oriented group for self-employed women which still meets todayTaylor's martial arts career began at the DC Self Defense Karate Association (DCSDKA), and by 1988 she was teaching self-defense classes. She earned a black belt in 1995. In 1997, she became a full-time self-defense instructor and freelance writer on gender-based violence. She is a founder of the Self-Defense Instructors Conference, a professional development conference for feminist, empowerment self-defense teachers. Taylor started Defend Yourself as a community self-defense program within DCSDKA and it has since become independent. - abridged version of note provided by Katie Seitz; see papers for Seitz's full biography

Extent

5.959 linear feet (7 containers)

Abstract

The collection has personal and professional papers of Lauren Taylor. The papers include the 1979 founding of My Sister's Place and the organizing of the city's first Take Back the Night march. The material also reflects the rise of the feminist self-defense movement, including Taylor's self-defense organization, Defend Yourself.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was gifted by Lauren Taylor in 2016.

Title
Finding aid to the Lauren Taylor papers
Status
Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
Author
Madison White
Date
2018
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2017-07-26T17:48:24-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
  • 2018-10-18: Updated to conform to DACS

Repository Details

Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository

Contact:
Neilson Library
7 Neilson Drive
Northampton MA 01063