Lauren R. Taylor papers
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
- Taylor, Lauren (1957 August 16) (Person)
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.
Subject
- Taylor, Lauren (1957 August 16) (Person)
- Take Back the Night (Organization)
- DC Area Feminist Alliance (Organization)
- DC Self Defense Karate Association (Organization)
- My Sister's Place (Organization)
- Task Force on Violence Against Women (Person)
- Lesbian Healing Collective (Organization)
- Women's Legal Defense Fund (Organization)
- National Women's Martial Arts Federation (Organization)
Source
- Taylor, Lauren (1957 August 16) (Person)
Genre / Form
Topical
- Abused women -- United States
- Anti-rape movement
- Audiotapes
- Feminism
- Jewish lesbians
- Jewish women
- Lesbian and queer women
- Lesbian feminism
- Lesbians -- United States
- Martial arts -- Study and teaching
- Programs
- Research
- Self-defense for women
- Women -- Legal status, laws, etc -- 20th century
- Women -- Violence against -- United States
- Women -- Violence against -- United States
- Women's liberation
- 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