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Tamar Carroll Oral Histories on Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!)

Call Number

OH.066

Date

1990, 2003-2005, inclusive

Creator

Carroll, Tamar
Carroll, Tamar (Role: Donor)

Extent

1 Linear Feet
in 2 card boxes

Extent

21 CDs

Extent

2 DVD-R

Extent

1 audiocassette

Extent

7.87 Gigabytes
in 15 computer files

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

Tamar Carroll is a history professor at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Between 2003 and 2005, while a PhD candidate in history at the University of Michigan, Carroll conducted oral histories with members of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) for her dissertation. The Tamar Carroll Oral Histories on Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) document Carroll's work conducting oral histories with members of WHAM! between 2003 and 2005 as part of her dissertation project. The collection consists of audio recordings of individual interviews, and video recordings of group interviews and a WHAM! reunion.

Biographical Note

Tamar Carroll is a history professor at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Between 2003 and 2005, while a PhD candidate in history at the University of Michigan, Carroll conducted oral histories with members of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) for her dissertation. Her dissertation, "Women's Activism, Identity Politics, and Social Change in NYC, 1955-1995", focused on three social movements in New York City between the 1950s and 1990s. One of the movements was the partnership between the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and WHAM! to improve health care, fight homophobia and misogyny, and to support People with AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. These interviews were also used as the basis for her book Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism (UNC Press, 2015).

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in alphabetical order by last name of the narrator, with the group events listed at the end of this arrangement.

Scope and Contents

The Tamar Carroll Oral Histories on Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) document Carroll's work conducting oral histories with members of WHAM! between 2003 and 2005 as part of her dissertation project. The collection consists of audio recordings of individual interviews, and video recordings of group interviews and a WHAM! reunion. Transcripts for some audio interviews are available by request and one interview is available in transcript form only. The oral histories document the experiences of former members of WHAM!, the work of the organization, and the impact these experiences had on the members. The individual interviews and the group interview focus on what brought people to WHAM!, the ways in which they participated in the group, the aims of WHAM!, direct actions and protests in which the narrators participated, and coalitions formed between WHAM! and other organizations, in particular the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Reproductive Rights Coalition. The video recording of the WHAM! reunion documents an event held at the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University in 2005. The event included a panel of former WHAM! members, each of whom discusses the topics included in the oral history interviews; an overview of her project by Carroll; and discussion with the audience, most of whom were members of WHAM!.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restricitions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the narrators were transferred to New York University between 2003 and 2005 by the narrators, with the exception of Matuschka. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection, with the exception of the interview with Matuschka, must be secured from the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Please contact Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Some interviews have individual use restrictions, noted below.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Tamar Carroll Oral Histories on Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!); OH 066; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Tamar Carroll in circa 2008. The accession number related to this acession is 2009.092.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Some audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Access DVDs and CDs for audiovisual materials in the collection are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only.

Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures

Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted.

An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.

Appraisal

An interview belonging to "Elizabeth M." from Carroll's Mobilizing New York was accidentally donated with the collection and was deaccessioned. The interview was previously attributed to Elizabeth Meixell pre-processing.

Related Materials

For more information about WHAM! see the Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) Records (TAM 162)

For more information about Mary Anne Staniszewski, see the Exit Art Archive (MSS 343)

Collection processed by

Megan O'Shea, Will Brown, Marissa Grossman, Matthew Hauptman, Laura Juliano, Priscilla Mariani, Ethan Miller, Peter Sohmer, and Weatherly Stephan

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-03-21 15:27:09 UTC.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

Some interviews in this collection were described by graduate students in the Fall 2020 session of Advanced Archival Description HIST-GA.2031. The remaining interviews and the collection were described by an archivist in April 2021. The interviews were described after listening to at least 45 minutes of audio per interview; this included the first 20 minutes of each interview, as well as an additional 10-25 minutes throughout the recording.

Optical media was imaged and arranged on local storage. Directories were created for material arranged together intellectually in the collection.

New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.

In 2024, individual listings for original recording and access copy were added to each interview subject in the inventory.

Revisions to this Guide

October 2024: Edited by Linda Smith to add individual listings for original recording, access copy, and transcript for each interview subject in the inventory.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

View Inventory

Cain, Shannon, November 3, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll over the telephone on November 3, 2004 with Shannon Cain. Carroll made notes but the interview was not recorded. Cain discusses her background in feminism and activism, her introduction to Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), and her experiences as a member of WHAM!. She explains that she learned about WHAM! in 1991 and describes her experience at WHAM!'s Chain of Fools action in Columbus Circle. She describes the energy of the WHAM! meetings and the different types of people she met. She discusses the way in which WHAM! meetings worked, her work as treasurer for a year, specific direct actions created by WHAM!, and her work with abortion clinic defense. She also discusses her work with Action Tours, an affinity group formed with WHAM! and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) members.

Biographical Note

Shannon Cain, born 1964, is an activist, writer, and visual artist. She lived in New York City between 1988 and 1995 and was a member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) from 1991 to 1994.

Digital materials

Cain, Shannon: 2004-11-03- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Media

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Interview Index

Digital materials

Interview Index (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Curtis, Diane, July 19, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on July 19, 2004 at an unspecified location. The interview was recorded in a crowded location and is often hard to understand, as there is a lot of background noise. The interview covers Diane Curtis's membership and participation in the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!). Curtis discusses her introduction to activism in the early 1980s when she came out as a lesbian and became involved in gay rights issues, first in California and then after her move to New York City (NYC) in 1985, and the way in which ACT UP's use of the Silence=Death posters led her to join the organization. She discusses the way in which the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services Supreme Court decision in 1989 crystallized for her how abortion rights were not safe and that this decision led her to join the Reproductive Rights Coalition (RRC). She discusses the differences between members of the RRC who belonged to more conservative organizations and younger members coming from ACT UP, and how this led to the creation of WHAM!. She explains the way WHAM! meetings worked, the fact that they used Robert's Rules of Order to run the meetings, and the ways in which this made it difficult for people to hijack meetings and made it easier for more shy people to participate. Other topics include WHAM! agendas apart from abortion access, the similarities between ACT UP and WHAM!, and the way in which WHAM! affected the later careers of its members, including Curtis.

Biographical Note

Diane Curtis is a professor of legal studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and a member and co-founder of the Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!). She graduated from New York University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law.

Digital materials

Curtis, Diane: 2004-07-19- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_66_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_9 (Material Type: Audio)

Davis, Susan, March 3, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on March 3, 2004 at an unspecified location. The interview follows Susan Davis's involvement with the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse (CESA), which later became the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (CARASA). Lastly, the interview details her time with the Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).

Davis explains that she became politically active because of the Vietnam War, discussing the ways in which protests enlivened her historical, sociological, and feminist ideals and propelled her to participate in women's health causes. She discusses her membership in the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse (CESA) and her role as a founding member of the successor to CESA, the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (CARASA) in 1977. She explains how both CARASA and CESA were instrumental in bringing about federal sterilization guidelines in 1979. Davis also discusses her participation in the founding of WHAM! in 1989, direct actions in which she participated during her membership in WHAM!.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Susan Davis was born in Rochester, New York and was raised by her mother. Davis grew up surrounded by feminist ideology. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1964. She was a member of the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse (CESA), a founding member of the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (CARASA), and a member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).

Conditions Governing Use

By agreement, use of this interview is restricted for scholarly purposes only and only in the interests of advancing women's reproductive rights. It may not be used to denigrate or malign women or their struggle for reproductive freedom.

Digital materials

Davis, Susan: 2004-03-03- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_1 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

de Mause, Neil and Mindy Nass, October 15, 2005

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on October 15, 2005 at an unspecified location. The interview focuses on Mindy Nass and Neil de Mause's activism in the late 1980s into the late 1990s centered around Brooklyn, New York and their work with Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) on reproductive freedoms and rights. In the interview, Nass and de Mause discuss how they got into activism, how they met, what committees they worked on, individual experiences within WHAM! among other activist organizations, and other people they worked with in the scope of their activism.

The audio of the interviews degrades at certain points and there is substantive background noise throughout the interview.

Biographical Note

Neil de Mause was a political activist who was primarily involved in reproductive freedom activism in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. de Mause attended Wesleyan University and became involved in civil disobedience in 1989. He lived in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York and it was there he was introduced to the activist group Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!). He was an early member of the Reproductive Rights Coalition and was heavily involved in the production of the WHAM! Newsletter.

Mindy Nass was a political activist in the late 1980s and 1990s in Brooklyn. Nass received her undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany and entered the Graduate School at Hunter College in 1992. She became involved in reproductive rights activism during her time as an undergraduate. She joined the National Organization for Women (NOW), and took a course at the Learning Alliance on Women's Activism. After college, she became involved in WHAM! serving on the Newsletter Committee for WHAM!. Nass met de Mause, whom she later married.

Digital materials

de Mause, Neil and Mindy Nass: 2005-10-15- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_7 (Material Type: Audio)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_8 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copies

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-004-01, OH-66-004-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Dorow, Heidi, April 13, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on April 13, 2004 at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, New York. In this interview, Heidi Dorrow begins by describing her move to New York City from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in order to become involved with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Dorrow goes on to describe her involvement in demonstrations and educational events planned by ACT UP in New York City and in the eastern United States, her eventual split with ACT UP over ideological differences related to the scope of the organization's activism and its relationship to other reproductive health and reproductive justice issues, and her involvement in early activism by Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Heidi Dorow attended school at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts until she relocated to New York City in the summer of 1988. She was involved in AIDS activism and civil disobedience through the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).

Digital materials

Dorow, Heidi: 2004-04-13- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copies

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-005-01, OH-66-005-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copies

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-005-01, OH-66-005-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Griffin, Brian, March 16, 2004

Scope and Contents Note

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on March 16, 2004 at an unspecified location. In the interview, Brian Griffin discusses his involvement with Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), the group's activities, and its dissipation. Griffin also discusses the gay community during the AIDS crisis and his involvement with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Much of the interview concerns the Church Ladies for Choice, a group of gay activists who dressed in drag and counter protested anti-abortion demonstrations, including their formation and specific activities.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Brian Griffin is a gay rights and women's rights activist. After receiving a graduate degree in mixed media art from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, Griffin moved to New York City. There, he became involved in the activist organizations AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!). He was a central member of the Church Ladies for Choice in the early 1990s, an organization that he continued to be involved with through the taping of this interview.

Digital materials

Griffin, Brian: 2004-03-16- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copies

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-001-01, OH-66-001-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copies

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-001-01, OH-66-001-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Kaltman, Elizabeth -- Interview Notes, August 31, 2004

Digital materials

Kaltman, Elizabeth -- Interview Notes (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Luciano, Dana -- Transcript, September 20, 2004

Digital materials

Luciano, Dana -- Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Matuschka, July 19, 2005

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted at Matuschka's apartment by Tamar Carroll on July 19, 2005. The interview covers Matuschka's introduction to activism, her experiences with breast cancer and how it led to her joining Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), and her experiences with WHAM!. Matuschka discusses her breast cancer diagnosis in 1991, her malpractice suit against her doctor, and the art and articles she created as a result. She relates her experiences with different breast cancer and women's organizations in New York City, including SHARE, 1 in 9, the National Organization for Women (NOW), National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), and WHAM!. She describes her artwork and the direct actions she helped create at WHAM!, all designed around focusing on bringing people's attention to the realities of breast cancer and educating women from diverse racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds about breast cancer. Matuschka discusses her decision to focus on WHAM! and the differences between WHAM! and SHARE, in particular, including the issues on which each focused and the way each organization functioned.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Matuschka, born Joanne Motichka in 1957, is a photographer and former member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!). In 1991, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy. While in chemotherapy, she learned that a lumpectomy could have been performed but that her doctor did not inform her of this option. She brought a medical malpractice suit against her doctor and became involved with a number of breast cancer and women's organizations, including SHARE, 1 in 9, the National Organization for Women (NOW), National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), and WHAM!.

Conditions Governing Use

This interview is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the interview in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the Matushka or her estate.

By agreement, any usage of Matushka's works/words whereby commercial gain is applied, or will be derived, her estate, or she must be compensated, notified, and are to receive copies of the published work.

Digital materials

Matuschka: 2005-07-19- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_2 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copy

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-010-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-010-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Meixell, Elizabeth, January 24, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on January 24, 2004 at an unspecified location. The interview details Elizabeth Meixell's involvement with Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) and allied organizations AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Church Ladies for Choice, the latter being especially important to WHAM!'s activism. Meixell explains that despite being a Roman Catholic and lifelong Republican, she became a pro-choice activist after moving to New York City in the 1980s. She explains that her awareness of left-leaning activism began in the 1970s, as a college student in her 30s at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she took courses in gender and labor history. Meixell discusses the challenges of organizing demonstrations in New York City and of interacting with law enforcement during protests. She also recalls counterprotests from pro-life organizations, including Lesbians for Life (later the Pro-Life Alliance for Gays and Lesbians).

This interview contains an anti-Black epithet; it appears on page 16 of the transcript and at 20:32 in the audio.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Elizabeth Meixell was born in 1945, the oldest of seven children. She attended the State University of New York at Buffalo and moved to New York City in the 1980s. She was a member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).

Digital materials

Meixell, Elizabeth: 2004-01-24- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copy

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-003-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-003-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Morgan, Tracy, April 5, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on April 5, 2004 at an unspecified location. The interview covers Tracy Morgan's involvement in the creation of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) in 1989, differences in women's rights activism between different generations of activists, how WHAM! solidified the abortion rights movement into the reproductive rights movement, and Morgan's work with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), which intertwined with the work being done by WHAM!. Morgan discusses the ways in which WHAM! aimed to have a new activist identity for a younger generation of women's reproductive health activists and WHAM!'s focus on eye-catching demonstrations that used activists's bodies as sites of protest, at times causing arrest. She explains that being involved with ACT UP led her to become an activist for reproductive and sexual health for all, not just for women.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Tracy Morgan was a founding member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

Digital materials

Morgan, Tracy: 2004-04-05- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_4 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copies

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-011-01, OH-66-011-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copies

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-011-01, OH-66-011-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Ramspacher, Karen, March 5, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll on March 5, 2004 at an unspecified location. The interview largely focuses on Karen Ramspacher's work as a reproductive rights activist in New York City from 1988 to 1994. Ramspacher's interview revolves around her time as a member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), as well as her association with other New York-based activist groups such as AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), Church Ladies For Choice, Community Health Project, National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Reproductive Rights Coalition (RRC), and Treatment Action Group (TAG). She discusses beginning her involvement in activist movements shortly after graduating college in 1987, joining ACT UP, and participating in their meetings and actions over the next several years. She explains how inspired by the direct action techniques of ACT UP, she joined the RRC and subsequently became a member of WHAM! in 1989. Ramspacher recounts participating in clinic escorting and defending, but explains that her main focus with WHAM! was organizing public protests and advocating for and performing self-help gynecology. She discusses how her participation in direct activism lessened after 1993, when her time shifted to providing direct care for friends with AIDS. Topics discussed in detail include New York's activist environment in the 1980s and 1990s; social, gender, and generational dynamics within WHAM!; WHAM! actions and organizational structure; and the role of radical politics in activist groups and society.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Karen Ramspacher is a reproductive rights activist in New York City. She was an active member of the Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) from 1989-1993, and was also a member of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Treatment Action Group (TAG), the Reproductive Rights Coalition (RRC), and the Community Health Project. At the time of the interview, Ramspacher worked in the television industry.

Digital materials

Ramspacher, Karen: 2004-03-05- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copies

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-006-01, OH-66-006-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copies

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-006-01, OH-66-006-02 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Shaw, Susan, July 26, 2004

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll in Northampton, MA on July 26, 2004. The interview covers Susan Shaw's involvement in Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) and the women's health issues that were of interest to her during her involvement in WHAM!. Shaw describes the way in which she became interested in activism, beginning in high school during Ronald Reagan's presidency and her focus on the United States' involvement in Central America and the movement to end apartheid in South Africa. She describes her introduction to WHAM! in 1991 or 1992, after she finished college and moved to New York City. She relates the excitement she felt at the way WHAM! was focusing on different issues of women's health, particularly because she was not interested in the clinic defense movement and was glad to have other topics to focus on, in particular sterilization abuses, women with AIDS, and health issues faced by women of color. She discusses the fact that WHAM! was mainly white, college-educated people, many of whom were lesbians, that they wanted to form coalitions with groups that reflected them but Shaw wanted to broaden the coalitions to groups of different races and classes. She also discusses her work on the New Member Packet for WHAM!, in the interest of making the organization easier for people to join and understand. Other topics include Shaw's work at the People with AIDS Coalition and the skills she learned at WHAM! and how she still used them in her work at the time of the interview.

An electronic transcript of this interview is also available by request.

Biographical Note

Susan Shaw is a former member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) and the People with AIDS Coalition. At the time of the interview, she lived in Michigan.

Conditions Governing Use

By agreement, any names mentioned in the interview of WHAM! members are to be transcribed anonymously.

Digital materials

Shaw, Susan: 2004-07-26- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_3 (Material Type: Audio)

Preservation Copy

Box: 1, CD: OH-66-007-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-007-01 (Material Type: Audio)

Transcript

Digital materials

Transcript (Material Type: Electronic Record)

WHAM! Group Interview, December 16, 2005

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Tamar Carroll at an unspecified location on December 16, 2005. The interview was recorded on video. Charles K. Alexander II, Mark Jacquinot, and Mary Anne Staniszewski discuss their backgrounds, what drew them to Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), and their experiences in WHAM!. All three were involved in the Reproductive Rights Coalition (RRC) and were members of WHAM! from its beginning. Alexander and Staniszewski describe the beginnings of WHAM! as the direct action committee of RRC and how it eventually separated to become its own organization. They discuss the differences between the two organizations and their preference for WHAM! and its philosophy. Jacquinot and Alexander discuss their work in abortion clinic defense and protests in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s.

Biographical Note

Charles K. Alexander II is labor leader, socialist, feminist, and women's rights activist. He is a former member of Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, Reproductive Rights Coalition. In the 1980s, he was a shop steward in an unspecified labor union at New York University.

Mark Jacquinot is a lawyer and former member of WHAM!. Jacquinot lived in Iowa in the 1970s and was a founder and secretary-treasurer of Crisis in Iowa, a member of the Ames Pro-Choice Coalition, before moving to Buffalo, NY in 1984 to attend law school and moving to New York City in 1988.

Mary Anne Staniszewski is an art and cultural historian, and former member of WHAM! and the Reproductive Rights Coalition. She was a member of the media wing of WHAM!.

Digital materials

WHAM! Group Interview: 2005-12-16- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_5 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-012 (Material Type: Audio)

WHAM! Reunion, October 15, 2005

Scope and Contents

The Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) Reunion was recorded on video on October 15, 2005. The event is opened by former head of Tamiment Michael H. Nash who discusses the relationship between Tamiment and WHAM!, Carroll's dissertation project, and the work of the Tamiment Library. Levin shares a slideshow of images from WHAM! events and direct actions. Carroll discusses her dissertation topic and her relationship with the former members of WHAM! with whom she conducted oral histories. The bulk of the reunion focuses on the presentations of Staniszewski, Tepper, Cole, Wolf, and Levin who each discuss how they became active in WHAM! and the importance of WHAM!'s work. They focus on what made WHAM! special; the coalitions WHAM! formed with other activist groups, especially ACT-UP and the Reproductive Rights Coalition; and the ways in which WHAM! impacted each of them individually. The remainder of the recording includes people from the audience sharing their experiences with WHAM!.

Historical Note

The Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) Reunion took place at the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives on October 15, 2005. The event included presentations by a panel of former WHAM! members and Tamar Carroll, followed by comments and questions from former WHAM! members in the audience. The panel included Mary Anne Staniszewski, Michele Tepper, Marian Cole, Leslie Wolf, Meryl Levin, and Carroll.

Digital materials

WHAM! Reunion: 2005-10-15- (Material Type: Electronic Record)

Original Recording

Box: 1, CD: TW_OH_066_6 (Material Type: Audio)

Access Copy

Box: Shared Tamiment 091, CD: OH-66-013 (Material Type: Audio)

WHAM! Action, 1990

Box: 1, audiocassette: OH.066.015 (Material Type: Audio)
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012