Uncover/Recover: Remembering Women Workers

The 112th Annual Exhibition, Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women, includes Harriet Bart’s affecting Drawn in Smoke which memorializes individual young immigrant workers, mostly women and girls, who died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. While the disaster set in motion major labor reforms, the workers were largely forgotten. In October 2023 a memorial was unveiled at the site to remember these victims, 112 years later. Jennifer Gauthier, Professor of Media and Culture, will introduce a short documentary about the memorial’s creation, discussing the power of memorials to rewrite history to include marginalized people. Laura-Gray Street, Professor of English, will read poems from her chapbook, Shift Work, published in 2018, which explores the often-overlooked role of women and femininity in the historical struggle for dignity in work. Laura McManus, Curator of Education, will talk about Harriet Bart’s intent and process by which she created “portraits” in smoke to honor each victim. FREE and open to the public.