Shulamith Firestone Memorial Apartment


Shulamith Firestone Memorial Apartment
The Issue
Work with a committee of feminists to create a "Shulamith Firestone Memorial Apartment". In the apartment in which feminist pioneer Shulamith Firestone lived and worked for 30 years. This aparment would, in perpetuity, remain well below market rates and which rent would, at this time, not exceed $1,000. per month; it would be reserved for a woman who is making an important contribution to the feminist movement that is not well remunerated.
Because... The Feminist world, the Art world and the Lower East Side/East Village Community have just lost one of our great visionaries--Shulamith Firestone--a woman who was able to remain, work and survive in her/our neighborhood for many years because she paid a relatively low rent...
Because... the average rent being charged new renters in our neighborhood is $2,100., and had Shulamith tried to rent here today, it would have been impossible for her to find, live and work in an apartment she could afford...
Because... the Lower East Side/East Village environment is all the poorer for the loss, due to skyrocketing rents, of the kind of creative spirits that formerly gave the neighborhood its unique character--but who are now being priced out...
Because... Shulamith's sister feminists, friends and admirers would like to memorialize her by making it possible for a feminist(s) coming after her to be able to live in this neighborhood and do feminist work here--such work usually being either unpaid or poorly paid, and therefore requiring an affordable rent...
Because... it is well within "fair housing practices" developed over decades for developers/owners of housing in formerly working class neighborhoods to create "set-asides" of affordable rental units for those who cannot pay market rates...
Such a permanent affordable feminist space wold provide material support for the ongoing work of feminism and by so doing would continue the legacy of Shulamith Firestone.
Signatures (list still in formation)
Kate Millett, Feminist, Author: Sexual Politics
Frances Goldin, Co-Founder Cooper Square Committee, Literary Agent for Mumia Abu Jamal
Carol Giardina, Professor of Hisory, Queens College, CUNY, Author: Freedom for Women
Kathie Sarachild, Director, Redstockings Women's Liberation Archives for Action
Marisa Figuereido, President, Redstockings, Inc.
Ti-Grace Atkinson, radical feminist
Nellie Hester Bailey, Director, Harlem Tenants Council
Annette Averette, Co-Director, Sixth Street Community Center
Howard Brandstein, Co-Director, Sixth Street Community Center
Rosalyn Baxandall, Distinguished Professor, SUNY-Old Westbury
Fran Luck, Executive Producer, Joy of Resistance Multicultural Feminist Radio @ WBAI
Erin Mahoney, National Women's Liberation (NWL)
Allison Guttu, Organizer, NWL, Women of Color Caucus (NWL), Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Amy Kesselman, Professor Emerita, SUNY-New Paltz
Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Professor Emeriti, California State University
Ann Snitow, Network of East-West Women
Jennifer Sunderland, Redstockings
Pete Dolack, Former Editor, New York State GreenParty Newspaper
Bill Koehnlein, Brecht Forum
Marie-Claire Picher, Co-Founder, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory
Nancy Kogel, MNN TV Producer, Reaching Out for Animal Rights (ROAR)
Lorena Ambrosio, organizer, Feminist Force of OWS, Reporter for Joy of Resistance Multicultural Feminist Radio @ WBAI
The Issue
Work with a committee of feminists to create a "Shulamith Firestone Memorial Apartment". In the apartment in which feminist pioneer Shulamith Firestone lived and worked for 30 years. This aparment would, in perpetuity, remain well below market rates and which rent would, at this time, not exceed $1,000. per month; it would be reserved for a woman who is making an important contribution to the feminist movement that is not well remunerated.
Because... The Feminist world, the Art world and the Lower East Side/East Village Community have just lost one of our great visionaries--Shulamith Firestone--a woman who was able to remain, work and survive in her/our neighborhood for many years because she paid a relatively low rent...
Because... the average rent being charged new renters in our neighborhood is $2,100., and had Shulamith tried to rent here today, it would have been impossible for her to find, live and work in an apartment she could afford...
Because... the Lower East Side/East Village environment is all the poorer for the loss, due to skyrocketing rents, of the kind of creative spirits that formerly gave the neighborhood its unique character--but who are now being priced out...
Because... Shulamith's sister feminists, friends and admirers would like to memorialize her by making it possible for a feminist(s) coming after her to be able to live in this neighborhood and do feminist work here--such work usually being either unpaid or poorly paid, and therefore requiring an affordable rent...
Because... it is well within "fair housing practices" developed over decades for developers/owners of housing in formerly working class neighborhoods to create "set-asides" of affordable rental units for those who cannot pay market rates...
Such a permanent affordable feminist space wold provide material support for the ongoing work of feminism and by so doing would continue the legacy of Shulamith Firestone.
Signatures (list still in formation)
Kate Millett, Feminist, Author: Sexual Politics
Frances Goldin, Co-Founder Cooper Square Committee, Literary Agent for Mumia Abu Jamal
Carol Giardina, Professor of Hisory, Queens College, CUNY, Author: Freedom for Women
Kathie Sarachild, Director, Redstockings Women's Liberation Archives for Action
Marisa Figuereido, President, Redstockings, Inc.
Ti-Grace Atkinson, radical feminist
Nellie Hester Bailey, Director, Harlem Tenants Council
Annette Averette, Co-Director, Sixth Street Community Center
Howard Brandstein, Co-Director, Sixth Street Community Center
Rosalyn Baxandall, Distinguished Professor, SUNY-Old Westbury
Fran Luck, Executive Producer, Joy of Resistance Multicultural Feminist Radio @ WBAI
Erin Mahoney, National Women's Liberation (NWL)
Allison Guttu, Organizer, NWL, Women of Color Caucus (NWL), Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Amy Kesselman, Professor Emerita, SUNY-New Paltz
Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Professor Emeriti, California State University
Ann Snitow, Network of East-West Women
Jennifer Sunderland, Redstockings
Pete Dolack, Former Editor, New York State GreenParty Newspaper
Bill Koehnlein, Brecht Forum
Marie-Claire Picher, Co-Founder, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory
Nancy Kogel, MNN TV Producer, Reaching Out for Animal Rights (ROAR)
Lorena Ambrosio, organizer, Feminist Force of OWS, Reporter for Joy of Resistance Multicultural Feminist Radio @ WBAI
Petition Closed
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The Decision Makers
Petition created on October 2, 2012