Join us in celebrating the birthdays of Jane Addams and our Special Keynote Speaker Grace Lee Boggs, an acclaimed activist, writer, and speaker whose more than sixty years of political involvement encompass the major U.S. social movements of this century: Labor, Civil Rights, Black Power, Asian-American, Women’s, and Environmental Justice. Grace will be our Keynote Speaker for the annual Jane Addams Birthday Conversation on Peace and Justice and will speak on “Love and {r}evolution.”
In addition to celebrating and honoring the birthday of Jane Addams, we are also celebrating Grace’s 94th birthday and her tremendous commitment to social justice and making our world a more just and democratic one. Every year, we take the opportunity on Jane Addams birthday to celebrate the Hull-House progressive tradition, but also offer an opportunity to look forward and cross various boundaries to bring together people working on issues of peace broadly defined.
This event is co-sponsored by The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and The Public Square.
More about Grace Lee Boggs and Jane Addams
Grace Lee Boggs was born in Providence, R.I. of Chinese immigrant parents in 1915, Grace received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1935 and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in 1940. In the 1940s and 1950s, she worked with West Indian Marxist historian C.L.R. James and in 1953 came to Detroit where she married James Boggs, an African American labor activist, writer, and strategist. Working together in grassroots groups and projects, they were partners for over 40 years until James’ death in July 1993. Their book, Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century, was published by Monthly Review Press in 1974. In 1992, with James Boggs, Shea Howell and others, she founded DETROIT SUMMER, a multicultural, inter-generational youth program to rebuild, redefine, and re-spirit Detroit from the ground up, which completed its 14th season in the summer of 2006. Currently, she works with the Detroit City of Hope campaign and the Beloved Communities Initiative and writes for the weekly Michigan Citizen. Her autobiography, Living for Change, published by the University of Minnesota Press in March 1998, is widely used in university classes in Asian American studies, on Detroit, and on social movements. She has been the recipient of many local, national, and international awards and recognitions. A plaque in her honor is displayed at the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
Jane Addams was the co-founder of the Hull-House Settlement, a pioneer social reformer, internationalist, feminist, and peace activist. In 1931, she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams and the residents of the Hull-House advocated for public health, fair labor practices, full citizenship rights for immigrants, public education, recreational and public space, public arts, and free speech. We take the opportunity on her birthday to celebrate the Hull-House progressive tradition, but also offer an opportunity to look forward and cross various boundaries to bring together people working on issues of peace broadly defined.
For more information, call 312.413. 5353.