The 19th Amendment Reading | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

The 19th Amendment Reading

With special guest, State Representative Melissa Sargent

In 1919, decades of activism by suffragists culminated in Congress’s passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, affirming that the right to vote "shall not be denied... on account of sex." On the centennial anniversary of this historical legislation, we celebrate not only the amendment itself but the ideals it represents—the bravery, tenacity, and ingenuity that our foremothers embodied in their hard-fought battle for equal representation under the law, a lineage of progress stretching from the founders of the Women’s Right’s movement at Seneca Falls to the activists of color whose fight for representation continued decades longer under Jim Crow to contemporary political leaders who “nevertheless persist” in the ongoing struggle for gender equality. In the spirit of this legacy, we’re proud to present a lineup of bold women writers whose work may well help usher in a better future for us all.

Emma Binder fiction writer

Emma Binder is a fiction writer and an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her work has previously appeared in Pleiades, DIAGRAM, and Sporklet.

Angela Boyd fiction writer

Angela Boyd is from Kansas by way of Washington, D.C. She holds a master in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kathryn Harlan fiction writer

Kathryn Harlan is a fiction writer and an MFA Candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work has previously appeared in Strange Horizons.

I.S. Jones poet

I.S. Jones is a queer American Nigerian poet and former music journalist. She is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, and Brooklyn Poets. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Guernica, Washington Square Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Rumpus, The Offing, Shade Literary Arts, and elsewhere. Her honors include the 2021 Kemper K. Knapp Fellowship as well as the Hoffman-Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship. She is currently the Director of The Watershed Reading Series with Arts + Literature Laboratory and is Editor in Chief at Frontier Poetry. Her chapbook Spells of My Name was published by Newfound in 2021. 

Photo credit: Nicholas Nichols (@maruneboy)

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