The next Bancroft Roundtable will take place in the Lewis-Latimer Room of The Faculty Club at noon on Thursday, October 20. Michael Helquist, public historian, will present “Whose Story Gets Told? Constructing a Biography When Sources Seem Too Limited.”
Public historian Michael Helquist argues that we lose an essential part of our history and a deeper sense of who we are by not knowing the life stories of marginalized people. He includes in that group women, racial minorities, working class and poor people, immigrants, political radicals, and LGBTQ people. His talk will feature an early woman physician and political radical, Marie Equi, who is little known, although she was one of the most prominent activists on the West Coast in the WWI era, a heroine after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and one of the first publicly known lesbians on the West Coast. Mr. Helquist will consider why her full story had not been told and will recount his discovery of troves of primary sources. He will present images of Dr. Equi and her life, from working in a textile mill to doing time in San Quentin. His biography, Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions, published by Oregon State University Press in 2015, was named a 2016 Stonewall Honor Book for Nonfiction by the American Library Association.
We hope to see you there.
José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez and Kathi Neal
Bancroft Library Staff
The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you require disability-related accommodations, please contact The Bancroft Library at (510) 642-3781 — ideally at least two weeks prior to the event.