‘Wearing the Stories of Women’s Lives’ celebrates Women’s History Month

PALMER — Prominent figures from U.S. history were part of this month’s Palmer Art Walk, thanks to a project coordinated by the Mat-Su Chapter of the National Organization in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Nine Mat-Su Borough residents brought to life characters ranging from Francis Perkins and Katie Hurley to Harry Thomas Burns, Margaret Sanger and Freida Kahlo in a living exhibit called “Wearing the Stories of Women’s Lives.”

Each historic figure had researched their character’s biography and shared a bit of their stories with passersby.

“Every time you pop that pill you should say ‘thank you’ to Margaret Sanger,” said Deborah Giedosh, explaining that it was Sanger who advocated for the creation of a contraceptive pill women could take daily to prevent pregnancies.

Giedosh said Sanger was arrested and jailed several times during her life for educating women about contraception in violation of the Comstock Act.

Her 1916 arrest for opening the first birth control clinic in America was the first successful challenge of the law, which made it illegal to disseminate contraceptives — or information about contraceptives — and imposed fines and imprisonment for violators.

Sanger lived long enough to see the Comstock Act overturned in 1965, Giedosh said at the Palmer Visitors Center.

She said modern women should take Sanger’s story as a cautionary tale.

“The political will is strong to usurp the rights of modern women,” the public health nurse said.

At Fireside Books, Lauren Gette-King played Alaska historic figure Katie Hurley, who was the secretary to territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening and chief clerk to the Alaska Constitutional Convention.

And Nick Holom was Harry Thomas Burns, who cast the decided vote at Tennessee’s legislative session to ratify the 19^th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

History says the young legislator had planned to vote against the amendment, but a letter from his mother asking him to reconsider changed his mind.

Willow sisters Cecily and Talon Boeve embodied Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone respectively.

Abigail Adams is best known as the wife of the second U.S. President, John Adams, and the mother of the sixth U.S. President, John Quincy Adams.

She also is remembered for penning a letter to her husband encouraging him to “remember the ladies.”

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors,” she wrote, according to a copy of her letter transcribed and published online by the Massachusetts Historical Society. “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

Talon Boeve said it was Lucy Stone who encouraged Susan B. Anthony to get involved in the suffragists movement. And she was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree.

She said Stone caused quite a stir when she became the first woman in the U.S. to get married and keep her own name.

Perhaps none of the actors on the Art Walk had more fun preparing for their roles than Barbara Hunt. Hunt spent several weeks reading books, watching films, readying her costume and painting in the style of artist Freida Kahlo.

“She’s one of the great women artists and she deserves honor,” Hunt said.

Kahlo worked exclusively in oils and many of her paintings were self-portraits in a variety of styles. As an artist, her body of work ranges from folk art paintings to finely rendered pieces in the style of the classic masters.

Hunt said she painted several pieces in the style of Kahlo to prepare for the role Saturday.

Kahlo’s style is varied, but often the paint seems “slopped” on the canvas, she said.

To imitate her style, Hunt said for one painting she literally used a comb to paint Kahlo’s long black tresses.

“I’ve loved her for a longtime,” Hunt said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.