Clara Lemlich Awards at the Puffin Gallery for Social Activism

May 1, 2018

The Puffin Foundation is proud to sponsor this year’s Clara Lemlich Awards at the Puffin Gallery for Social Activism at the Museum of the City of New York.

“I’ve Got Something to Say” – The Lemlich Awards – will celebrate five amazing women (bios below) who qualify as unsung heroines for their lifelong commitment to social activism. An award for giving, with a poem and a rose for the swag, the recipients are sometimes surprised there is such an honor. The event will begin with a reception at 6:30 pm and the program will begin at 7:15 pm.

The Lemlich Awards honor women who have been working for the larger good their entire lives, in the tradition of those who sparked so many reforms in the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire over one hundred years ago.

We honor—in the words of the poet Marge Piercy—people who:

jump into work head first
without dallying in the shadows…
who do what has to be done, again and again.

Hosted by the Puffin Gallery for Social Activism at the Museum, created by LaborArts and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, the Lemlich Awards have celebrated women who have dedicated themselves to improving the lives of others. Watch video of past honorees.
The program will include rousing performances from the New York City Labor Chorus.
RSVP by emailing .

2018 Clara Lemlich Awards Honorees

Doreen Wohl
Born into a Quaker family in England, she came to the United States with American Friends Service Committee to work with migratory farmworkers. Wohl worked with settlement houses in NYC, and then for 20+ years with West Side Coalition Against Hunger, transforming it into a participatory cooperative with customer volunteers, supermarket style food selection, and a chef-training program. She will introduced by Sasha Matthews.

Alix Kate Shulman
Writer and activist in the civil-rights, anti-war, and radical feminist movements, she was active in CORE’s 7-Arts Chapter in the 1960s, and continues to organize, recently helping to form Great Ape-Snake War’s four Feminist General Assemblies. A prolific author, her books include To the Barricades: The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman and the feminist classic novel Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, and she is currently co-editing an anthology of writing about the women’s movement 1963-1991. She will be introduced by Tanya Beltram.

Evelyn Jones Rich
Advocate and activist around a range of issues including civil rights, education, school funding, health care and aging; former NYC teacher, principal, (associate) Dean (Hunter, CUNY); mentor and role model for women – young and older! She will be introduced by Natasha Griffith.

Mirene Ghossein
Writer, advocate, and translator, she was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1935, and earned an MA degree in Philosophy from The Lebanese Academy and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. At age 17, she started working with a Lebanese group whose goal was “to do something for those who can’t do anything for themselves.” She continues that effort today with organizations like the WESPAC Foundation, a Peace and Justice Organization, and Alwan for the Arts (Arab-American Cultural organization). She will introduced by Kayhan Irani.

Anne Cunningham
Activist on women’s, civil rights, housing and aging issues, she helped found one of the first battered women’s shelter in Brooklyn, and was president of the first chapter of NOW on Staten Island. More recently a housing activist on the Upper West Side, she continues to give housing rights workshops and advocate for low-income tenants every week. She will be introduced by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

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