Tre Donne: Kitty Genovese, Diane di Prima, Virginia Apuzzo, and the Roots of Italian American Feminism in 1960s New York

Award-winning historian Marcia Gallo (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) will discuss the lives and times of three barrier-breaking women of the sixties: Kitty Genovese, Diane di Prima, Virginia Apuzzo. Gallo’s Brooklyn- and Bronx-born subjects present a novel perspective on women’s oppression and liberation in the decade. Genovese became a national symbol of urban apathy after her murder in 1964 at age twenty-eight in Kew Gardens, Queens. Di Prima helped launch the Beat literary movement and remains a prolific feminist poet, playwright, memoirist, and activist. Apuzzo, a former nun and pioneer gay rights and AIDS activist, led the National LGBTQ Task Force and headed state and federal commissions on labor and consumer affairs. Cosponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of New York, and Baruch College History Club. For more information, call (646) 312-4334.