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In August, nearly 50 community members gathered to launch the first phase of Mapping Feminist Cambridge project, with a guide and walking tour along Hampshire Street in Inman Square. Created and led by the Cambridge Women’s Commission, the project honors and documents the vibrant, far-reaching local feminist movement from the 1970s-1990s. The walking tour highlights the dynamic history of feminist-owned businesses and organizations that emerged and thrived in Inman Square during that time.
The tour begins at 91 Hampshire Street (site of Clayground, a woman-owned pottery business), and concludes at the Inman Square Firehouse, home of the historic 40-foot mural painted by Ellary Eddy in 1976. The walk includes a stop at the former site of New Words Bookstore, which had served as a beloved cultural hub for local and international feminists for more than 25 years. Other groundbreaking feminist enterprises and projects that were housed along the same street included the restaurant and cultural center, Bread and Roses, a women’s health center, a women’s law collective, a feminist credit union, a woman’s craft collective, a graduate women’s studies program, a childcare resource center, and an oral history center.
The inaugural walking tour included a stop at Outpost 186, a new arts, media and performance space, hosting an ongoing series of experimental & improvised music performances, multi-media events, poetry readings and film. It is managed by Rob Chalfen, whose parents, Judy and Mel Chalfen, owned 186 Hampshire throughout the heyday of feminism in Inman Square, and whose support made it possible for New Words Bookstore and other progressive groups to survive, thrive, and help foster today’s feminist activism.
The Women’s Commission has added three more dates to its increasingly popular walking tour, featuring the enormous contributions women made to the vibrancy of the city and the movement for women’s liberation. All tours are free and open to the public. The first three tours filled immediately! Please register via links below.
Sept. 19: register now
Oct. 3: register now
Oct. 21: register now
For more information, visit Cambridge Women’s Commission’s website.
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