Artist Andrea Bowers describes the influence of pioneering activists, who drew from their own life experiences to work for change and to create powerful grassroots movements. The list included abortion rights activists The Army of Three (Pat Maginiss, Lana Phelan, and Rowena Gurner), environmental activist Majora Carter, AIDS activist Cleve Jones, and undocumented immigrant Elvira Arellano. She argues that the “Me Generation” (from the ’80s to today) must overcome mainstream cynicism and doubt about the possibility of social change and political agency.

Andrea Bowers spoke on the panel “The Personal is Political, Revisited” at Exquisite Acts & Everyday Rebellions: 2007 CalArts Feminist Art Symposium, a student-organized project that took place at CalArts on March 10, 2007.

http://exquisiteacts.org/symposium/the-personal-is-political-revisited.html