A Look What She Did! video with Jan Oxenberg on activist Carol Downer.
Jan Oxenberg tells us about activist Carol Downer and the early days of the Feminist Women’s Health Center. Housewife and mother of six, Carol was radicalized when she endured a dangerous, illegal abortion, spurring her to fight for women’s rights in daring and original ways. Currently an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, Carol’s commitment and never-say-die attitude are as inspiring and necessary as ever. Listen to writer and raconteur Jan Oxenberg on this seminal figure in the struggle for female equality; a woman who continues to agitate for equal rights for all to this day.
“5,000 women a year died from illegal abortions”
With our backyard video project, Look What She Did!, we are creating an ongoing archive of short videos celebrating crazy-great women as told to us by… crazy-great women. See more videos posted on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page and our soon-to-be launched website. All of us working on this project are having a blast and are fired up about sharing these inspiring stories with you.
Julie Hébert is an award-winning writer and director of theater, film and television. She won the PEN Award for Drama twice, for her plays TREE and THE KNEE DESIRES THE DIRT. Her most recent play, NIGHT FALLS, premiered at ODC in San Francisco, codirected by Hébert and Deborah Slater. Ms. Hébert has written and directed plays for Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, the Magic, the Eureka, LaMaMa, the Women’s Project, San Diego Rep, Los Angeles Theater Center, The Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Seven Stages and Horizon in Atlantaand many more. She has received grants from the NEA, TCG, AT&T New Plays, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and the California Arts Commission for writing, directing, and inter-disciplinary arts. Hébert has written two films, FEMALE PERVERSIONS, starring Tilda Swinton; and RUBY'S BUCKET OF BLOOD, adapted from her play, starring Angela Bassett. Ms. Hébert has also worked as writer, director, producer for some of the most respected shows on television, including The West Wing, ER, Numb3rs, Blue Bloods, Boss, Nashville and American Crime. She co-directed the Third Watch documentary, In Their Own Words, shortly after 9/11 and was honored with a George Foster Peabody Award.