Felice Yeskel
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Felice Yeskel (April 6, 1953 – January 11, 2011) was an American activist who advocated for
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...
,
class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...
issues, and economic equality. Yeskel founded and ran, for 14 years, the Stonewall Center at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...
; Yeskel also co-founded
United for a Fair Economy United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is an American left-leaning nonprofit organization. Co-founded by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel in 1995, it describes itself as "raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corru ...
and Class Action.


Early life

Felice Yeskel was born on April 6, 1953, and raised in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, the only child of Harry and Phyllis Yeskel. Yeskel was
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
. Yeskel's father drove a truck to collect flour sacks from bakeries around New York City. Yeskel's first experiences of class difference began when she attended a program for "gifted children" at
Hunter College Elementary School Hunter College Elementary School is an elementary school on Manhattan's Upper East Side for select students who reside in New York City. It is administered by Hunter College, a senior college of the City University of New York or CUNY. History H ...
, with many economically privileged children. Yeskel understood that her working-class family's apartment was much smaller than that of many of her classmates' and she experienced feelings of shame and confusion — feelings that would inspire her later activism. Yeskel's first organizing efforts occurred while she was attending Seward Park High School; she worked to eliminate (and defeated) the dress code requirement that female students wear dresses to school. She graduated from Seward Park in 1970, a committed feminist and anti-war activist.


Education

Yeskel's activism continued at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...
, where she earned a B.A. in 1974. She moved to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
for a time, working there with
Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...
against the anti-gay Briggs initiative. She then moved to the
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
area and earned a master's degree in psychology in 1979. While in Philadelphia, Yeskel was involved with Movement for a New Society, which employed non-violent action to fight racism, sexism, classism, and more. After 1982, Yeskel was a leader of the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment at the same time she began working on her Ed.D. in Organizational Development at UMass Amherst, completing her degree in 1991.


Career


Stonewall Center

A number of homophobic incidents occurred on the UMass Amherst campus in 1984. Yeskel approached campus administration, armed with research undertaken or her dissertation, and convinced higher ups that the university did not adequately address the needs of its LGBTQ students. In 1985, Yeskel founded the Program for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns was created, with her as its director, a position she would hold for the next 14 years. The organization was nestled within the university's Office of Student Affairs. In 1995, the program was renamed The Stonewall Center: A Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Queer, and Transgender Educational Resource Center, and in 2004, "asexual" and "intersex" were added to the name. The center was the third of its kind in the nation on a college campus — after similar centers founded at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. The center was (and continues to be) a social hub for the campus, and provided education, brought speakers to campus, and community outreach.


Other ventures

During the 1990s, she was also part of the Diversity Works Project which ran workshops in area high schools aimed at fighting homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism. In 1995, Yeskel and
Chuck Collins Chuck Collins (born October 19, 1959) is an American author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is also co-founder of Wealth for Common G ...
formed
United for a Fair Economy United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is an American left-leaning nonprofit organization. Co-founded by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel in 1995, it describes itself as "raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corru ...
. Together the two co-authored ''Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity''. Yeskel's work with United for a Fair Economy brought recognition to issues of class. Yeskel founded, with fellow activist Jenny Ladd, the organization Class Action. In 1995, the pair brought together four people from upper-class backgrounds and four people from poor or working-class backgrounds, all involved in social change work, to meet in dialogue once a month for six hours. In 2001, this work expanded into workshops and more cross-class dialogue groups throughout Western Massachusetts. Yeskel and Ladd founded Class Action in 2004 in order to further expand this work and to "raise consciousness about the taboo topic of class and to address classism, both locally and nationally" Yeskel also served as a faculty member in the Social Justice Education Program at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...
.


Personal life

In 2004, Yeskel legally married her partner of many years, Felicia Mednick. The pair had previously married in the summer of 1997, though the union was not yet legal in the United States. Yeskel and Mednick had one daughter, Shira Ma'ayan. In 2012, her spouse Felicia Mednick donated Yeskel's papers to the
Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
Special Collections.


Death

Felice Yeskel died on January 11, 2011, at the age of 57, after a two-year battle with cancer.


Honors

* Lifetime achievement award from the Working Class Studies Association * MotherWoman's Pillar Award (in 2010)


Works

Source: * ''The Consequence of Being Gay: A Report on the Quality of Life for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst'' (1985) Amherst, Ma.: University of Massachusetts * ''Multicultural Organizational Development on Campus: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns'' (1992) Pelham, Ma. * ''Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Campus Organizing: A Comprehensive Manual'' (1995) [with Curtis F. Shepard, Charles L. Outcalt, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force * ''Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity'' (2000) New York: W.W. Norton [with Chuck Collins and United for a Fair Economy] * ''Class Lives: Stories from Across Our Economic Divide'' (2014) Ithaca: ILR Press, Cornell University Press [with Chuck Collins, Jennifer Ladd, Maynard Seider, Class Action]


References


External links


Felice Yeskel papers
at the
Sophia Smith Collection The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history. General One of the largest recognized repositories of manuscripts, a ...
, Smith College Special Collections
Stonewall Center records
at the Special Collections & University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeskel, Felice 1953 births 2011 deaths 21st-century American women