My work as a writer, teacher and scholar includes readings, performance, speaking and discussion with community, campus and literary groups. Together, we make the necessary connections between literature and our lives. We do this with stories and poems, and we do it in libraries, bookstores, classrooms and living rooms. We do this while sitting together in circles and rows — listening and talking, laughing and thinking.


...... some topics and themes for presentation/discussion

Reading/Performance of Judith's Writing
   - poems, stories, essays, et al

Poetry & Politics/Art & Action: Making Art with Conscious Politics
   - may include fabric artist and anti-militarism activist Gwyn Kirk

Reproductive Justice and Conscious Motherhood

Abortion as Personal Experience and Political Issue in the USA

JANE:  Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union
   - may include showing of documentary Jane: An Abortion Service and filmmaker

Women’s Health and Sexuality: Self-Knowledge and Social Construction

Grace Paley, Writer and Activist – Her Life and Work
   - may include Gwyn Kirk, Grace’s colleague in anti-militarism work


...... some audience responses

Judith Arcana was an extraordinary presence in her visit to our campus – her effect on our students was electrifying. As a speaker and performer of her writing, she’s a source of energy.
— Marian Rodriguez, JD, former Director, Law and Diversity Program, Western Washington University

Judith has the capacity to bring together the baby boomers of the 1960s and the generation of the 21st century. She reaches us all.
— Stacie E. Geller, PhD. Director, National Center of Excellence in Women's Health; Associate Professor/Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Director, Center for Research on Women & Gender, University of Illinois at Chicago

I want everyone to see Judith Arcana perform her beautiful poems, giving voice to thousands of women who have abortions but do not have the freedom or safety to talk about their experience.
— Kate Weck, Network for Reproductive Options, Eugene OR

Judith Arcana's visit to our campus was magical ... providing our students with the opportunity to meet an important American poet and feminist activist, and to work with her on their semester long project .... Arcana is a treasure!
— Dr. Alison Bailey, Director, Women's Studies Program; Associate Professor of Philosophy, Illinois State University

Judith is a warm and funny yet powerful and passionate voice for reproductive freedom.
— David Greenberg, PhD, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette

Judith Arcana helped women get safe abortions in pre-Roe America, and remembers the desperation and courage of those days. Through stories, poems and conversation, Judith inspires audiences to cherish and preserve access to safe abortions right now.
— Elizabeth Lee, MD Abortion Provider




...... some funding strategies for event organizers and planners

Many groups create coalitions for event funding; at colleges these may include a women's center, programs in women’s studies, gender studies and queer studies, departments of English, Creative Writing, Philosophy, History, Sociology, Political Science, Biology and others + Law Students & Medical Students for Reproductive Justice and Choice, Progressive Students Alliance, Student Activities Boards and Student Governments, and more.

Community groups collaborate similarly – in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, the YWCA, the Women’s Health and Education Fund of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Cambridge Women’s Commission worked with Boston University’s women’s studies program to create/sponsor an event.

Other school groups have created dynamic collaborations with community groups; in Ohio, Oberlin College Students United for Reproductive Freedom joined Cleveland State University’s Poetry Center, Student Women’s Association, Women’s Comprehensive Center and President’s Advisory Committee on the Role and Status of Women plus Preterm, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and the Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition – to create a cluster of events in their region.

Women's funds and foundations, literary organizations, local Humanities Councils, NNAF and NARAL chapters, medical centers, clinics and others can work this way.


I’ve worked with students, faculty and staff at many schools .....

University of Oregon; Green College/University of British Columbia; Roosevelt University; Claremont Colleges; Boston University; Brown University; Cleveland State University; Oberlin College; Lewis University; Loyola University/Chicago; Simmons College; Oregon Health Sciences University; Lane Community College; Illinois State University; University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth; Portland Community College; University of Illinois/Chicago; University of Southern California; Eastern Oregon University; Northwestern University; Portland State University; Mills College; University of Redlands; Lewis&Clark College; Western Washington University; Hampshire College; Birkbeck College/University of London; York University/Toronto

..... and many community organizations and groups as well.

National Network of Abortion Funds, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League; Network for Reproductive Options; Planned Parenthood; Lovejoy SurgiCenter; Jane Fund of Central Massachusetts; Cambridge YWCA; Women’s Health and Education Fund of Southeastern Massachusetts; Cambridge Women’s Commission; Cleveland’s Pre-Term; Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition; Las Tablas Gallery & Latinas Organizing for Reproductive Equality; Las Manos Gallery; Center for New Words; Illinois Reproductive Justice Fund; Write Around Portland; Backline and the Abortion Conversation Project