THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Maya Friedler
January 8, 1928-September 16, 2024
“There are still voices in this country trying to send us backwards.”
Lifelong political activist. Actor. Producer. Radio Host. Organizer. Speech writer. Women for Peace. Legislative aide for Chicago’s first state senator, Esther Saperstein. National Women’s Political Caucus – IL. Ran as a Eugene McCarthy peace delegate for the 1968 convention. Board member for the former NGO the Jane Adams Conference. Director of the Evanston Peace and World Affairs Center. Loop Center YWCA; past president, produced and moderated public affairs programs Talk-In and Public Report recorded live from the YWCA. Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Media Group in Chicago. Founder of The Feminist Lens. Advisor and contributor to Facets Multimedia. Piven Theater, first Chair of Board of Directors, original member of ensemble, current honorary board member.
Interviewed by Julie Hamos, March 2019
Photos 1 and 2. Maya Friedler. Photo 3. Maya and David Friedler.
More About Maya:
- Obituary, The Chicago Tribune
- Maya’s remarks – Honoring Midwest Feminists Chicago – VFA event 2004
- Women’s Media Group
- YWCA’s position on the ERA, written by Maya Friedler
- Excerpt from the film ISA: THE PEOPLE’S DIVA
- Newspaper clippings 1968 – 1974
- Cited in Barbara Love’s Book Feminists Who Changed America, page 162
