Special Collections and Archives
Monroe Library
3rd Floor
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
Free and open to the public.
Though Janet Mary Riley did not define herself as a second-wave feminist, by today’s standards, she was a quiet but fierce civil rights advocate and tireless women’s rights activist.
Throughout her life, she fought for equal pay in the workplace.
This event is dedicated to her successful efforts to revise Louisiana’s community property laws giving women equal management rights of a marriage’s community property. Prior to Riley’s heroic efforts, under Louisiana law, no married woman owned the right to manage her own property. That right was given, by law in marriage, to her husband. The law was changed in 1980.
These letters represent a side of Riley few would ever know. The evening features emcee Chris Kaminstein, Co-Artistic Director of Goat in the Road Productions (GRP), and Leslie Boles Kraus, GRP Ensemble Member/Social Media Coordinator.
LETTERS READ is a series of live events in which local artists interpret personal letters written by culturally vital individuals from various times and New Orleans communities and is an ongoing series presented by stationer Nancy Sharon Collins and Antenna.