FREE TO ATTEND. No reservation required.
Please join us on Thursday, November 16th at 7pm at Pegasus Books Downtown as we celebrate the East Bay launch of feminist historian, critic, and poet Angela Hume’s Deep Care: The Radical Activists Who Provided Abortions, Defied the Law, and Fought to Keep Clinics Open from AK Press. Hume will read from, discuss, and sign copies of her book, available for purchase at the event. Joining Hume for a panel discussion will be Linci Comy, longtime Women's Choice Clinic executive director; Denise Tukenmez, WCC provider; and José Alfresco, WCC health worker.
About the book:
The story of the radical feminists who worked outside the law to defend abortion.
Deep Care follows generations of activists and health workers who orbited the Women’s Choice Clinic in Oakland from the early 1970s until 2010, as they worked underground and above ground, in small cells and broad coalitions and across political movements with grit, conviction, and allegiances of great trust to do what they believed needed to be done—despite the law, when required. Grounded in interviews with activists sharing details of their work for the first time, Angela Hume reveals this critical, under-recognized story of the radical edge of the abortion movement. These lessons are more pertinent than ever following the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision and the devastation to abortion access nationwide.
About the author:
Angela Hume is a feminist historian, critic, and poet. She is the author of two poetry books, Interventions for Women (2021) and Middle Time (2016), and co-editor of the book Ecopoetics: Essays in the Field (2018). She teaches writing at University of California, Berkeley.
About the panelists:
Linci Comy joined the staff of Women's Choice Clinic in 1977 and served as executive director from 1988 to 2009. With decades of experience facilitating trauma-informed, feminist reproductive health education, Linci was instrumental in building the gynecological and abortion self-help movement in the Bay Area. One of her proudest accomplishments was helping to challenge the ban on RU-486 (mifepristone) and providing a clinic research site to help bring about FDA approval. Currently she works to reduce veterans' suicide rates through compassion distribution and meditation practices for PTSD. A Navy Corpsman, Linci served more than six years during the Vietnam conflict, returning to dedicate her life to women, heath, and justice.
Denise Tukenmez is an obstetrician and gynecologist who specializes in high-risk obstetrics and works at the safety-net hospital of Alameda County, Highland Hospital. She earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MD from SUNY Downstate Medical School and completed her residency training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Denise has done global health work, including teaching obstetrics and gynecology to medical students in Rwanda last month. She was a provider at Women's Choice Clinic in the early years of her career.
José Alfresco worked at Women's Choice Clinic for fifteen years. He started in 1982 as the clinic's childcare worker and later moved into health worker roles as a men's counselor and in the sperm bank. In addition to a health worker, José is a musician with a background in music theory, salsa, jazz, big band, and reggae. Today, he is a parent of four adult daughters, a grandparent, an off-grid "BikeCamping" enthusiast, and a MIDI keyboard, percussion, bass, and vocal musician.
