Riverside Women Creating Change

Stories and Inspiration

Nicolette Rohr

• Publisher: Inlandia Institute
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781955969307
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Who are the Riverside Women Creating Change?

They are women who call the City of Riverside home and who have all made a difference in our community. Through oral history interviews exploring their roots, call to activism, inspiration, and advice, learn the unique story of each of these women who have made their own indelible contributions.

Having identified a problem, they set out to find the solution. How?

"We co-power, " says Vonya Quarles.

"Train the community to speak for itself, " says Elizabeth Ayala.

Riverside's Resistance Revival Chorus speaks of a "ripple effect."

The important work is often done "behind the scenes, below the surface, " says Paulette Brown-Hinds

Sure, they encountered obstacles.

Penny Newman says, "We were dismissed as hysterical housewives."

"A righteous anger can actually be really good when you channel it into a generative action, " says Donatella Galella.

Jane Block has "no enemies, just people who need more information."

"Don't let them erase you, " says Rabbi Suzanne Singer.

Are YOU ready to create change?

Whether you live in Riverside, California and its environs or in another city, county, state, country, or continent, let this book serve as a model. Fortify yourself with inspiration and advice then, like Riverside environmentalist-turned-Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, "Go get it done."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction
• Ancestors
• A note on the interviews
• Daisy Ocampo On Cahuilla lands, on Serrano lands
• Nancy Melendez “Grassroots preservationists”
• Mary Figueroa “A voice for the community”
• Chani Beeman “Healing work”
• The Group: Rose Mayes, Ola Faye Stephens, Jennifer Vaughn-Blakely “Speak out and speak up”
• Deborah Wong “We agreed to stay at it”
• Linda Dunn “The secret is listening”
• Marilyn Sequoia “Peace is…”
• Rose Y. Monge “Always peacebuilding”
• Andrea Briggs The next step
• Judith Auth “Being a librarian is a radical act”
• Joan Donahue “Speaking from a well-informed perspective”
• Nancy Takano“Another good trouble”
• Jane Block “No enemies, just people who need more information”
• Connie Ransom “Sometimes you have to be the one to do it”
• Sarah Wright Garibay “Be that person that shows up”
• Sue Mitchell “Leverage yourself ”
• Patricia Lock Dawson “Go get it done”
• Ofelia Valdez-Yeager Connecting people
• Marisa V. Yeager Team player
• Lecia Elzig “Focus on the mission”
• Donatella Galella Righteous anger, generative action
• Rabbi Suzanne Singer “Don’t let them erase you”
• Vonya Quarles “We co-power”
• Maribel Nuñez Help create different spaces
• Yolanda Esquivel “Think about the lives that are touched”
• Elizabeth Ayala “Train the community to speak for itself ”
• Penny Newman “We were dismissed as hysterical housewives”
• Thomi Clinton “Everything’s a process”
• Connie Confer“The gay people to talk to”
• Erin Edwards Love and Riverside
• Gaby Plascencia The first
• Clarissa Cervantes Planting seeds
• Riverside Resistance Revival Chorus: Kris Lovekin, Jerri Mendivel, Dawn Pia A ripple effect
• Sherry Mackay Building community
• Selin Yildiz Nielsen “Everywhere can be home”
• Friba Dawar “The education of women”
• Paulette Brown-Hinds “Behind the scenes, below the surface”
• M. Rosalind Sagara The power of place
• Carol Park “Be tenacious”
• Precious Pipeloluwa Fasakin “Be the archivist of your own life”
• Rose Mayes “Then pass the torch”
• Women’s History Timeline
• Acknowledgments
• About Riverside Women Creating Change
• About Inlandia Institute
• Inlandia Books