What: During the month of October, Portland State University will feature the photo exhibit “Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is NOT a Class Privilege in America.” To kick off the event, award-winning author Rickie Solinger will give the keynote address, “Nine Ways of Looking at a Poor Woman.”

Traveling around the United States since 2002, “Beggars and Choosers” challenges prevailing ideas that motherhood in America should be a class privilege. The photographs picture the complexities of being a mother in contemporary America focusing on women who are young, poor, on the streets, disabled, unprotected, in prison or alone. The exhibit presents a beautiful and difficult array of photographs that plainly reclaims legitimate motherhood for mothers often denied that status. For more information visit www.beggarsandchoosers.org.

When: Photo Exhibit: Monday–Friday, from 8 a.m.–10 p.m., October 4–31, 2007
Keynote Address: Thursday, October 4, at 3:30 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Multicultural Center (1825 SW Broadway).

Where: Portland State University White Gallery, Smith Memorial Student Union, room 289 (1825 SW Broadway).

Cost: The photo exhibit and corresponding lectures are free and open to the public.

Contact: For more information contact Patricia Schechter at 503-725-3007 or schechp@pdx.edu.

Background: Rickie Solinger is a widely recognized historian of women and reproductive politics and the author of “Pregnancy and Power,” “Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade,” “Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S.” Her 1996 book, “The Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law,” is a biography of Portlander Ruth Barnett.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#07-096)