Cross Talk: A Multicultural Feminist Symposium addressed the entangled questions of race, gender and sexuality, and brought together a wide range of activists, artists, and cultural critics who energetically fought against racism and sexism in cultural institutions, educational programs, medical practices, and the legal system. Rather than recreate a set of neat oppositions–black versus white, Latino versus Anglo – Cross Talk charted the overlapping and contradictory worlds inhabited by diverse communities.¹

This panel, the symposium’s second, addressed the diverse forms of violence against women from oppressive economic policies and undemocratic uses of medical technologies to sexual harassment and domestic violence.  It asked, “What are the links between the private and public spheres of violence against women?  How have feminists developed oppositional practices, alternative organizations, and worked towards empowerment within existing institutions?”²

Panelists included:
Marina Alvarez: filmmaker and AIDS activist.
Anannya Bhattacharjee: Executive Coordinator of SAKHI for South Asian Women.
Maria Milagros Lopez: feminist social scientist in Puerto Rico.
Cynthia Newbille: Executive Director, National Black Women’s Health Project
Ninotchka Rosca: Philippine-born novelist, Naitonal Chair of GABRIELA network, Executive Board member of PEN American Center.

Moderator: Lisa Cartwright, scholar of media and technology and co curator of the New Museum’s exhibition, ‘The Final Frontier.'