Nancy Kurshan

Nancy Kurshan is a lifelong activist, writer, and organizer whose work spans civil rights, antiwar, feminist, and criminal justice reform movements. A co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies) and the feminist guerrilla theater roup W.I.T.C.H., she played a central role in organizing major protests of the 1960s, including the 1967 Levitation of the Pentagon and the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest events. Later, she joined the Weather Underground as a public member until its demise. She participated for many years thereafter in the efforts to free political prisoners such as the Puerto Rican political prisoners, Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, and many others. She is the author of Out of Control, a foundational text on control unit prisons, and her widely cited essay, “Women and Imprisonment in the United States,” has appeared in numerous anthologies. Kurshan remains active in climate justice and Indigenous solidarity work through 1,000 Grandmothers for Future Generations. She lives in Oakland, California.