Jodi L. Glass moved to Rhode Island in 1978 and began her work as an audiologist, specializing in working with people of all ages with multiple disabilities and communication challenges, who often went without these services. Glass quickly began her influential work as a feminist and community activist.
In late 1978, Glass founded the Rhode Island Feminist Chorus – a group that enjoyed 22 years of performance around Rhode Island and beyond – performing songs about social justice, equal rights, domestic violence, love, friendship, politics, reproductive freedom and rape. Glass also founded Rhode Island's Feminist Resources Unlimited, connecting women all across the state to feminist and women-specific services, health care, and resources. This group generated both the Feminist Yellow Pages of Rhode Island and the newspaper entitled The Third Wave. In 1979, Glass was the impetus to the submission and eventual passing of legislation stating that all future Rhode Island law had to be constructed using gender-inclusive language.
Throughout the 1980's Glass work on behalf of the Dworkin/MacKinnon anti-pornography movement, bringing Rhode Island into a growing network of States working for change. This work led her, in 1988, to propose a change to the Rhode Island hate crimes monitoring act. In 1993, after five years of educating and lobbying, this change passed. This made Rhode Island one of only eleven states in the nation to recognize that certain crimes against women are hate crimes with specific intention, warranting harsher penalty. Glass also formed Rhode Island's first Take Back the Night march and Rhode Island Clothesline Project, calling attention to the issues of all forms of violence against women. Both of these projects are international, speaking to Glass's respect for collaboration and herstory - honoring versus repeating.
In the 21st century, Glass co-founded Rhode Island's branch of the Raging Grannies, another international movement. In 2006 she was appointed to the state advisory committee of the US Commission on Civil Rights. In the same year, Glass co-founded UNISONG, a non-performance community sing, with the purpose of sharing diversity through music. Currently, she is the coordinator of the hate crimes and civil rights training and education program, on behalf of the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias, and continues her work as an Audiologist.
(The biography was written with the assistance of Jodi Glass)
Filmstrip and audio cassettes are included in Series 8. Media, located in Box 3.
Materials from WAVAW's slide presentation entitled, "A Look at Pain for Profit" from 1986 are included in Series 8. Media, located in Box 3.
The Jodi L. Glass papers include materials that document the inner workings of feminist organizations and movements in Rhode Island and beyond. As the co-coordinator and organizer of the Rhode Island Feminist Chorus (RIFC) and Feminist Resources Unlimited (FRU), Glass maintained many of the groups' meeting agendas, minutes, and activity records. Included in these records are copies of
In the mid-1980s, with the group, Women Against Violence Against Women, Glass and others created a slide presentation entitled, "A Look at Pain for Profit," to demonstrate the demeaning, violent, and sexualized way women were treated in the mainstream media. The slides from these presentations, along with in-depth notes on discussion points and questions are included in the collection.
As an activist in the anti-pornography movement, Glass saved many articles and essays about the pornography debates of the late 1970s and 1980s, including those by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. In Glass' work to legally make pornography a violation of womens' civil rights in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, she collected obscenity and civil rights legislation from around the country and generated ordinances for passage in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. These documents, along with a transcript from the Minneapolis Anti-pornography Ordinance hearings (with testimonies from Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and Linda Boreman) are located in this collection. Also included are a few audio tape lectures about pornography, civil rights and legislation.
Documents, brochures, newspaper clippings, legislation and a film strip with audio discussing both the Equal Rights Amendment movement and the Nondiscriminatory Language movement were also collected by Glass. As a participant in passing equal rights legislation and nondiscriminatory language acts in Rhode Island, Glass also created and maintained some interesting documentation of the legislative process.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, available on the John Hay Library website or by request, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Jodi L. Glass papers, Ms. 2008.022, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
This collection is arranged into 10 series:
There are no restrictions on access for analog materials, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that may exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.
Gift of Jodi L. Glass in 2006.
This collection was part of the Pembroke Center's Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive until 2024 when collections were recataloged. All collections previously grouped under that title are now searchable under the subject headings "Women and Gender at Brown University" or "Feminist Activism in Rhode Island."
Further additions to this collection are possible.
Brown University Library catalog record for this collection:
This collection forms part of the