My friend and KBOO colleague Judith Arcana passed away in December at the age of 82. Judith was a poet, writer, teacher, radio host, and activist. Her work includes a biography of Grace Paley – Grace Paley’s Life Stories – the poetry collections What if your mother, 4th Period English, The Parachute Jump Effect, Announcements from the Planetarium, and Here From Somewhere Else, and the story collection Hello. This is Jane.
A longtime teacher of literature, writing, and women’s studies, Judith also volunteered as a Jane, a member of the Chicago underground service that helped more than eleven thousand women get safe illegal abortions, before the US Supreme Court ruled on Roe V Wade in January 1973. KBOO listeners might know Judith from her monthly poetry show Poetry and Everything, which aired from July 2016 through March 2020.
I interviewed Judith several times over the years and always enjoyed talking with her, both on and off the mic. She was a woman of great kindness, humanity, and wisdom. On today’s show, we’ll be celebrating her life and work, with a sampling of our conversations on her poetry, her book on Grace Paley, and her writings about her life as a Jane in pre-Roe v Wade Chicago.