This week on The Italian Radio Hour: REMEMBERING THE TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE.
As the City of New York is preparing to commemorate the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire where 146 mainly young immigrant women lost their lives, trapped in the building, we caught up with Mary Anne Trasciatti, President of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, and a Professor of Rhetoric and Director of the Labor Studies program at Hofstra University in Long Island.
Mary Anne talks about the impact this tragedy had on current safety and labor laws, what the commemoration will look like THIS FRIDAY, the construction of the Memorial that will unveiled later in the year and the impact this event had on the collective through the essays contained in "TALKING TO THE GIRLS".
To learn more: https://rememberthetrianglefire.org/commemoration/
ABOUT THE TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was the site of one of the worst workplace tragedies in American history. On March 25, 1911, fire broke out at the factory, which occupied the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building, in Greenwich Village, New York City. At the time, there were over 500 employees—most were young women; most were recent immigrants. The fire began on the 8th floor; most workers on the eighth and tenth floors were able to escape. However, those on the 9th floor, where the rear door was locked to prevent theft, were trapped. The locked exit, the collapse of the fire escape, and the inability of the fire truck ladders to reach above the sixth floor, resulted in the death of 146 workers, mostly young women. Many of the victims jumped to their death, rather than remain in the burning building.
ABOUT Mary Anne Trasciatti
She is co-editor Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire (New Village Press, 2022), with Edi Giunta. She is also a co-editor of Where Are the Workers?: Labor’s Stories at Museums and Historic Sites (University of Illinois Press, 2022).
Trasciatti is the daughter and granddaughter of garment workers, and has devoted more than a decade to advocating for the creation of a Triangle Fire Memorial. In her work, she is inspired by the discipline of rhetoric as a tool for knowledge creation, community building, and social advocacy.
ABOUT Talking to the Girls: Intimate & Political Essays on the Triangle Fire
A powerful collection of diverse voices, Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire brings together stories from writers, artists, activists, scholars, and family members of the Triangle workers. Nineteen contributors from across the globe speak of a singular event with remarkable impact. One hundred and eleven years after the tragic incident, Talking to the Girls articulates a story of contemporary global relevance and stands as an act of collective testimony: a written memorial to the Triangle victims.
Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition: https://rememberthetrianglefire.org/
