Alice Paul, Suffragette

New York City-based actress Kristen Gehling (Little Wars, neat & tidy, 28 Marchant Avenue) makes her A MOMENT WITH... debut as the famed suffragette Alice Paul. Paul was one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Paul often suffered police brutality and other physical abuse for her activism, always responding with non-violence and courage. She was jailed under terrible conditions in 1917 for her participation in a Silent Sentinels protest in front of the White House. A tactic used in prison to protest was hunger striking. The first WSPU related hunger strike was conducted by sculptor Marion Wallace Dunlop in June 1909. By that fall it was being widely used by WSPU members because of its effectiveness in publicizing their mistreatment and gaining quick release from prison wardens. Refusing food worked in securing an early release for Paul during her first two arrests. However, during her third prison stint, the warden ordered twice daily force-feeding to keep Paul strong enough to finish out her month-long sentence. Though the prisons staunchly maintained that the force-feeding of prisoners was for their own benefit, Paul and other women described the process as torturous. Alice Paul was a true heroine, and a woman to be remembered.