Remembering the Pink House and the Right to Abortion in Mississippi

In the fall of 2023, interdisciplinary artist Kristen Tordella-Williams and writer Liz Egan—both former Pink House defenders—invited reflections on the closing of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That project became Void, two 24” x 48” artist books with pages made of mended bed sheets and text written in iron dust. The project “commemorates those who preserved access to healthcare that once was tenuously available to all Mississippians. These books serve as a memorial to a community and to the void left behind by the fall of Roe v. Wade.”I got the chance to sit down and talk with Liz and Kristen about this project, their experience as clinic escorts, and also about their thoughts on what it means to make a home—and grow roots—in the post-Roe Deep South. " [I]t was clear from the moment I moved [to Mississippi] that there was a fight against women and against women's access to health care,” Kristen told me. “But living in Mississippi, you can't look away from what's happening politically. It's just a maelstrom of American politics.”For Liz, volunteering at the clinic was the first thing that made her feel rooted to Mississippi. “We find ourselves rooted in a lot of intricate connected ways,” she said. “And so the idea of ‘if you don't like it, you can leave,’ to me really undermines the sense of a place being capable of holding significance…At some point, someone has to stick around to be a voice.”This conversation with Liz Egan and Kristen Tordella-Williams was recorded in Red Squared’s studio in Jackson.Further reading:Void was part of Kristen Tordella-Williams’s larger solo exhibition Dark Matter in the Hudson Galleries at the Mississippi University for Women.More about the Pink House Defenders’ leaders Derenda Hancock and Kim GibsonThe NPR podcast BannedNo One Asked You documentary This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rooted.substack.com/subscribe