Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus

Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute compiles, for the first time, the memoirs of “Alice Smith,” a sex worker who shared her story with the San Francisco Bulletin in 1913. A selection of letters to the editor from other working class women and prostitutes are included in this richly illustrated volume. Her story inspired the first sex worker protest in San Francisco history.

Editors Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus tackle the ways in which Progressive Era politics, changing gender roles, suffrage, labor, and a modernizing media shaped Alice’s world, connecting her story to current feminist and sex worker struggles.

Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus are artists, writers, and activists based in San Francisco. They are concerned with examining the rich and shifting landscapes of Bay Area history, culture, politics, and ecology. Anderson and Angus have spent the last year presenting their research in various universities, bookstores, community centers, museums, high schools, and historical societies across the country. Their most recent tour through the Pacific Northwest will culminate in this appearance at History Days.