Join us on Saturday August 17th at 4:30PM for an author talk with sports writer Melissa Ludtke, moderated by Kathy Bonk.

While sportswriters rushed into Major League Baseball locker rooms to talk with players, MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn barred the lone woman from entering along with them. That reporter, 26-year-old Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke, charged Kuhn with gender discrimination, and after the lawyers argued Ludtke v. Kuhn in federal court, she won. Her groundbreaking case affirmed her equal rights, and the judge’s order opened the doors for several generations of women to be hired in sports media. Locker Room Talk is Ludtke’s gripping account of being at the core of this globally covered case that churned up ugly prejudices about the place of women in sports.

For more than 40 years, Kathy Bonk has been fighting for the rights of women and girls in the United States and around the world.  She now lives full-time in Brooksville and continues the good fight.  As Chair of the NOW Media Committee and then the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in the 1970s and 80s, Kathy helped bring lawsuits and file FCC complaints against all of the major television networks, weekly news magazines and newspapers with one goal in mind:  hire and promote more women.  Kathy is a founding member of JAWS, Journalism and Women Symposium (a shark is the logo) where she and Melissa inspire young journalists with stories of the days of tearing down the “No Women Allowed” signs.  Kathy served on the board of the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute for ten years and currently chairs the board of the international group Too Young To Wed founded by Pulitzer Prize photographer Stephanie Sinclair.  She is a contributor to Ms. magazine and is working to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution in 2024.

We hope you will join us on the 17th!