Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead
The Wisconsin Book Festival and A Room of One's Own are proud to welcome Cecile Richards and her co-writer Lauren Peterson for an in-conversation book event and book signing in support of Make Trouble. In Make Trouble, Richards presents a timely and important message: To make change, you have to make trouble. In her book, she illuminates the people and the lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad and the experiences that taught her how to stand up, speak out, and find the courage to lead, including:
- Her extraordinary childhood in ultra-conservative Texas, growing up in a household with activist parents who taught her to be a troublemaker
- Watching her mother, Ann, transform from a housewife to a feminist icon and what Cecile learned from her mother’s historic win in the Texas governor’s race, along with the pitfalls of public life that are unique to women. (Plus the lessons you can only learn when campaigning across Texas for your mother while pregnant with twins and with a toddler in tow)
- Her experience as Deputy Chief of Staff to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the truth about what it’s like to be a woman in the halls of power
- Why she almost didn’t go to the job interview for the role of President of Planned Parenthood and how her previous experience founding two non-profit startups prepared her to take the leap
- How she led an organization under siege from fake news attacks and endured hostile questioning during a congressional hearing lasting five hours
- The resilience of women and men across the country who face the threat of violence when working to protect women’s rights
- Her strange and alarming meeting with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner during the early days of the Trump administration
- Reflections on campaigning for Hillary Clinton, why the resistance is female, and “feminist” can no longer be a passive label
Make Trouble is an honest, impassioned, and moving memoir that will inspire readers to hope and action. Attendance is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM.
Cecile Richards
Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice. As the former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund for more than a decade, Richards has worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and to build a healthier and safer world for women and young people. After starting her career as a labor organizer, working with women earning the minimum wage, she went on to start her own grassroots organizations, and later served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2011 and 2012, she was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Richards is a frequent speaker and commentator on politics and progressive issues. She and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children and live in New York City and Maine.
Lauren Peterson
Lauren Peterson is a writer, digital strategist, and the co-author of New York Times bestseller Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead. A graduate of Madison West High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has worked for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She lives with her fiancée, Liz, and their dog, Basil, in Brooklyn, New York.