Ellen K. halter

Writer • poet • activist

I was that little girl who loved to read and write. Often, I chose to stay inside after school, choosing books over invitations to play. I didn’t know the word “introvert” yet, but I was one, then and now.

I am a proud progressive and an activist. My parents who came up during the depression were Democrats and a strong influence on me. They both worshipped the memory of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and took me as a child to Hyde Park to pay homage to them. My mother, in particular, regaled me with stories of Eleanor Roosevelt. In particular, she told me how as a young woman, she had met her while teaching pottery at the Henry Street Settlement and how the First Lady enabled Marianne Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at the segregated Constitution Hall

Several years ago, I returned to Hyde Park to find that in the years since I had visited as a child, they had opened to the public the “cottage” Franklin built for Eleanor. I burst into tears on entering. Both her loneliness as an orphan and her activism are imprinted on my soul.

When I graduated college, I worked for a feminist publication where I first met lesbians. That experience in addition to my gay family members and friends was also an important influence, making me a lifelong ally of the LGBTQ community.

My parents values stay with me. I remain a committed Democrat who is horrified by the Trump presidency and its corruption. I am committed to do all I can to work for the victory of a Democratic presidential candidate in the fall of 2020.

Otherwise, I remain that introvert who loves to read and write. I write for a local on-line newsletter, Protectors of Equality in Government while I work on a novel and poems. I’m happiest when I feel I have large creative pockets, full of poems and a novel-in-progress.