Amy Siskind (born December 16, 1965) is an American activist and writer. She is the author of The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (2018) and organizer of the We the People March.
Amy Siskind | |
|---|---|
 Siskind in April 2018 | |
| Born | December 16, 1965 Marblehead, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Activist, author |
| Education | Marblehead High School |
| Alma mater | Cornell University (BA) NYU Stern School of Business (MBA) |
| Subjects | Politics, women's rights |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Notable work | The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (2018) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| amysiskind | |
Early life and education
editSiskind was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, to Jewish parents, Bernard Siskind and Selma Lipsky Siskind, and is the youngest of five siblings.[1][2][3] She attended Marblehead High School, graduating in 1984.[4] She earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Cornell University in 1987,[5] and a Master of Business Administration in finance and international business from the New York University Stern School of Business in 1992.[6]
Career
editEarly career
editAs a Wall Street executive, Siskind was a pioneer and expert in the distressed debt trading market. She became the first female Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co. in 1996, at the age of 31, and later ran trading departments at Morgan Stanley and Imperial Capital, where she was also a partner.[7][8] Siskind worked 20 years on Wall Street before retiring in 2006.[9]
The New Agenda and political activism
editSiskind was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 United States presidential election cycle, having previously supported Clinton's re-election bid to the United States Senate, and having taken her daughter to meet Clinton at an event in 2006.[10] Siskind has drawn criticism from liberals for voting for John McCain over Barack Obama.[11]
In August 2008, Siskind co-founded The New Agenda in her living room with 30 Hillary Clinton supporters who alleged sexism and misogyny were at play during the 2008 election.[12][13] The New Agenda is a non-profit organization "dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home".[13] As of August 2019[update] she is president of the organization.[14][15] It focuses on issues that affect the success of women, including pay discrimination, sexual assault and sexual harassment.[9]
Siskind was reported to be one of the earliest supporters of the Me Too movement, sparked by a tweet from Alyssa Milano on October 15, 2017, for which Siskind tweeted her own support within the first hundred minutes.[16] In October 2018, in the days following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Siskind posted on Facebook that she was organizing an anti-hate vigil in her Westchester County community. After a local newspaper ran a story about it, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and his family, who lived in the nearby community of Larchmont, New York, appeared at Siskind's door without invitation or forewarning; she called the police.[17]
The List
edit
In November 2016, Siskind started keeping a weekly list of not-normal events of the Trump administration, and posting the lists on social media.[9][18] Siskind indicated that she did not intend to merely recite normal political disputes, but to catalogue "things that are uncharacteristic of our democracy".[18] In September 2017, she was named in Politico's 2017 "Politico 50".[18] In March 2018 she compiled the first year of weekly lists and published them as The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump's First Year. In June 2018, Siskind started The Weekly List podcast to accompany the lists;[19] writing in Forbes in July 2018, Jo Piazza listed this as one of the "Podcasts Created by Women You Need to Be Listening To Right Now".[20] In July 2017, the United States Library of Congress began archiving her weekly reports.[18] Siskind acknowledged in an interview the following year that a downside of taking such a highly public stance is that "I can tweet things that are inarticulate and be attacked for months and get death threats".[21]
In 2018, The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump's First Year was called one of the best books of 2018 by Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post.[22] Her podcast was also recognized by Marie Claire in 2019.[23] Siskind also organized the 2019 We the People March, a national march advertised as an event to remind elected officials that they work for the American people.[24] The march took place on September 21, 2019, in Washington D.C., with others in various cities across the United States.[24]
In 2021, Siskind donated The List collection to the Annenberg School library. The List was archived along with Siskind's podcast and other content she had created.[25]
Personal life
editSiskind lives in Westchester County, New York with her two children.[19][7][26] She is openly lesbian.[27]
References
edit- ^ "Obituary of Bernard Siskind". The Marblehead Reporter. December 29, 2012.
- ^ "Marblehead native Amy Siskind has turned her online Trump 'List' into a book - Itemlive". April 17, 2018.
- ^ "Letter to the Editor: Happy with Tribute". jewishjournal.org. October 13, 2016.
- ^ "Marblehead High School Virtual Yearbook".
- ^ "What I Learned from What I Wish I Knew at 22". eship.dyson.cornell.edu.
- ^ "To The Contrary Panelists". www.pbs.org. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ a b "About Amy". The Weekly List. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ University, Office of Web Communications, Cornell. "What I Wish I Knew at 22". Cornell. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Sullivan, Margaret (June 25, 2017). "Perspective: Trump won, and Amy Siskind started a list of changes. Now it's a sensation". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ Silberstein, Judy (June 8, 2006). "Senator Clinton Reviews Mamaroneck 3rd Grader's Report". Larchmont Gazette. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
- ^ Sales, Ben (August 16, 2018). "Amy Siskind has been called a face of the anti-Trump resistance. Liberal critics claim she is an impostor". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "It's No Longer Just About Hillary". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ a b "About Us - The New Agenda". October 12, 2012.
- ^ Fine, Melanie (February 7, 2019). "The Incredible Symbolism Of That Sea Of White At The State Of The Union". Forbes.
- ^ "2017 Board of Directors and Officers". The New Agenda. November 11, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
- ^ France, Lisa Respers (October 15, 2017). "#MeToo: Social media flooded with personal stories of assault". CNN.
- ^
- Weill, Kelly (November 13, 2018) "Gavin McInnes Whines His Fellow Rich Neighbors Don’t Like Him" The Daily Beast
- Rom, Gabriel (October 29, 2018) "Amy Siskind warns that far-right leader Gavin McInnes lives here" The Journal News
- Campbell, Andy (January 4, 2019) "Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes Can Get Back To Antifa After He Battles His Neighbors" HuffPost
- Doughtery, Owen (January 4, 2019) "Proud Boys founder asked neighbors to take down anti-hate signs: report" The Hill
- Sommer, Will (January 4, 2019) "Gavin McInnes Writes Letters to Neighbors to Take Down Anti-Hate Signs" The Daily Beast
- Campbell, Andy (January 8, 2019)"Gavin McInnes’ Wife Threatens Neighbors Over ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ Signs" HuffPost
- ^ a b c d "#37 Amy Siskind - POLITICO 50 2017". Politico. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ a b "Mamaroneck's Siskind Continues Documenting The Trump Era". Larchmont-Mamaroneck, NY Patch. July 9, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ Piazza, Jo (July 18, 2018). "Podcasts Created by Women You Need to Be Listening To Right Now". Forbes. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
- ^ Lungariello, Mark (October 1, 2018). "Author Amy Siskind brings her list on Donald Trump to Eastchester". Rockland/Westchester Journal News.
- ^ Lozada, Carlos (March 16, 2018). "Review: Think you remember every outrage of the Trump presidency so far? A new book will test you". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ Jones, Alexis (May 22, 2019). "The 15 Podcasts by Women That Need to Be on Your Playlist". Marie Claire.
- ^ a b Fuller, Bonnie (October 4, 2019). "We the People March Organizer AmySiskind On Why It's Needed: The TrumpRegime Must Be Accountable". Hollywood Life. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
- ^ Sloan, Julie (October 6, 2021). "Amy Siskind Donates The Weekly List Collection to the Annenberg School Library". Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ "Amy Siskind -". aroomofherownfoundation.org.
- ^ Times, Windy City (March 20, 2018). "With 'The List,' Amy Siskind documents democracy's downfall". Windy City Times.
External links
edit| External media | |
|---|---|
| Audio | |
 Make America “Normal” Again, WAMU | |
| Amy Siskind Chronicles Trump's First Year, "U-God" on the Wu-Tang Clan, Can We Fix Our Bail System?, WNYC | |
| Video | |
 Video: Amy Siskind of Mamaroneck, author of "The List" speaking at Barnes & Noble in Manhattan, Seth Harrison, Lohud |