Please join us as Michelle Horton discusses her new memoir, Dear Sister. Its starting point is September 2017 when her sister, Nikki Addimando, a former Wimpfheimer employee, was incarcerated for killing her abuser. Michelle Horton will be in conversation with Elizabeth Clifton about their ensuing activism, their startling encounters with the criminal justice system, how Nikki’s case turned into a national discussion and a test case for a new law on domestic violence, and how this six-year ordeal changed not only Nikki’s life but theirs too.

Michelle Horton is a writer and advocate living in New York’s Hudson Valley with her son, nephew, and niece. Through the Nicole Addimando Community Defense Committee, she continues to speak out for her sister and the countless other victims of domestic violence criminalized for their acts of survival.

Elizabeth Clifton is a founding member of Nikki’s Community Defense Committee, a music teacher, and social worker. She has been at Vassar College since 2006, when her partner joined the Psychological Science department.

Books will be available for purchase, and there will be an opportunity to donate to the Nicole Addimando Community Defense Fund.

This Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies event is sponsored by the Dean of Faculty Office, and co-sponsored by the Political Science Department, the Sociology Department, the English Department, the Women’s Center, the SAVP Office, the EOAA/Title IX Office, Counseling Service, H.O.M.E. and the VSA. We thank everyone for their support and generosity.