Fran Chaiken

Blazes Trail of Action

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

There are dynamos of all ages, in all genres, for all causes. And then there is Fran Chaiken, who at 76 still blazes a trail for those who fancy themselves activists; in fact, she frankly leaves most of them in the dust. In addition to her work with a plethora of mainly elderly and women-oriented organizations that rely on her energy and organizational skills, she runs a CCAT show interviewing artists and puts together Seniors’ Art Shows, all the while dabbling on the canvas herself.

“You have to get up in the morning and decide what you’re going to do for the day,” Chaiken, who was inspired by FDR in her youth, remarked casually. “Some days I work for Mass. Senior Action Council at the Cambridge Senior Center (806 Mass. Ave., next to the YMCA), a group that prods legislators on issues pertaining to prescription drugs, Medicare, home care. I also work with three groups who have an office at the YWCA – Experience Unlimited, Gray Panthers of Greater Boston, and OWL (Older Women’s League). Then there’s Creative Middlers - men and women who are over 50 – we sponsor social activities and trips.

“Oh yes, there’s the art group too, and and Women’s Universal Health Initiative in Boston, a group that pushes for universal health care. Also, the Mature Workers’ Coalition (for ages 45 and over) – we just moved it to the Mass. Association of Older Americans on 108 Arlington St. in Boston. It consists of representatives from 15 or more senior groups – Operation Able, Jewish Vocational Service, Vietnamese Organization on Aging, AARP, UMass Gerontology Institute, Mass. Association of Older Americans, Gray Panthers, Experience Unlimited, One-Stop Career Centers, and others.

“Oh, and please remind your readers that beginning in 1967, the Age Discrimination In Employment Act protects workers aged 45 and over from discrimination. If they want to know more, they can contact the Mass. Commission on Age Discrimination at 1 Ashburton Place in Boston.”

Chaiken even helped to compile and put out the Massachusetts Directory of Professional Associations and Networks (“Well, I only compiled the 2^nd to the 6^th editions.”), which is self-published by Experience Unlimited. Another book, a Directory of Temporary and Permanent Employment Agencies in Massachusetts, is in the works, she reports. “We also did one on Publishers in Massachusetts.” Chaiken does her research for these guides in libraries, telephone books, or calling, emailing or faxing the places directly to get info.

Chaiken, who grew up in depression-era Baltimore, was one of nine children (“We are all alive, aged from 70 to 91,” she proudly notes.) Her parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, her father a carpenter and builder. “There were three kids who were 7 years apart, and then six younger ones. The older ones really took care of the younger ones and helped. Back then, you could rent a house for $25 a month,” she explained, “and so we got by.” She attended Washington College and Notre Dame before finishing a degree in Business Administration and Economics at Johns Hopkins in 1955.

For 29 years, Chaiken worked for the Department of Labor; she was transferred to Boston to its Employment and Training Division in 1969 following a reorganization. “The Department had a reorganization when Nixon became president in 1968 – he decided to put all the social service organizations into ten regions, and Boston was one. I lived in Beacon Hill for 10 years. Then right around the time I decided to retire, I looked for a condo and found one in Cambridgeport, where I’ve been since 1979.”

But, she explained, back then, if you worked for the government, you could not actively participate in any overtly political activities. So she had to wait until she retired in 1979 to begin to pursue her desire for major involvement in her chosen issues.

Her politics? “I’m kind of in between,” she said. “I do support CPPAX, but that’s really not that radical. I’ve voted Republican many times – I voted for Sargeant, but also for Dukakis, and I volunteered for Ted Kennedy. In fact, we went down to Hyannis, and were invited to the compound – I have a picture of Kennedy, myself and a friend from that trip. I also went to the 1980 Democratic National Convention when Carter and Kennedy were running, and wrote an article on it for Equal Times magazine on women’s issues. This was during a time when women had just begun speaking up. I shook hands with Jimmie Carter.”

She joined the American Jewish Committee, Americans for Democratic Action, and took an art class at the MFA in watercolor, but it was within the womens’, senior advocacy and senior art movements that she seemed to really reach full bloom. “When I retired in 1979, I started volunteering as a member of the Women’s Commission of Cambridge at Cambridge City Hall. I helped to develop and sell their calendar. We got pictures from Schlessinger Library, we organized “Take Back the Night”.

She belongs to the Cambridgeport Artists’ Open Studios. “I used to doodle as a child and took art lessons in Baltimore. I used to do oils, but now stick to watercolor. And for the past year and a half, I have interviewed 30 different artists for Cambridge Community Artists on CCTV – it airs on the first and the third Friday of each month at 2:30 p.m.”

Chaiken has produced two annual Senior Art Shows at Brookline Lunch and the Middle East. Next month at Out of the Blue Gallery at 168 Brookline st., the work of at least 30 senior artists will be shown, encompassing all types of visual art – paintings, weavings, poems, photos, charcoal drawings, quilting, caricatures, painted stones and storytelling, with the reception Aug. 10 from 1-4 p.m.. She flashed her itemized Senior Art notebook.

“I’ve been involved in a lot of things,” she said.