A century ago, Mabel Dodge Luhan and her husband Tony finished a structure that would soon transform Taos, New Mexico into a major cultural center—the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. Dodge’s close relationships with D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams and many others facilitated the house’s legendary salons. A forceful social rights advocate on multiple fronts and a supporter of creativity in every form, Mabel Dodge Luhan’s often-overlooked legacy will be celebrated in this online webinar that features a live-screening of Awakening in Taos immediately followed by a Q&A with audience participation encouraged. 

Filmmaker Mark Gordon, Dodge historian Lois Palken Rudnick and playwright/actress Leslie Harrell Dillen will discuss Dodge’s life and history as we learn more about her work in Florence and New York City; her influence on the legendary Armory Show in 1913; her writing as a nationally syndicated journalist, and the unstoppable energy that helped reshape Taos.


Lois Palken Rudnick is professor emerita of American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Rudnick lives in Santa Fe. She is the author of Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds; Utopian Visions, a cultural history of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House; and The Suppressed Memoirs of Mabel Dodge Luhan.

Mark Gordon (writer/director) is a Taos-based fine artist, graphic designer, photographer, web developer, and independent filmmaker who has been passionate about filmmaking since childhood. 

Leslie Harrell Dillen is an award winning playwright and actress. Her full-length plays and one-acts have had productions and workshops in New York, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Washington. Her full-length play Death Quilt was workshopped at the Sundance Institute under the direction of Oskar Eustis. She has written plays that have been produced by the Boston Marathon, the Boston Playwrights’ Theater and the Santa Fe Playhouse. Her one-person shows include Me & George, named Best One Woman Show of the Year in Boston, and The Passions of Mabel Dodge Luhan.