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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1985)
National Women's Music Festival by Lee Lynch The m idw est was welcom e haven from controversy. Perhaps it was all there, under the surface, and I as a guest was spared it In any case I found the wom en I m et — from New York to Sheboygan Falls, w elcom ing and appreciative o f all the National W om en’s M usic Festival had to offer. For me, m usic festivals have been dam p or hot buggy treks into a wilderness w hich dis tracts fro m the culture at hand. B ut NWMF is held on the University o f Indiana cam pus at B loom ington. Participants are housed in T H E AMAZON TRAIL dorm s, perform ers dance, sing, read, talk, in classroom s, auditorium s, lounges. The main stage is a huge balconied hall with excellent acoustics. Across it went Ferron, Toshi Reagon, Judy Sloan, Ronnie Gilbert, Adrienne Torf, Linda Tillery and Band (especially that dynam ic keyboard m usician Julie Hom i in her short w hite dress and yellow sneakers), Robin Tyler, June M illington, Alive, Beth York, Casselberry and DuPree, and the W right Dance Company. At the end of the last per form ance the festival organizers and crew dram atically ascended on a platform from the orchestra pit fo r deserved accolades. I was there fo r the W riter’s Conference, and tho ug h w riters were not treated with as m uch panache as the m usicians, the conference was w ell-attended. Ruth Peters, who did an im pressively efficient jo b o f organizing cultural events, tells me the goal is to expand the W riters’ Conference to the level o f the Music Industry Conference w hich took place just p rio r to the festival. Future plans include b ringing together w om en authors, editors, press, publishers, etc. for three to four days of intense netw orking. This, plus a booking period fo r authors to estalbish speaking en gagem ents, is a sorely needed event and I am anxious to support it and to see it happen. Ju d y G rahn was a featured writer, along w ith Kate C linton, who taught com edy w rit ing, and m yself. Judy is always an inspiration fo r me. Looking attractively older and healthier than the thin, intense traveller I first saw read in New Haven fourteen years ago, she still fills an auditorium with a presence I can only call lesbian divinity. Her C om m on W oman poems have been published and republished, her Am azon of Wands (C rossing) is another m a jo r w ork that changed the course o f lesbian literature. I am glad to see her reading public grow ing as this w om an’s words are like proud clo th in g we can don again and again to strut and preen in, rem i nded o f our own w orth and beauty. D escribing herself as the cerem onial dyke she researched fo r Another Mother Tongue; G ay Words, Gay Worlds (Beacon), G rahan brought proof o f our gay and lesbian history and culture to us. Her new poetry, like her old, had me crying, so pow erfully m ov ing, so deep inside m y lesbian psyche does she touch. I was part o f a panel featuring Tony A rm strong, publisher o f Hot Wire*, the w om en’s m usic industry magazine. She’s a hard- WANTED! driving professional whose publication reflects that in quality and scope. Jeri E d wards o f / Know You Know*, a four-color glossy magazine o f lesbian views and news, spoke too. I enjoyed som e tim e with Jeri, heard her dream s, her am bitions for the m agazine. IKYK is another needed lifeline be ing cast to end lesbian isolation. A successful businesswom an, Jeri knows what it takes to bu ild and support an alternative publication. She, w ith Nancy S ingleton and Mary Byrne (Mary also organized NWMF), have more than half th e ir goal o f 6000 subscribers. They’ve accom plished this in less than year. Surely th is is a record fo r a lesbian publicaton. Jeri, once an art historian who taught at B loom ington, has a nose fo r what appeals to the greatest num ber o f wom en and IKYK appeals w ith a wide and innovative range o f features. A t another w orkshop Tracy Bairn spoke. Sm all, surprisingly young fo r her accom p lishm ents, she’s associate ed itor o f C hicago’s G ay Life. She created and edits “ Sister S p irit" several pu llou t pages in each issue o f G ay Life, designed so wom en can choose not to wade through the “jo ck strap ads." Tracy im pressed me as one o f a whole new breed o f young w om en w illing to unite w ith m en to create a strong gay culture. It m akes m e wonder, have the older separatists done som e healing fo r us, so the dykes com ing up and o u t can live w ithout so m uch rancor? Have som e gay m en achieved such a m easure o f fem inism we can w ork together w ith m ore ease? The Fem inist W riters’ G uild* is very active in the C hicago-lndianapolis area and there were m any G uild m em bers at NWMF. One w orkshop addressed the need fo r the group to provide peer support, advice and program s such as health insurance to those o f us trying to survive by w riting. Once m ore, it was heart ening to see w om en like Jo rje t Harper, the G uild's new adm inistrative coordinator, w orking tow ard professionalism on their own *lite ONE HUNDRED CARING MEN AND WOMEN Community Health Support Services/PAL Project provides peer counseling, practical support, and referral assistance to persons facing life-threatening or life-changing illness, using trained volunteers. DESCRIPTION : Compassionate persons willing to donate up to eight hours per week for six months in any of the following areas: Personal Active Listeners (PALs) — Forty people with a natural ability to listen and reflect what they hear without judging. Next training is tentatively scheduled for the middle two weekends in September. Practical Support Volunteers — Forty people able to provide cook ing, cleaning, and transportation assistance. Good casserole or chicken soup recipes a plus . . . Office Volunteers — Fifteen people able to work a few hours per week in daytime phone and office support. Public Relations and Marketing Volunteers — Five people with strong writing skills or marketing background to assist PAL Project and Cascade AIDS Project with media exposure and fundraising. FOR MORE INFORMATION contact our office at 223-5907, write PAL Project, 408 SW 2nd Avenue — Room 403, Portland OR 97204, or call Steve Fulmer at 236-2429. UNLIMITED REW ARDS OFFERED Your short-term investment in time will contribute to the lives of many suffering people and their loved ones for years to come. Volunteer today. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away ... 16 term s, creating their own structures, m eeting th e ir own needs. Videotaping Judy G rahn and every other perform er they could, was JO /E D Vide*'*, a team o f tw o w om en w ho drive endless niles each year to preserve w om en’s/lesbian her- story. They’re building a visual archive they’re eager to share and thus far have tapes of, am ong others, Robin Tyler, Rita Mae Brown, G inny C lem ons, Barbara Grier. U nderlying the success o f this festival for m e was the Sober S upport Series, a twenty- four hour w om en-only space where meetings o f A lcoholics, N arcotics, Overeaters and E m otions A nonym ous and A dult C hildren o f A lcoholics were held. Organized by Cindy M cC am m ack, SS was a place with an AA structure where any w om an could go fo r talk, sharing, crying, festival stress syndrom e or addiction problem s. I spent hours there, w orking to keep m y sanity in a setting where even non-perform ers were coping w ith over load. O ne o f the m ost im portant hours fo r me was ju st p rio r to m y first appearance in a great big lecture hall all by m yself in fro n t o f a huge num ber o f strangers w ith a MICRO P H O N E I arrived at the Sober Support lounge paralyzed w ith fear, m ute, and left calm ed, reassured, less sick to m y stom ach, on a carpet o f good wishes and understanding. The festival brought together an enor m ous and eclectic variety o f w om en’s energy. A t a reception, the W riters’ Conference m erged m om entarily w ith the concurrent S piritua lity Conference. A utographing books were Z B udapest striking in her flow ing clo th in g ; Diane M ariechild, soft, likeable author o f Mother Wit, and M erlin Stone, another art herstorian as well as author o f Ancient Mir rors of Womanhood. We m ingled w ith autograph seekers in a ro om w hich also held the visual arts e x h ib it It was dizzying to talk to Yvonne Zipter, p o e t novelist and organizer o f the W riters’ C onfer ence; look up to see all that m oving visual a rt buy books by Judy, Diane, M erlin, from In dianapolis’ Dream s and Swords Bookstore ow ner H arriet Clare (w ho really knows how to sell books); and move on to a perform ance by P ortland’s own Dyketones — th a t’s the kind o f vision, m aturity and respect fo r one another’s efforts, as well as allowance fo r one another’s m istakes (see Letters to the E ditor), th a t’s creating room fo r us to grow to o strong to be put down. Too strong to be silenced ever again. N ational W om en’s M usic Festival, PO Box 5217, B loom ington, IN 47402 Hot 1321 Rosedale, Chicago, IL 60660 I Know You Know, 5199 N. Keystone Ave., S. 104, Indianapolis, IN 46205 5023 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60640 Fem inist W riters’ G uild, PO Box 9396, Berkeley, CA 94709 J o /E d Video, PO Box 41773, M em phis, TN 38174-1773 Wire, Gay Life, RUPERT £ K INN ARO ¡422443 Thanks to Tee Corinne fo r editing this m o n th ’s colum n. m e n in t h e w o o d s A Laid B ack G a y M e n ’s Retreat at Breitenbush H o t S p rin g s N ovem ber 8 - 1 1 F o r Information, C o n ta c t P h o e n ix Rising, 2 2 3 -8 2 9 9 . Or, if you’re really laid back, just hang loose. The information will get to you somehow. Just Out. August. 1985
