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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1985)
The road to self-fulfillment b y Lee L yn ch I m o ved to O reg o n for a m yriad of reasons. T h e S o uth ern O regon W om en W riters’ G ro up, G o u rm et E ating Society and Chorus was o ne o f th em . T h e lesbian and gay w orld is filled, perhaps disproportionately, w ith ta le n t Is it the isola tion w hich arises from our gayness that prom pts us to reach out by developing our T H E AMAZON TRAIL natural powers? O r is there som ething m ore positive in gay culture w hich creates a fertile d im a te fo r artistic grow th? W hatever we ulti m ately fin d to b e th e reason, th e O regon hills are no d ifferent fro m the rest o f this earth: full o f talen ted dykes. A nd though it isn’t specifi cally lesbian, a host o f us flock to W riters' G roup. Last w eek I received a note from G roup m e m b e r Ruth M ountaingrove. photographer and fo rm e r co-pub lisher o f W om anspirit m agazine. Reading her w ords I realized, once again, how really blessed w e are. She c o m m en ted abo ut a recent m eeting, ” . . . a real good W riters’ G roup. W hen people com e all the w ay fro m E u gene we m ust have som e thing — and we do.” W hat a dynam ic gather ing it was. W hat a w onderful creation, this G roup. W hose vision had it been and w hat had m ad e it successful? I called Tangren A lexander to find o u t A college professor w ho's built her own h o m e 1 on the side o f a m ountain, she is one o f the founding m em bers and a faithful participant O ften to m e she feels like the keel o f the group. “O h well,” she said in that bashful l-can’t- take-credit-for-any-of-it way o f hers, “I just see it as a w ay to be heard." That, in itself, is pretty special: a place w e can be heard. “It’s the supportiveness th at’s im p ortan t for me,” she w ent on to say and I w ondered how that support was consistently provided, given the w ont o f w o m en ’s groups to evaporate like clouds and blow away. “T h e re ’s not a lot o f brass tacks or working over a piece. W hen we check in' we say what we w ant, w hether it’s to get criticism , to be encouraged , suggestions w here and how to publish — o r anything else." T h e G roup, then, is w hat each participant needs from it As she spoke, I recalled m y first exposure, in 1982, to these spirited w om en. W e m et in th at little w o m an -b u ilt m ountain hom e, per haps a dozen o f us stuffed into a room with a w oodstove, a w ell-used rolltop desk, a long row o f Tan grens’ journals, and an incredible view o f a m ountainside before us. It was dow n right distracting fo r city-girl m e to see w hat those clouds w ere doing out on that m oun tainside. F o rm in g . R eform ing. D rifting away all w hole as if m anufactured and patented in th e (JSA and assigned to beguile city folk thousands o f m iles away. T h e m iracle o f the clouds had com peti tion , th o u g h . Tw o w om en read poetry. O ne sang h er ow n songs. A nother read a piece on alcoho lism w hich left m e speechless and changed m y perception of m yself forever. A C o ttage G rove artist was there. Som eone w riting abo ut a black w om an “cowboy." And others, all o f w hom had som ething to give, if o nly an ear. I’d found paradise. B ack in the city I had n't stum bled on this kind o f sharing ever. A nd it is, as Tangren pointed o u t the sup portiveness that is so special. N o trashing or beating a point to death. Just the sort of positive reflection, with appropriate technical pointers, that I feel should underlie all feminist criticism . W e need to open doors for one another, not close them . There is always som ething good in a creative work. It m ay take effort to identify it, but once acknow l edg ed the creator has a road before her never before considered. Som etim es, it’s the road to self-fu lfillm en t In the early seventies, when I was still struggling to write poetry, Judy G rahn suggested I try prose. W ithin the next ten years I’d com pleted m y first novel and m y short stories w ere being w ell-received. A place to be heard. A door opened. A road taken. T h e Southern O regon W om en W riters’ G ro up, according to Caroline O verm an in h er introduction to Tee C orinne’s Picture B o o k * began when poet M artha C ourtot led a w orkshop a t the G rants Pass Art M useum in 1980. At her suggestion Hannah Blue Heron, a w ildly creative ex-nun, ex-hippie and vete ran o f the w o m en ’s land m o vem e n t and Zarod, a frequent contributor to W om anspirit organized the first W riters' G roup m eeting at Ri verhouse o n the Applegate River in M urphy th e follow ing February. T h e group decided to m e e t every third w eek thereafter and has to this day. O riginally, the plan was fo r each participant to bring her lunch. W hat has evolved is a G o u rm et E ating Society w hich allows for socializing around the potiuck table. There have been all-bean days and all-dessert days, b u t every lesbian has had her share o f those! B efore and after the feast w om en from age tw enty up through their sixties read from journals, novels, autobiographies, cook books: read poem s, book reviews, short stories, erotica, m antras; perform or teach songs to the chorus; play taped interviews; show their crafts, photography, artwork; share ideas for projects like a non-violent training handbook. This is the real feast this cultural one. And the m ix of w om en is as broad as our talents. At the last m eeting, in a large living room on a circle of chairs, couches, benches and pillows, sat: lesbian separatists, straight w om en, farm ers, profes sors, kennel-ow ners, a therapist nuclear ac tivists, artists, writers, poets, a phone co m pany workers, grandm others, publishers. I've been gratefully part of this G roup for over a year now. Having a platform for first drafts has been valuable to m e. But personal testim ony is not all I can offer. T he G roup speaks for itself in this partial list of what has been, or is scheduled to be, published: sub m issions to C om m on Lives/Lesbian Lives, THE T—SHIRT PEOPLE m usical, “T h e O ther Side of M adness" has been perform ed all over western O regon. T ee’s W omen W ho Loved Women. Tangren s The A u tio b io g ra p h y o f D eborah C arr and C aro line O verm an ’s The S ch o la r In H ot P ursu it are all available in book form . And th e re ’s m y own N aiad Press books, not a little influenced by these w om en. I am glad to be able to offer final proof, here, th at O regon m anufactures m ore than clouds. It m ay have even less m onetary value than crop-nurturin g rain, but we grow Art here, and nourish the artists form ing on m ountainsides. •C o rin n e , Tee. The S outhern O regon W om en W riters ’ G roup G ourm et E ating S o cie ty a n d C horus P icture B ook. Pearlchild. O R. 1982. $8.0 0 p o s t pd. to PO B 8 0 4 G rants Pass, O R 9 7 5 2 6 -0 0 6 9 . co*op*er*a*tive/ la: itfe an adjective b: ife a noun 2: it’s something special for60,000,000 people from T coast to coast Fbod front Open to A ll— COOPERATIVE GROCERY For: Fundraising Team Uniforms Company Promotions Business Publicity hat something special means 40,000 member- owned cooperatives through out the United States devoted to serving their members and communities in every way imag inable. For example, there are coop eratives for electric and tele phone service, housing, food, furniture, insurance, farm mar keting and farm supply, credit unions and farm credit, health and day care. The cooperative way of con ducting business has proven over and over again to be both a highly efficient and extremely economical way to provide ser vices and goods. That’s why co ops come in every size and kind and are found in the city, the suburbs and rural America. No matter whether you think of cooperative as a noun or an adjective, it means the same thing — people working together to meet common needs to benefit their entire communities. COOPERATIVES Who!« Foods, Rosi Qroeortos, Natura» T r a it, Froth Produco Optn 7 days, 9 a m. to 8 p.m. 287-4691 2875 NW Thurman 222-5658 TRi-MET BUS 53 BETTER BUILDING A AM ERICA ...a n d a BETTER WORLD October — Co-op Month # —I JM tO ut. October 1986 S in iste r W isdom, Pleasures — Women Write E roticca, Just O ut, Lesbian N uns: B reaking S ilence. Eugene W om en ’s Press. H annah’s