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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2000)
july 7.2000 » Michigan on my mind In praise of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, still going strong after 25 years by H olly P r u e t t AUGUST 8-13,2000 Michigan demonstrates what women can txldess worshippers, stage divers, RV-ing create when provided the space—and, some say, women, riot grrrls and women of every what the world might he like if it were run by preference and persuasion are gearing up women. “The festival shows that it’s possible to for the 25th Michigan Womyn’s Music create a sustained reality with shared values, Festival; upwards of 8,000 women from around even when our ways of expressing those values the world are expected to attend during the aren’t all the same,” says Papusa Molina, who week of August 8 through 13. Over the last 25 years more than 50,000 will travel from Mexico for her 15th festival. Lynne Breedlove, lead singer of Tribe 8, who women have made the pilgrimage to this lesbian phoenix that rises from the ferns each August, and for them “Michi "Michigan" represents a state of mind, gan” no longer represents that state in the Midwest sandwiched a place where what's scarcely possible between two giant lakes. Instead, in the greater world becomes possible “Michigan” represents a state of rrind, a place where what’s scarce and is celebrated for one week each year. ly possible in the greater world becomes possible and is celebrated for one week each year. feared “some kind of hippie-dippy experience” “It’s an exuberant celebration of our lives when the band first played Michigan in 1995, where we can love who we are as women,” says now considers the festival “a model for the Krissy Keefer, collective member and artistic whole world.” She says: “It’s my dream future.” director of Dance Brigade and Wallflower But first and foremost, it’s a party. Festival Order. attendees will enjoy 40 perfonnances, hun dreds of workshops, a film festival, a crafts fair and the 650 wooded acres that are home to this perennial women’s village. The lineup of performing artists will knock your socks off, whether those socks are worn in D k Martens, Birkenstocks, platform thigh-highs or Keds. We’ll get to the artists in a minute. First, consider the stages on which they’ll perform. They are out, way out, in the woods: the lush green woods, so full of oxygen that. anything can happen. “Women get an experience here that’s crystal clear Ju st out 2 5 because it’s so pure,” says 25-year veteran Karen Dodson. “They can feel what it’s like to have their energy less diluted.” This sylvan territory is a place where sisters were doing it for themselves long before Aretha and Annie ever thought to sing a song on the subject. In 1978, still married but following her first female crush to the festival, Amoja Three Rivers marveled at the sight of “women taking care of all the business themselves. It was the year of the tornado,” she recalls. “There were women up on the stage scaffolding and the lightning was like a strobe light. These were not scared women. These women were shout ing back to the thunder.” With women handling everything from sound to security and plumbing to Popsicles, the festival is an annual antidote to the culture at large that, as far as many feminists are con cerned, continues to deny women’s abilities, ethics and basic worth. For the girls who’ve grown up at the festival, says 17-year-old Amber Jones, “It’s so empowering to know I can do that! Seeing women so strong in their womanness, living on their own without men, is an incredible thing for a young girl to see.” That’s not to say it’s a perfect place. Michi gan has long been recognized as a petri dish: a place where different cultural strains genninate and grow into a larger, complex organism. The storms that rock the land aren’t all on the weather map. Singer Holly Near observes: “Since we bring all our stuff to the party, it’s no paradise— though there are heavenly moments.” Longtime sound engineer Boden Sandstrom says, “The issues brought to Michigan are what’s important to women, issues that are discussed and often resolved in a way that doesn’t exist anyplace else, and then is taken back to communities around the world.” Continued on Page 2 7 Ferron reunites with her tribe V PHOTO BY VICTORIA PEARSON CarlsonWagonlit JjsT Port|and’ °reg°n Think you’re getting the best rates off the Internet? THE COMMUNITY'S n tP • * ^ (503) 223-1100 Residential, com m ercial & investm ent property beat the Internet! 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