Podcasts about michigan womyn's music festival

In this extended WLRN interview, Thistle Pettersen talks with Dawn Smith, organizer with the Michigan Framily Reunion, about this women-only cultural event that remembers and honors the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival that took place near Hart, Michigan for 40 years with the last MichFest happening in August of 2015.

Lesbian activist Toni Armstrong Jr. discusses growing up as a lesbian, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, New land for womyn and girls, being gay and education; Tracy Baim, Publisher of the Chicago Reader, gives an in depth history of Stonewall and the origins of today's pride parades, plus a behind the scenes look at the fight for marriage equality and discusses division in the LGBTQ community; Actress Honey West gives us the scoop on her 30 year career, challenges in transitioning at 41, and her unconventional thoughts on trans actresses; Author Eddie Pierce Jr. Discusses his new book, Love Changes and his company's new children's book for African American children; News on policies and laws affect older LGBT Americans including an upcoming Supreme Court case. For links to topics discussed in the show visit us at https://conversationswith.net/our-truth-today-with-faren-dabell/ Show Timeline Intro (0:04.266) Episode Preview (2:27.266) Toni Armstrong - Growing up Lesbian (3:06.626) (TA) Lesbians & Music (5:48.200) (TA) New Land in Michigan/Womyn's Music Festival (7:44.960) (TA)GLSEN/Education (11:33.986) International Gay News (17:58.440) Tracy Baim-Stonewall (19:41.266) (TB) Early Chicago Media (24:40.746) (TB) Country At War: Gay 80s (27:01.706) (TB) Journalist and Activist (29:31.133) (TB) Marriage Equality Fight (30:14.253) (TB)Love my work (34:29.453) Part 2 Preview (36:06.826) Honey West (37:13.520) (HW) Started Transitioning (41:15.106) (HW) Trans Suicide (42:56.973) (HW) Accepting Parents (44:49.093) (HW) How Gender is Decided (45:24.373) (HW) Being a Trans Actress (48:14.893) (HW) Thoughts on Caitlin Jenner (55:54.106) Needs of Aging LGBT Americans (1:00:07.226) Author Eddie Pierce (1:05:00.226) Preview of Next Episode (1:11:44.946) Show End (1:13:14.120)

You have until midnight on February 14th, 2018 to pre-order this fabulous shirt! Listen to the PSA for instructions on how to get in on this wonderful opportunity to support the design work of Ms. Kacie Mills, the winner of WLRN's 2017 t-shirt design contest AND to support the We Want the Land Coalition, the group seeking to purchase the Land the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival was on for forty years.

Greetings on this fine November day! The women of WLRN invite you to sit back and relax with A Tribute to the Women Who Came Before Us. This special herstorical podcast focuses on the achievements and experiences of second wave feminists. Our foremothers built the groundwork for liberation years ago, and we must heed their advice to nurture this movement as they have, with clear intentions and courageous hearts. As the seasons change, let us dedicate a moment or two to our righteous feminist past. This month, our podcast begins with Sarah's hand-crafted headlines from all around the globe and then the song Misty Mountain by classic lesbian musician, Ferron. Next, Julia interviews Falcon River, who shares her stories of the second wave as an out butch lesbian, blazing a fresh trail Home. After a brief interlude with "Ancestor's Song" by Kellianna, Amanda interviews Linda Bellos, a candid second waver who's been no-platformed from Cambridge University. Paula Cole's "Tiger" is followed by Thistle's interview with Tara Ayers, a stalwart organizer who ensures the accessibility of physical sisterhood. Rounding out the hour is Sekhmet's incendiary commentary to feed the flames of feminism in all of us. Brew a cup of clover, and dust off that old fleece. Your sisters are waiting. Guests' Bios: Falcon River is a professional craftswoman, massage therapist, intuitive archer, and ordained priestess. As a butch lesbian in the early 70’s, River found employment as a drag king, winning the title of “Mr. Roanoke” for two consecutive years. In 1975, she and her partner founded the very first multi-functional lesbian bar in Louisville, Kentucky. That same year, River helped establish and defend the first Michigan Women’s Music Festival. In 1999, she met Ruth Barrett, and together they founded the Temple of Diana, a female-only congregation of dianic witches. Linda Bellos is a proud out Lesbian feminist, a mother and grandmother with an African Father who came to England in 1942 and a Jewish mother born in England. Ms. Bellos has been involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement before it fell apart, and in Municipal Government. In 1984 she wrote and published a short paper called The Limitations of Identity Politics. Later she became active in Black Sections of the Labour Party. Ms. Bellos was barred from speaking last month at Cambridge University in the UK due to her gender-critical stance. Tara Ayres is a cultural activist who has spent the last 43 years producing women’s and lesbian and gay concerts, theater and other cultural events, first in Kansas City, then in Connecticut and Wisconsin, and now in the San Francisco Bay Area. After years of producing women’s concerts and dances in Madison, WI, she served for 9 years as the Artistic Director of StageQ, Madison’s LGBT theater troupe. She was involved in community radio for 35 years, on WYBC-FM in New Haven as part of the Come Out Tonight collective, and then at community radio station WORT-FM in Madison as an anchor and producer for Her Turn, a feminist radio news collective and Queery, a program about LGBTQ+, and as a music programmer for Her Infinite Variety and Better Living Through Show Tunes. Ms. Ayres currently serves on the board of directors for the We Want the Land Coalition (WWTLC), a feminist organization seeking to purchase the land the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival happened on for forty years.

In August of 2015 the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, a lesbian institution that existed for 40 years, closed its gates for the last time. There was no plan for the land upon which the festival took place and no plan to continue the festival in a different form. A group of women who had attended and worked at the festival got together to explore the possibility of buying the land from Lisa Vogel, the festival founder and owner. The We Want the Land Coalition (WWTLC) was born in 2016 and the land was purchased shortly after its formation. http://wwtlc.org/ In early August of 2017, WWTLC organized a gathering of women on the Land to discuss the logistics of renting out the space to interested parties starting next summer. Thistle Pettersen had the honor of attending the gathering and of capturing this interview with two of WWTLC's board members. Karen Thompson is a first generation American, activist, black dyke and attorney who has spent much of her legal career representing individuals who are fighting for justice. As a staff attorney at the Innocence Project, her work centers around post-conviction litigation in seven states across the United States, including Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Arkansas. Karen has also fought for lesbians and gay men seeking asylum from unspeakable brutality and regularly lectures about wrongful convictions and mass incarceration at colleges, universities and high schools across the country. She previously served as a board member of FIERCE!: an LGBTQ youth-of-color organization dedicated to building leadership and consciousness and fighting police brutality in New York City. Karen’s fighting streak was honed by her two decades as a worker at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival where, among other things, she was one of four facilitators of the Allies In Understanding workshop series which addressed the strongly held opinions around womyn’s space by embracing, and not shutting down or running from difficult conversations and strongly held differing opinions. Leslie holds a B.A. in Literature, Science and the Arts from University of Iowa, and she was the first person in her family to earn a 4-year degree. An advocate for girls and women her entire adult life, Leslie served as a board member for the Emma Goldman Clinic, and worked at the Women’s Resource and Action Center and in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at the University of Iowa. Her pursuit of feminist and anti-racist consciousness led her to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in 2000, which she attended for 15 years. Her devotion to the Festival was also evident in her cultivation of multitudes of community connections over the years. In July of 2016, she literally woke up one day and said, “we need to save the Land.” From there, her vision, immense organizational capacity and deep connections within the community catalyzed the formation of WWTLC.

Jonny and Stacy discuss a variety of topics including the end of "Beyond the Binary" on WDBX (although the podcast will continue and can be accessed at http://beyondthebinary.podbean.com/), checking in on the fallout around Indiana's RFRA as well as the Supreme Court's hearing on marriage equality, the end of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and some of the tensions around mainstreaming queer art in popular culture.

Jonny and Julie are joined by Liz to discuss the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's "womyn born womyn" policy and the politics of exclusive spaces based on gender and/or sexuality. We apologize for the slight hiss in the recording; we are still working to optimize studio recordings of our broadcast.