DYKE A Quarterly

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 3, pp.50 + inside back cover: ADS

 

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 2 p. 50 + inside back cover, ads

TEXT OF ADS in gray, indended. Commentary follows.

Living With Lesbians

Women’s Wax Works A002

An Uncommon Musical Adventure with Alix Dobkin & Friends

Living With Lesbians was the second album from Alix Dobkin. Like her first album, Lavender Jane Loves Women, this one had two versions of a cover. This was the first. Most women found it threatening although we were really just raking apples at the farm. Pictured are left to right, Mary, Smokey, Alix, Penny House and Liza Cowan. Photo by Ginger Legato. Design by Aenjai Graphics.

This album has been blogged about a lot, mostly showing how awful, funny, wierd, it is. Worst record album cover etc. We loved it, but the people spoke and we listened. We made a new cover for the next pressing.

 

This cover sold well. Photo of Alix Dobkin and the dog Three Maple Betsey Booper (aka Saint Betsey) , photo by LIza Cowan.

Of course, there were always Dykes who loved the first cover, as well as the second. See QueerMusicHeritage

 Also Lavender Jane Loves Women

Women’s Wax Works A001

 $6 Each (includes postage) Make check payable to

Project No. 1 Preston Hollow NY 123469

 

Lavender Jane Loves Women was Alix's groundbreaking first album. Never before in the history of the world had there been an album made entirely by women. The musicians, the engineer, even the vinyl pressers were women (although the vinyl pressing company was male owned - the only part of the whole process for which we couldn't find a woman - owned company. But the actual pressers were women. We met them. And, equally important, the album was conceived for an audience of women. Also groundbreaking.

 

For the first pressing, the abums were shipped to us in plain white sleeves. We had a work party where half a dozen women came over to our apartment and sat around the living room rubber cementing the 12x12 printed paper of the cover art, which was a drawing by Alix. I'm sure there was lots of food, probably a joint or two passed around and lots of good laughs and hard work. Now that's a collector's item.

The second cover came a few years later. Design by LIza Cowan, photo using Mita 900-D copier and cut-out heart. Liza's hand. I don't remember why we changed the art.

 

 

Alix released her memoir, My Red Blood, in the Spring of 2010. The last chapters chronicle the time leading up to the release of Lavender Jane Loves Women. Published by Alyson Books you can buy it from them if your local bookstore doesn't carry it. Alyson Books

 

 

 

  Limited supply available:

The Flying Lesbians

German record album

Send $6 to : Project #1

Preston Hollow, NY 12469

The Flying Lesbians was a Lesbian Rock Band from Germany.

You can read about them HERE

When band members Monika Jaekel and Monica Savier came to the States, they stayed with us. Later, Alix toured Europe with them.

 WOMANSPLACE

Feminist Books and Periodicals

Booklist Available

Mail Orders

9 East 5^th Street

Tempe AZ 85201

One of the many women's bookstores that peppered the landscape in the 1970's Womansplace no longer exists. Any information about it is welcome. Just drop a line in the comment box.

 

MEGAERA PRESS

A women’s press collective for 3 ½ years- formerly Mother Jones Press

‘wimmin printing for wimmin

lesbian publishing

 

design layout offset printing binding sipping

write or call for an estimate

mail to: c/o WIT Inc P.O.. Box 745, Northampton MA

 

Deliver to: 19 Hawley St. Northampton MA, Rear Building

See Elana Dykewoman, here and here

 

LONG TIME COMING

CANADIAN LESBIAN FEMINIST NEWSPAPER

BOX 128 STATION G, MONTREAL P.Q.

SUBS: $5 YR INDIVIDUALS

$10 YR INSTITUTIONS  5O c SAMPLE COPY

 

I asked asked the CLGA- Canadian Lesbian and Gay archives if they had some infromation on Long Time Coming. They had a response for me within hours. Archivist RULE! Thanks to Elizabeth Bailey at CLGA and Michelle Schwartz who supplied the following information:

From Never Going Back by Tom Warner, page 83

"A few months after its founding, some members of Montreal Gay Women began publishing Long Time Coming, the first regularly produced publication exclusively for lesbians in Canada. Long Time Coming found a receptive readership that stretched across North America. But, in testament to the times, none of the women involved allowed her real name to be published. In all, Long Time Coming produced approximately twenty issues from June 1973 until it folded in 1976."

The citation given for this is: Laura Yaros, "Long Time Coming: Long Time Gone," Amazones d'Hier: Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui, vol. 5, March 1988.

From Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Chronology, 1964-1975 by Don McLeod, page 130

"July, 1973. Montreal. The first issue of Long Time Coming was published by Montreal Gay Women. Edited by Jackie Manthorne, this was the first lesbian journal published in Canada. Long Time COming contained news, poetry, opinion pieces, book reviews, advertisements, and listings. It ceased publication in April-May 1976, after twenty issues."

The citation given for this:

Margaret Fulford, ed. The Canadian Women's Movement, 1960-1990: A Guide to Archival Resources/Le mouvement de femmes, 1960-199: guide de resources archivistiques (Toronto: Canadian Women's Movement Archives/ECW Press, 1992), Entry 618.

Don McLeod's book is available for free as a pdf from the University of Toronto website.

A You're An Amazon button by White Mare Inc

For more on White Mare Buttons see HERE

ad for Riverfinger Women by Elana Dykewomon

For more on Elana Dykewomon see HERE and HERE

 

 

DYKE A Quarterly no. 3 p. 51: ADS

DYKE A  Quarterly No. 3, p. 51, ADS

Text of Ads- in gray, indented. Commentary follows.

White Mare Inc.
I Like Older Women,
3 color button, 1  ¼” diameter. Also available, Mother Nature Is a Lesbian and A You’re An Amazon. From White Mare, Box 90, Preston Hollow Y 12469. 55c each. New York residents add state and local sales tax.
 A You’re An Amazon
Mother Nature is a Lesbian.

 

White Mare was the button and graphics company owned and run by me, Liza Cowan. I've written about my button company at my art blog HERE

Notice the Medusa button on the upper left. Medusa was a big theme for Lesbians. She was a Gorgon, a fierce fighting woman, who turned men to stone if they dared take a peek at her. The Medusa button shown here was drawn by cartoonist Roberta Gregory.

White Mare Buttons, direct image on Mita 900-D photocopier by Liza Cowan

 

 

 

 

 

 

They Will Know Me By My Teeth  By Elana Dykewoman

Author of Riverfinger Women

Megara Press

To be Sold and Shared With Women Only

 

 

See Elana Dykewoman's website HERE

and Wikipedia entry HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come to Womencrafts

Unique and beautiful work

Handcrafted by New England Women

Provincetown

Womancrafts is still in Business in Provincetown.

Here's their website.

Go see them if you are in P'Town.

 

Sistersilver is Back
Fine handmade sterling silver jewelry: Lesbian symbos, rings, bacelets, etc. Free Brochure. Lesbians only. M’lou Brubaker, Chicago

 

M'Lou is also still in business. See her website HERE

 

Ladyslipper pendant and earrings by M'Lou Brubaker

 

 

 

Interesting. Everyone on this page is still in business doing the same thing, more or less, that they were doing 35 years ago. I'm still doing graphic design, creating product and selling retail. Elana is still writing and publishing, M'Lou is still making and selling jewelry and Womancrafts is still in business. What's up with that?? I'm impressed.

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 2, Correspondents- Iowa City

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 2, p. 86, Correspondents and ads

click on image to enlarge. Edited text in grey, below:

We would like to have correspondents from communes and communities all over the country. We would like to hear about what books Dykes are reading, what movies they are going to, how they are raising their children, how they are celebrating their holidays, what arts they are involved with, what their living arrangements are. We are interested in all the varied things that happen in the every day life of a Dyke community. If you would like to be a correspondent, please write for details.

IOWA CITY

....Meanwhile, back in Iowa City, Grace & Rubies Restaurant is still alive, kicking and struggling to get out from under while the City's new mayor, a woman, instructs the human relations commission to investigate the legality of the restaurant's policy of refusing membership (and admittance) to men. The outcome of the investigation is unknown, but if it takes the commission as long to investigate Grace & Rubies as it does to investigate sex discrimination in employment claims, the restaurant will be around fo a number of years, no matter what the outcome.

     The Iowa City Women's press, a Lesbian press collective, just finished printing "Sister Heathenspinster's Almanac and Lunation Calendar" last month and is currently working on a series of skills manuals written by local Dykes on auto mechanics, carpentry and electrical wiring.

    The press collective has been around since 1972 trying to give Lesbians/women access to printing tools, whether that be to learn the skill of printing or to print material done by Lesbians/women who do not have access to commercial printing.  In addition to their press, the collective also operate a photography darkroom.

     The press can print color, black and white reverses, and reproduce photographs. In the past the press has printed cards and posters with the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective, a Lesbian calendar, a non-sexist children's book and health pamphlets for the women's health clinic in Iowa City. Other women have also used the press to print their works: The Common Woman, a woman's poetry book; and the Ain't i A Woman collective printed a pamphlet about academic women in the movement, Academic Feminists.

      At this point, the press is trying to make contacts in the Midwest and other parts of the country with women who have material to print and are looking for a press to print it. The press collective doesn't have the resources for publishing, but they are willing to work on ideas to get money and can help find distribution sources. The press can be reached by mail....

     In the entertainment world, 100 Dykes bought a block of tickets and got dressed to the tee to see Lily Tomlin perform in Iowa City. Tomlin's interview about how it was to play a heterosexual in "Nashville" brought cheers of approval from the Dyke crowd and perplexed looks from the straight audience. How nice it was to see so many Dykes have so much fun with so many straight people wondering how there ever came to be so many of us in one place.

 For more on Iowa City Dyke history go here.

 

The Chicago Women's Graphics Collective circa 1975. source

Almost every Lesbian household we visited in those days had at least one poster from the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective. This was a favorite of ours. Horses, Amazons and Dykes. Who could resist? Not us.

 

For more on The Chicago Women's Graphics Collective see HERE Michelle Moravec, Towards a Revolutionary Women's Culture, The Politics of Women's Culture.

 

 

DYKE, A Quarterly, No. 2, Inside back cover, Ads

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 2, Ads on inside back cover. Page 87.

 

Ads for Alix Dobkin's album, Living With Lesbians, graphics by Aenjai press. Linda Shear's album, A Lesbian Portrait. Ad for Sherry, Carpenter Consultant.

DYKE A Quarterly, No. 1: Ads

DYKE A Quarterly, Issue #1, Page 78. Ads

It was common practice for women's periodicals to exchange ads with each other for free.

Nobody every took us up on the Free Message Units. The ones here are from us.

DYKE A Quarterly No.1, inside back cover. Ad For Diana Press Publications

DYKE A Quarterly. Issue #1, Inside Back Cover. Ad for Diana Press Publications

 

 

DIANA PRESS

From The New Women’s Survival Catalog: edited by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie, 1973 Coward, McCann & Geoghagan Inc./Berkeley Publishing Corporation, New York

 

“Tucked away in the basement of a tidy Baltimore townhouse, the DIANA PRESS looks like just another commercial print shop. Inside you find the usual array of sophisticated printing equipment: to Multilith printing machines, and instant plate-maker, a strip-printer for making headlines, an IBM composer for typesetting, a plate burner for making negatives, a Xerox copier, along with beautifully self-styled drafting and layout tables. Yet there are several features that distinguish DIANA PRESS from you average print shop. First, DIANA PRESS combines successful commercial printing (they hold the printing contract for one of the nations’ largest sporting magazines) with publishing and printing of feminist and radical feminist literature. Second, DIANA PRESS is entirely owned and operated by three remarkable women: Coletta Reid, Casey Czarnik and Erma Randall.

 

The Story of DIANA PRESS goes back to January, 1972 when the press was established and incorporated by a diverse collective of working and middle class women. As Coletta explains it, the press had problems right from the outset. In the first place, the collective lacked any uniform political position. “The name, DIANA PRESS, for example, was agreed upon as a compromise between those who wanted to commemorate weatherwoman Diana Oughton and others who saw Diana as a symbol of ancient women’s culture.” Second, in choosing to operate as an open collective with women working whenever they had the time, the press functioned only haphazardly, with no clear lines of responsibility.

 

Thirdly, from its very beginning, the women worked in tandem and shared an adjoining office with “a group of leftist hippy men” who did the typesetting and paste-up while the women handled the printing. Together they put out movement work for the price of the cost of paper only – all labor was donated.

 

By October of the same year, it was apparent that the press could not continue to function in this haphazard manner and still survive as a viable enterprise. Tensions over the conflicts in the collective had already caused most of the women to leave. Realizing the necessity of the situation, the remaining women totally re-organized the operation, asked the “hippy men” to leave, and agreed to give themselves nine months to make the press self-supporting – a goal which they achieved long before their deadline. With money obtained through donations they were able to equip their shop with essential printing machinery. They divided up the print shop into departments and initiated clear lines of responsibility and a production schedule.

 

The sheer determination of Casey, Coletta and Erma – the 12 hour working day, the material sacrifices – has insured the future of DIANA PRESS. The have successfully competed for bids on commercial work, and although none of them is eager to perpetuate capitalism, it is their commercial business that pays the bills, finances them through print school, and makes the publication of women’s literature possible. Their next goal is to get a Webb press with which they will be able to print any size format, and be no mistake about it, with their determination and energy they’ll have their Webb press, and make a giant stride toward freeing women entirely from male printing establishments."

 

PS: Check out this amazing online resource: The Library of Radiant Optimism For Let's Re-make The World. You can download The New Women's Survival Catalog, just in case you don't happen have one sitting around the house like we do.