Readers take an exhilarating insider's journey through women's music festivals in the lesbian subculture complete with candid backstage interviews and photographs.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Longtime festival enthusiast Bonnie J. Morris offers a thorough, if somewhat breathless, survey of the 25-year history of women's music festivals, drawing on interviews with performers, producers, and technicians, as well as her own extensive archives and journals. "What binds us together [at festivals] is twofold," she affirms, "the collective experience of the music and the collective safety of being in woman-loving space." Many of the women quoted applaud the summer festivals as refuges from misogyny and homophobia, "fantasy islands" that can sustain them for the rest of the year. The restrictions most lesbians face in ordinary life are brought home by the editor's decision not to publish any photographs of happy crowd scenes, in case a woman pictured should lose her job or her children. As well as backstage politics and artistic trends, Morris describes the early performances of successful crossover artists such as Melissa Etheridge, who was once threatened with a boycott by anti-S/M festivalgoers who misheard her line "Meet me in the woods" as "Beat me in the woods." Possibly worth reading just for chapter titles like "There's a Nursing Baby in the Mosh Pit." --Regina Marler
From Library Journal
Purported to be the first and only examination of women's music festivals, Morris's book attempts "to capture the images and voices" of women who "return over and over to the various festivals where an authentic lesbian culture is created." According to Morris, women's music festivals have been an integral part of lesbian culture for the last 25 years. Morris has been there from the beginning, chronicling the events in photographs, recordings, and interviews with performers and festival-goers. She shares her archives and experience from a historical viewpoint (she's a history professor) as well as a personal one (she's a lesbian). A history of the festival movement is included along with quotes from festival-goers and a "lexicon of festivalese." The book includes mainly self-portraits of the performers, who talk about their experiences as lesbians and musicians. It's something of a hodgepodge, but little has been written about this phenomenon, making the book a welcome additional to gay and lesbian collections in academic and larger public libraries.ARosellen Brewer, Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Lib. Sys., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We never did this stuff at Girl Scout camp...,
By Julie Nicolay (boxoffice@gardearts.org) (New London, CT) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eden Built by Eves (Paperback)
If you've ever wondered what a women's music festival is all about, who goes and what really happens there, then this book is a must. With wonderfully visual anecdotes, quotes and stories from performers, festi-goers, producers and techies, as well as the histories of festivals themselves, "Eden Built By Eves" will take you on the journey without having to pack up the car! Whether you're a "festie-virgin" and have never been, or a seasoned veteran of the phenomena that is this culture, this book will make you wish you had planned to take the Summer off just so that you could attend each festival described. Amid the history and politics, controversies and laughter, sometimes painful truths and hilarious stories, you'll meet the women of the festival world who have helped to create this amazing culture. Buy this book and be prepared to stay up late reading it. You'll be very glad you did!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An articulate, "you-are-there" account of women's festivals.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Eden Built by Eves (Paperback)
As a prolific journal-writer and a "festiegoer" for eleven years, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. It more than lived up to my expectations. Page by page, the experiences came back--I reminisced with hilarity and with tears as memories of experiences at Michigan and Bloomington came flowing back. The names are all here--the humor, the in-jokes, the photographs, the cartoons, the controversies...and most of all, a strong sense of one's tribe finally being acknowledged and honored. I related to the author when she described her many hours of sitting unobtrusively through concerts, chronicling her impressions in her journal - insights and observations that would later make up this treasure of a book. It brought back fond memories of sitting on my tarp during Acoustic Stage at Michigan, blank book on my lap. What an affirmation! What a treasure! Four stars for Bonnie Morris. I not only ordered this book for myself, but for the public library where I work, and I hope it will be widely read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WONDERFUL, LONG-OVERDUE SURVEY OF "WOMEN'S MUSIC" FESTIVALS,
By
This review is from: Eden Built by Eves (Paperback)
I've never been to a Women's Music Festival (nor would I want to "invade" such space, intended for women only), but I have enjoyed over the years much of the music (first through albums, then cassettes, then CDs) played at such festivals by artists such as Margie Adam, Meg Christian, Cris Williamson, Holly Near, and many others. In this book, Bonnie Morris has given the world not only a beautiful, insightful treatment of such festivals, but of "Women's Music" in general. It's amazing that no one had done this previously, and we are all indebted to Ms. Morris for her pioneering work.
She includes chapters/sections on "The Early Years" (e.g., its origins as a "woman-identified folk movement"), "worker hierarchy and camper etiquette," "why matriarchal communities are feared and stereotyped by women as well as by men," etc. She notes that "concerts offered a refreshing means for meeting new friends and allies, where one might hear political exhoration and/or a spiritually uplifting message, relax, and be entertained---in short, woman-loving affirmation rather than degradation." Her oral history narratives with performers such as Maxine Feldman, Alix Dobkin, Linda Tillery, Margie Adam are fascinating, giving information that (if published anywhere previously) was probably only available in small-press (and probably now out of print) periodicals; this section alone would be well worth the price of the book. She also interviews producers, sound engineers, volunteers, and many others. She also deals frankly with "Controversies and Compromise" (e.g, "should male-to-female transgendered individuals be allow to attend?"), but also includes a chapter on "Comedy and Self-Parody" (e.g., performers like Kate Clinton). The book includes a Lexicon of festival slang, as well as a helpful Bibliography. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
