Customer Reviews

Eden Built by Eves

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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!

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.

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!