American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982

  • Laurie Anderson on her music / interviewed by Charles Amirkhanian

    Noted experimental musician Laurie Anderson discusses her music, the development of ideas, and the use of odd and modified instruments. Anderson also discusses the influence on her by Vito Acconci and William Burroughs. Includes performances of Anderson’s “New York Social Life,” “Language of the Future,” and “Time to Go.” Recorded in her New York studio…

  • Toward a worldwide women’s movement / produced by Peggy Irene Bray, Bonnie MacGregor, and Mara Keller.

    A documentary from a conference of African, Asian, Latin American, Soviet, and American women who discuss the similarities of their social positions: Native American woman’s decline following Euramerican contact, the low status of women in the U.S. and USSR, the mass women’s movement in India, and the crucial role of women in the South African…

  • Interview with Judy Mowatt / produced by Sue Supriano.

    In Jamaica 1982, Sue Supriano interviewed Judy Mowatt, singer who was one of the “I-Threes,” Bob Marley’s back-up singers (along with Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths). Mowatt talks about her music and her struggles as a Black woman. Three of her songs (pre-recorded) are featured in the recording: Black woman, My my people, and Think.

  • A Feminist critique of anti-feminism / produced by Peggy Irene Bray and Julia Randall.

    Debate between feminist and anti-feminists. Anti-feminists see feminists challenging woman’s natural role, while feminists see anti-feminists as a right-wing backlash that tries to organize women to support the party of war. The right-wing “pro-family agenda” is dedicated to fighting the Equal Rights Amendment and enforcing rigid sexual ethics. Voices heard in the recording, which come…

  • Sandy Silver speaks out against the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant

    A member of Mothers for Peace, the organization which brought a lawsuit against the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, delivers an unsolicited address from the floor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensing Board hearing in San Luis Obispo in Summer 1981. Contains sensitive language. Tape label: “According to Mothers for Peace, the legal intervenors in…

  • The tracks of my tears: women on heroin / produced by Ginny Z. Berson

    According to some sources, heroin use by women has tripled in the last decade. Why? Is “the life” different for women? What about recovery programs? Is the problem the illegality of heroin or the drug itself? This program was inspired by the book “Women on Heroin,” by Marsha Rosenbaum. Ginny Z. Berson talks with Sheila…

  • An hour in Iceland

    Iceland’s president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, discusses her life as a theater director and professor of French, her exciting election of 1980, and her view of her role as representative of her country. Also a look at Iceland’s thousand years of history, culture, and literature, from the medieval sagas to the novels of Nobel Prize winner Halldor…

  • From sacred blood to the curse and beyond / by Judy Grahn; produced by Karla Tonella

    Judy Grahn on menstruation, mixed with music by Elisabeth Waldo. Writer Judy Grahn reads her article “From Sacred Blood to the Curse and Beyond” published in the anthology “,” edited by Charlene Spretnak (Harper and Row, 1982). Produced by Karla Tonella. Needs intro. Contains sensitive language.

  • The Anglo-Irish novel / Robert Tracy and Joan Keefe (Episode 7 of 7); produced by Padraigin McGillicuddy.

    Number seven in the series Irish Contributions to English Literature. Discussion of Anglo-Irish literature, one of the two distinct trends in Irish literature (the other clumsily called Irish literature in English). The Anglo-Irish novel has a well established history. Stemming from the land-holding class, it deals with the interaction of the gentry with the peasantry.…

  • Women in Grenada / produced by Sue Supriano and Roxanne Merryfield

    Women in Grenada describe their lives since the revolution in that country in 1979. In this program, we hear about the women’s cooperatives, the National Women’s Organization, education, health care, sexism, and the role of women in the country. Includes Michelle Gibbs, an American woman living and working in Grenada; Phyllis Coard, president, National Women’s…