American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982

  • Women Against Pornography conference (Part 6 of 6)

    Excerpts from a conference sponsored by Women Against Pornography, which took place in New York City, September 15 & 16, 1979. This tape features Kathy Barry, Judith Reisman and Susan Griffin. Sixth of six parts; part four in this series is missing.

  • Michelle Parkerson

    This episode of Upstream features filmmaker and poet Michelle Parkerson who talks about the economics of being an independent artist. Parkerson talks about her most recent film, “…But Then She’s Betty Carter” (1980), and how she supports herself as a filmmaker. Parkerson also reads some of her poetry in the second half of the program.…

  • Mary Jefferson

    This episode of Upstream is on Mary Jefferson (1927 – 2002), a jazz and blues singer popular in Washington, D.C. Jefferson talks about young people’s relationship to the blues and how the blues really originated with Black women. Contains listener phone calls. Hosted and produced by Nikki Jeter. Program cuts out early.

  • Dee Wells reminisces on her friendship with Bunny Lang

    Alberta Constance “Dee” Wells (1925-2003), author and journalist speaks about her friendship with Violet Ranny “V.R.” “Bunny” Lang (1924 – 1956), poet, playwright and founder of the Poets’ Theater in Boston. Her friend says it’s been 19 years since Bunny died, so the recording is estimated to be from 1975. Speaker says she met Bunny…

  • Clips of women’s voices and issues

    Tape labeled “Women’s” and contains a list of clips related to the women’s movement, reproductive rights, etc., beginning with 12-20-79 Activist Kim Klein (Coalition for Medical Rights of women) on IUD’s and ending with 1-22-83 10th Anniversary Roe vs. Wade, Roxanne Merryfield. Clips are from various Pacifica stations and are a mixture of actuality, news…

  • Interview with Gerda Lerner on her book A Death of One’s Own

    Tricia Del Longo interviews Dr. Gerda Lerner (1920 – 2013), an historian and pioneer in the field of women’s history. She recently published the book “A Death of One’s Own,” about her experiences with death, particularly that of her husband Carl Lerner. She discusses the right to die, the institutional neglect of the dying, her…

  • We regret to inform you: a radio drama by Grace Cavalieri

    This radio drama was written by Grace Cavalieri, directed by Dorothy Biondi [sp?], and consists of four characters: Doctor (Jeremy Gage); Nurse Jane (Ellen Mead); Nurse Brown (Kate van Burick); Allen (Cotter Smith). The story: a mad scientist has created the perfect machine. He hires a night watchman to stay with it until its heart…

  • The Velvet Sledgehammer: November 6, 1982 (Production reel)

    Production reel containing excerpts for the June 8, 1982 episode of The Velvet Sledgehammer. Part one contains clips of Helen Caldicott speaking about the threat of nuclear weapons; part two contains an unnamed speaker (Parsons?) at an Upper West Side Manhattan, NY town meeting on nuclear freeze and nuclear reduction, reading a telegram from Senator…

  • West coast women’s music festival (raw recordings) (Reel 11 of 12)

    This is the eleventh reel in the series of live raw recordings taken at the West Coast Women’s festival in 1980. Izquierda Ensemble continues with their rap about experiences grown up female, then a song (title unknown), “Power to our Intuition”, “Looking to be Free”, Robin Tyler announces “Izquierda Ensemble”, Andrea Floyd.

  • West coast women’s music festival (raw recordings) (Reel 12 of 12)

    This is the twelfth and final reel in the series of live raw recordings taken at the West Coast Women’s festival in 1980. Alive! performs the following [Robin and Tory introduce] “Sail Away”, jam, “Step By Step”, “Mother Earth”, “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven”, “Got To Be Willing”, “Wild Women”, “Yamaya”, six minutes of…