Aradia, Susan Wiseheart Collection

Item Data

  • Collection Title: Aradia Susan Wiseheart Collection
  • Item Title: Alix Dobkin with Susan Burns, 1982
  • ID Number: ASW-001
  • Date Range: 5-1-1982
  • Description: One of four reels recording Alix Dobkin's performance at "celebrating ARADIA" Davenport College, Grand Rapids. Michigan. Susan Burns, sign language interpreter. Slide show.
  • Biographical/Historical Note: Musician and activist Alix Dobkin was born in 1940. She first performed at NYC's Gaslight Cafe in 1962. In 1965 she married Sam Hood, then manager of the Gaslight. They had a daughter Adrian in 1970. A year later, the marriage dissolved and in 1972 she and Liza Cowan became partners and came out as lesbians. Dobkin's first album "Lavender Jane Loves Women" was released in 1973. In all she released seven albums between 1973 and 1992. She also appeared frequently at womyn's music festivals and, toured abroad. She's a co-director and steering committee member of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. [Source material: Alix Dobkin, My Red Blood; Harvard Finding Aid, Alix Dobkin Papers.] Susan Burns had been working as a sign interpreter for about two years at the time of this concert.
  • Genres: Concert, Documentary
  • Places: Grand Rapids, MI; Davenport College, Grand Rapids, MI
  • Access & Use: Contact Lesbian Home Movie Project (LHMP) info@lesbianhomemovieproject.org. No re-use without permission. LHMP must contact donor Susan Wiseheart with regard to any re-use.
  • Color or B&W: B&W
  • Related Versions: Reels 1, 9, 11 & 12 all record the same concert.
  • Running Time: 32:39,19
  • Rights: Lesbian Home Movie Project (LHMP) shares rights with Susan Wiseheart during her lifetime. Participants also have the right to approve uses of material they appear in during their lifetimes.
  • Sound: Sound
  • Subjects: Women's music, Lesbians, Lesbian separatism-United States
  • Creators: Aradia
  • Collaborators & Participants: Alix Dobkin Susan Burns, sign language interpreter If you or friends were present for this event, we hope you'll email us at info@lesbianhomemovieproject.org & let us know. We'll share your input if that's okay, or just preserve it.
  • Source Format: 1/2" open reel tape
  • Format: 1/2" open reel
  • Viewing Log: Alix Dobkin & sign interpreter Susan Burns. Alix leads the audience in "If It Wasn't for the Women." Coercive signing, you don't have to sing it but you do have to sign it. She and Susan teach the signing and then everyone sings and signs together. 07:30 Next is going to be a mixed media event. But first a lesbian cheer. Slide Show follows with concert continuing behind it. "Oh there's something about the lesbians....." 12:09 slide show ends. Clapping. Alix moves mike back closer to center stage. Alix: Tess who put this show together and 3 slides did not drop and she wants you to see them. How about a couple of yells to warm up? They co call & response shouts. Oh there's something about a lesbian . . . . Whole slide show again 20:24 Introduces song "Getting Ready" about anger right below the surface. 28:53 Song ends. 29:40 "I Hate Men" by Cole Porter. Verse "100 Easy Ways to Lose a Man" from Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Comden & Green Tape slips a little at the end.