About A Simple Revolution

A Simple Revolution is a new project centered around Judy Grahn’s upcoming memoir, A Simple Revolution. The two aspects of the project are this website and community events. The website serves as a community forum for people involved in and just learning about the activism of the ‘60s and ‘70s to discuss their impressions and create a dialogue with Judy Grahn, who, with other guest bloggers, will be posting her thoughts in the blog here. The community events continue the dialogue generated by the posts and comments online and bring participants together. Our next event will be on April 26, 2012 at La Peña Cultural Center, and will feature readings and a roundtable with Judy and other Bay Area writers of all ages.

This project is supported by a grant from the Horizons foundation and Aunt Lute Books, a nonprofit, grassroots, multicultural women’s press, which has fostered the careers of lesbian and feminist authors such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Judy Grahn, and Audre Lorde since 1982.

Goals

Through this forum, we hope to generate community dialogue about the history and legacy of lesbian activism in the Bay Area, both to make a record of that time and to promote awareness. The site is also a resource for readers to engage with Judy Grahn as she writes her memoir about the Bay Area lesbian movement of the turbulent ’60s and ’70s. The book will weave her own stories with those of other feminist lesbian activists and comrades, such as Pat Parker and Audre Lorde. In the meantime, her posts will offer glimpses into her revolution. We encourage you to read and respond to these posts on the forum.

About Judy

An internationally recognized poet, writer, and social theorist, Judy Grahn has won numerous awards for her work, including an NEA Grant, American Book Award, and The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement (in Lesbian Letters).

In the months leading up to the memoir’s publication, Judy’s Posts offer glimpses of the personal and social changes during those revolutionary times. We encourage anyone—whether or not you were participating in the Bay Area lesbian movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s—to share your response to her writing by commenting on the posts.

Share Your Perspective

With your participation, A Simple Revolution will be a vibrant community space to record and recover the many-faceted history of Bay Area lesbian activism for those who lived it, as well as those who are just now discovering the relevance and power of the movement. We invite anyone interested in the ongoing tradition of Bay Area lesbian activism to consider contributing to the community forum. We also look forward to reading new submissions, and are looking for writing on how the struggle today relates to the movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s. We would especially like to hear from activists under 30 about their experiences. (Visit submissions for details.)

Thanks for learning more about this project—we invite you to take a look at the rest of the site!