PROSUZY CELEBRATES 11 YEARS www.prosuzy.com
When is a better day than this to be celebrating ProSuzy’s 11th Anniversary or at least be talking about it. Yes we have been around 11 years. And you ask, “What were you thinking?” I’ll tell you! Where ProSuzy is now, is nothing I had imagined eleven years ago. Starting off wanting to meet single women and go out and play softball, bike, kayak, scuba dive and camp, all the fun outdoor activities I could muster up – to where we are now. God has blessed me so much in these last 11 years and the BEST part is meeting all of you.
From starting out just wanting to meet other women outside the bar scene … to gathering an email list, forming the ProSuzy website, to creating, hosting and advertising fabulous events for all the lesbians in the Tampa Bay community where they can meet and mingle with other women and have fun together in safe and supportive environments, ProSuzy.com has grown up. We have grown through the years to meet the needs of the lesbian community, an ever evolving process. ProSuzy not only hosts events and fun things to do, but encourages all women in our community to step up and make plans for the events YOU want to see in our community. Let ProSuzy know if you want to have a card game, bike ride, walk in the park, the sky is the limit and we will let everyone know the where’s, when’s and let’s see how much fun can be had by all!
It was a challenge mentally for me to come out as a born again Christian lesbian at age 49 after 28 years of marriage and raising 2 children. However, I guess you would say it was sort of easy after moving to Largo in 1997 and getting on a softball team. Let’s just say I had quite an eye opening experience the first time one of the team members introduced me to her “wife”. It’s pretty funny now to imagine me being shocked and confused, but you can say I’ve managed to overcome my difficulty with that issue quite well since then.
Now starting my 12th year with ProSuzy, so many great things have happened to enrich my life. I’ve met so many awesome women in this community and around the country. I’m able to go to many of the events, (those I can fit into my busy, crazy schedule), I’ve brought happiness to so many women who meet others through the ProSuzy events and ProSuzy Personals and I have been able to help many businesses grow through the Business Directory. The very best thing that happened to me was meeting my partner, Cathy, almost 6 years ago. She is as much part of the success of ProSuzy as I am. Her enthusiasm & energy, her smile & outgoingness make others feel welcomed and loved. We make a perfect fit.
Thank you all, for your part, in making my life better, for your kindness, friendships and love. Let’s keep having fun together!
Shewolf’s
Directory of Wimmin’s Lands and Lesbian Communities 5th Edition (ask to see a copy at Something Special alv.) This one-of-a-kind directory contains the philosophies and contacts for over 100 wimmin’s settlements and gathering places in the USA (mostly), plus Canada, Mexico, Scotland, France, Australia, Sweden, West Wales, and New Zealand.
It was produced completely by wimmin for wimmin.
Wouldn’t all your lesbian friends love to have one?
Buy one today for yourself ? …..or as a gift?
For delivery anywhere in the USA – $15
Canada: $20 USA currency
Elsewhere: $25.oo USA currency (International Postal Money Orders)
Cost includes shipping & handling.
Send mailing address and a check or money order to:
JRB PO Box 1515 Melrose, FL 32666
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LESBIAN CONNECTION; get your copy @ Something Special alv.
In case you haven’t heard of LC before, or if you just lost touch with us, here’s some info:
Lesbian Connection is the free worldwide forum of news, ideas, and information for, by, and about lesbians. We’ve been publishing since 1974, and we mail issues out every other month in plain brown envelopes (the word “lesbian” doesn’t appear anywhere on the outside).
This magazine is a grassroots forum, which means it’s truly written by our readers. On its pages you’ll find info for lesbians on places to live and where to travel, lesbian B&Bs and guesthouses, websites, cruises, festivals, conferences, lesbian land and retirement communities, products (books, CDs, DVDs, etc.), campgrounds and retreats, lesbian lawyers and realtors, as well as the comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For,” and much more. There are also reviews, articles, and letters dealing with whatever issues LC’s readers are talking about, from “The L Word” to health issues, relationships, and politics.
So, if you’re a lesbian and you’d like to start receiving LC, all you need to do is email us (elsiepub@aol.com) your full name and complete (snail mail) mailing address and we’ll be happy to add you to our list. However, contributions are voluntary and subscriptions really are free to all lesbians. Our goal is, quite simply, to connect the lesbian community worldwide. (F.Y.I. our official name and address is Elsie Publishing Institute (EPI), PO Box 811 , East Lansing , MI 48826 , ph 517-371-5257, fax 517-371-5200. EPI is a tax-deductible 501(c)3 nonprofit charity.) For Lesbian Connection,
Margy
fmi: www.ladyslipper.org
The Ladyslipper Name
Our name comes from an exquisite flower which is one of the few wild orchids native to North America and is currently an endangered speciesOur Beginnings
Ladyslipper began in 1976 as a 4-page resource guide devoted to the musical accomplishments of women artists. The initial hope was to create a comprehensive guide to all the recordings women had ever made, and (underestimating the reality) we expected there might be hundreds of them To our surprise, when we went to our local university music libraries (with otherwise large collections) to research this project, we found virtually no recordings by women at all!! Clearly there was a need for information about Women in Music, as well as for the accessibility of these recordings.
Ladyslipper is a North Carolina non-profit, tax-exempt organization which has been involved in many facets of women's music since 1976. Our basic purpose has consistently been to heighten public awareness of the achievements of women artists and musicians, and to expand the scope and availability of musical and literary recordings by women.
One of the unique aspects of our work has been the publication of the world's most comprehensive Catalog and Resource Guide of Music by Women. For many years this was a print catalog only. In 1996, we introduced the first Ladyslipper Online Catalog, which contained the same number of titles as our print version. For the new millenium, we have developed a greatly expanded online edition.
CAROLYN GAGE
Once you see Carolyn Gage in action you will understand why she has become a cult figure among many lesbians intent on learning more about Lesbian Culture, Lesbian Herstory, and the Lesbian Underground. Playwright, Performer, Activist
Carolyn Gage is the author of twelve books and more than fifty-plays, including musicals, one-acts, one-woman shows and dramas. The winner of numerous awards, her work is widely published and performed. She tours in her own shows, offering lectures and workshops on lesbian culture and history.
LESBIAN TENT REVIVAL with CAROLYN GAGE:
Sisters ! 
Are you feeling tired, lonely, bored, anxious, depressed… and think that it's your fault?
Do you feel there is something missing in your sex life… something you can’t quite put your finger on?
Does your life feel like a metaphysical hairball
you can’t manage to cough up?
Good news!!!
Sister Carolyn and Sister Tara of the Sisterhood of the Sacred Synapse are on the road with THE LESBIAN TENT REVIVAL bringing back the evangelical exhilaration of that old-fashioned, feel-good, radical feminism…
FMI; www.carolyngage.com www.lesbiantentrevival.weebly.com
connie & mary @ Michfest
does cotton really grow on trees?
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a past juicy enough that she's
looking forward to retelling it
in her old age.... Maya Angelou
Common Lives/Lesbian Lives was a collectively produced lesbian quarterly which published out of Iowa, City, Iowa from 1981-1996.
CL/LL was initiated by eight lesbians who were living in the Los Angeles area in the fall of 1980;
Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Desmoines, co-founders of periodical Siinister Wisdom encouraged the women by stating that more lesbian journals were needed because Sinister Wisdom received more submissions than it could print. Cindy Cleary, Anne Lee, and Tracy Moore (Moore had been involved in the collective that published Iowa City’s feminist newsletter Ain’t I a Woman? from 1971-1974) formed the core group of the journal, and all worked on the magazine after their move to Iowa City later that year.
The existence of the Iowa City Women's Press and a typesetting firm owned and operated by women made Iowa City an inviting home for the new journal.The first issue of Common Lives/Lesbian Lives was published in 1981, and the journal eventually reached a peak circulation of about 2500 national and international subscribers When the journal's main distributor, Inland, declared bankruptcy in 1995, CL/LL was no longer able to continue publication
The University of Iowa printing department refused to print Issue 20 (1982) because it contained photographs of lesbians making love, and the magazine sued the University and won. The 1995 fall issue was not published, and eventually Issue 56, which was to be the last, was published as the 1995-1996 issue. Despite efforts to raise money, Common Lives/Lesbian Lives officially closed in 1997.The Iowa Women's Archives in the University of Iowa Libraries now hosts Cl/LL archival material. The Lavender Library, Archives and Cultural Exchange in Sacramento, California holds a substantial collection of the magazines.
HARD TIMES REQUIRE.. furious Dancing...Alice Walker Wemoon '09
The Mazer Archives is the largest major archive on the West Coast dedicated to preserving and promoting lesbian and feminist history and culture. By creating a safe place for women to explore the richness of lesbian history, perhaps adding to it themselves, we are paving the way for future generations to understand more fully their own identity and history and help maintain this vital link to their own past.
Help us build a better future for generations to come: step inside the Mazer Archives.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 659-2478
The NEW YORK LESBIAN HERSTORY ARCHIVES
Two consciousness- raising groups were formed and one of them, which included Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel, became the founding site of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. In 1975, the Archives found its home for the next 15 years in Joan Nestle's Upper West Side Manhattan apartment on 92nd St. Deborah Edel and Joan shared these years with the Archives in this home. And so did thousands of volunteers and visitors. By the late 1970s, to save wear and tear on the more fragile artifacts, they created the Archives' slide show. A version of the slideshow still exists today, custom fitted to whomever is showing it.
We purchased our new home, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 1990 and officially opened it in June 1993. On this web site you will see the ever-growing face of the archives, the work of tireless coordinators and volunteers who make all possible, and of the continuing donations, both financial and material, of our communities. FMI: www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org
DO YOU KNOW THIS WOMON?
Alix Dobkin Considered by many wimmin to be the Mother of Modern-Day Lesbian Music, Alix has a devoted audience, has been called a "womyn's music legend" by Spin Magazine, "pithy" by The Village Voice, "Biting . . . inventive . . . imaginative" by New Age Journal, "uncompromising" in the New York Times Magazine, and "a troublemaker" by the FBI.
Alix is a member of the OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) Steering Committee, and her memoirs will be published in the summer of 2010 by Alyson Books. She loves living in New York's Hudson Valley.
Her memoir, "MY RED BLOOD” will be published by Alyson Books in October, 2009. Alix appeared here at Something Special in MARCH 2010.
SUGARLOAF WIMMIN'S VILLAGE
THE SUGARLOAF WIMMIN'S VILLAGE AT SUGARLOAF KEY: Established in the early 70's by Barbara Deming (radical activist, journalist, writer, poet) and her partner, Jane Verlaine Gapen (artist, poet, radical activist, defender of wimmin).Be sure to visit them the next time you're in the Keys. www.sugarloafwomensvillage.com
Sugarloaf Wimmin's Village is a Land Trust - no one owns the land or the houses. Visitors welcome to camp on the land or stay in one of the houses. photos by Bonnie N.
susan-set with red hens @ Something Special alv.
