Merry Gangemi is a writer, activist, editor, and the producer and host of Woman-Stirred Radio. She earned her BA from New York University, and an MA in comparative Literature from San Francisco State University. She is currently working towards her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts, in both poetry and fiction.

Her short fiction and poetry can be found in Chroma, MatriFocus, Wisconsin Review, River Oak Review, Paterson Literary Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Sinister Wisdom, Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, Off Our Backs, and Street Spirit.

December 14, 2009

Nona Caspers Returns to Woman-Stirred Radio

This week on Merry Gangemi welcomes Nona Caspers back to Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about Little Book of Days, and read from her most recent publication.

The book is disarmingly relevant and very, very interesting as Caspers presents layered meditations on the ordinary--and not so ordinary--everyday occurrences that spark and sometimes roost within us: sounds from the street, the sun bleeding through the window, memories, scents, love, passion, and past and present difficulties.

Nona Caspers is the author of the recent Little Book of Days and Heavier than Air, which received the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction and was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.

Nona is a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, an Iowa Review Fiction Award, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award, a Barbara Deming Award, and a LAMBDA nomination among other honors. Her stories have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies such as Ontario Review, Cimarron Review, Iowa Review, WOMEN ON WOMEN and the HERS series. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

So please tune in or stream it live. This Thursday, December 17th at 5 p.m. (eastern) and 2 p.m. (pacific). If you want to join in the conversation, go to WGDR, and click Listen Live.

December 02, 2009

Martin Duberman: Waiting to Land

This Thursday, at 5:00 p.m., Woman-Stirred Radio and Merry Gangemi welcome Martin Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

They will discuss Duberman's latest (and third) memoir: Waiting to Land: A (Mostly) Political Memoir 1985-2008. (The New Press, 2009).

Duberman is prolific writer, with more than twenty books to his name, including: James Russell Lowell (a National Book Award finalist), Paul Robeson, Stonewall, Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey, and his edited collection of essays, The Antislavery Vanguard. His play In White America won the Vernon Rice/Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway Production in 1963. In 2007 he published The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, abiography of the man who was the force behind George Balanchine's New York City Ballet

Waiting to Land: A (Mostly) Political Memoir 1985-2008, interweaves diary entries with letters and reflections written in 2008. It is an important document in its reflections and analysis of the more recent years of the gay Rights movement in America. Howard Zinn notes that Duberman "is known for his unique combination of talents... a distinguished historian, a talented writer, and an impassioned advocate of gays and other beleaguered members of the human community."

So please tune in or stream it live, tomorrow, Thursday, December 3rd at 5 p.m. to Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR, Central Vermont's community radio station.

Want to join the discussion? Call 802.454.7762.

November 10, 2009

James Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene

This week, Merry Gangemi welcomes James Schwartz, to Woman-Stirred Radio, Thursday, November 12th, at 5:00 pm (eastern), to talk about his new book, In Pursuit of the Gene: from Darwin to DNA.

"... Schwartz presents the history of genetics through the eyes of a dozen or so central players, beginning with Charles Darwin and ending with Nobel laureate Hermann J. Muller. In tracing the emerging idea of the gene, Schwartz deconstructs many often-told stories that were meant to reflect glory on the participants and finds that the �official� version of discovery often hides a far more complex and illuminating narrative. The discovery of the structure of DNA and the more recent advances in genome science represent the culmination of one hundred years of concentrated inquiry into the nature of the gene. Schwartz�s multifaceted training as a mathematician, geneticist, and writer enables him to provide a remarkably lucid account of the development of the central ideas about heredity, and at the same time bring to life the brilliant and often eccentric individuals who shaped these ideas.

In the spirit of the late Stephen Jay Gould, this book offers a thoroughly engaging story about one of the oldest and most controversial fields of scientific inquiry. It offers readers the background they need to understand the latest findings in genetics and those still to come in the search for the genetic basis of complex diseases and traits" (Harvard UP).

So please tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, November 12th, at 5 pm, for a fascinating discussion of the history of genetics and the burgeoning science of DNA. Listen live at WGDR. Questions for James Schwartz? call the air studio at 802.454.7762.

November 02, 2009

Lesley Wheeler on Woman-Stirred Radio

This Thursday, November 5, 2009,at 5:00pm (eastern) Lesley Wheeler visits with Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio to discuss her new book, Heathen. an

Heathen has been described as an "exquisite debut collection," striking "an impossible balance between the wildly witty and tenderly elegant detail."

Wheeler is the author of Scholarship Girl, Voicing American Poetry, and other books. her work has appeared in Poetry, AGNI, and other magazines, and she has held fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She teaches at Washington and Lee University in Lexington Virginia.

So please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Lesley Wheeler to Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, November 5, at 5 PM (eastern).

Want to join in the conversation? the air-studio phone is 802.454.7762.

October 21, 2009

Linda Gordon on Dorothea Lange, and Linda Nathan on Education

This Thursday, October 22, at 4:15 pm (eastern), historian Linda Gordon visits Woman-Stirred Radio to discuss her new book, Dorothes Lange: a Life beyond Limits.

Dorothea Lange is probably the best known photographer of the new Deal's Farm security administration during the economic disaster that changed America forever: the Great Depression.

Dorothea Lange was particularly sensitive to the lives of people of color and women, whose sufferings were amplified by racism and misogyny.

"Central to Lange's genius was focusing on the poor the same eye that had made her a prized portrait photographer to the rich; as a result, her images show the Depression's victims as responsible, dignified, and thoughtful, even if their circumstances are desperate." *

So tune in (91.1fm) or stream us live at WGDR, for what promises to be a fascinating exploration of the life and work of Dorothea Lange tomorrow, October 22, at 4:15.

Then at 5:00, Merry Gangemi welcomes Dr. Linda Nathan, headmaster and founder of the Boston Arts Academy, an urban high school that "builds on the passions of its students and defined by a supportive community..."# The Boston Arts Academy, founded in the 1990s offers an "academic curriculum motivating students with a variety of learning styles to succeed in high school and pursue higher education."##

Acknowledging the extraordinary challenges of the on-going crisis in education funding for the arts, Nathan gives us her insights and strategies that have made the Boston Arts Academy an urban success story: Fully 95% of its graduates have been accepted in colleges and universities.

Listeners are welcome to call the air studio and join in the conversation 802.454.7762.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live every Thursday from 4 to 6 pm (eastern). In its seventh year, Woman-Stirred continues to present interviews with queer and straight writers, artists, musicians, and policy-makers.

September 09, 2009

Jane Satterfield on Woman-Stirred Radio

This Thursday, September 10th, at 4:15, Jane Satterfield joins host Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio to discuss her new book, Daughters of Empire.

Click here to link to Woman-Stirred.

August 28, 2009

Mixing Tracks with Jan Steckel on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Jan Steckel back to Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, September 3rd at 4:15 (Eastern), to talk about her new book, Mixing Tracks, published by Gertrude Press and winner of the 2008 Fiction Chapbook Competition.

Jan Steckel is a bisexual activist and a Harvard- and Yale-trained former pediatrician. Over a hundred of her short stories, poems and nonfiction pieces have appeared in print and online publications such as Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Red Rock Review, So to Speak and Redwood Coast Review. Her work has won writing awards and has been widely reprinted and anthologized. Her writing has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize: once for nonfiction and once for poetry.

She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and cared for Spanish-speaking families in California at a county hospital and at a large HMO. In 2001 she left the practice of medicine to write full-time. Her poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital is available from Zeitgeist Press. She is currently working on a book-length collection of interrelated short stories and on a collection of short humorous first-person essays. Most of the stories and essays have already appeared in print. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband Hew Wolff.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from lesbian and queer activists.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

August 18, 2009

Sarah Schulman on Woman-Stirred Radio

In Sarah Schulman's Mere Future "Road crews were taking down billboards, and any kind of brand name or mass-reproduced symbol was being quietly painted over. No more Nike swooshes, no more yellow arches. It was visually a whole lot quieter out there, but also more complex. I could no longer just glance at a sign and know what it wanted me to do. I had to really look at it. Each one had its own code. Walking down the street took more time, if you were a curious person" (40).

And curious one should be about Schulman's delightfully horrifying gaze into the crystal ball. Not since Rudy Giuliani swept out Times Square and installed a permanent Disney installation, has New York City been as sinister and weird. In a steady and increasingly prescient voice, Schulman's narrator walks us through the early optimism of a new regime and the subsequent view of quiet hysteria in life and love, truth and illusion, deception and cruel self-interest.

So please join Merry Gangemi this Thursday, August 20th at 4:15 in welcoming Sarah Schulman to Woman-Stirred Radio and discussing her new novel, The Mere Future.

Sarah Schulman is the author of nine novels, four nonfiction books, and numerous plays. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, and is a professor of English at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island. Schulman is also a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.

Questions and comments are always welcome, so call the air studio at 802.454.7762 to join in.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from lesbian and queer activists.

August 13, 2009

Elana Dykewoman on Woman-Stirred

Elana Dykewomon returns to Woman-Stirred Radio this week, on August 13th at 4:15 (est) to celebrate her new book, Risk, a novel that is not only a wonderful and engaging story but a story that encapsulates and honors the extraordinary lesbian community of dykes and femmes in Oakland, California.

As Gertrude Stein so famously said: "There is no there there." Wrong!

There really is something there in Oakland, and it is amazing. Risk allows the reader to discover and rediscover "a rich vibrant culture of dykes and femmes: "We are the serious dykes," her protagonist says, "the ones who have the heart to change how the heart works."

Dykewomon's novel is rich in characters that bend the rules of the straight world and struggle to live without "rules" within their own community, a process one of the main characters, Carol, finds painfully fascinating and difficult to navigate. But the resolutions are plausible, and the twists and turns delightful.

Risk does not avoid difficult conversations about gender, class, and race. Instead the women Elana Dykewomon brings to life are savvy, brilliant, bone honest, and lots of fun. Yup, I laughed out loud many times as I read. And when I read it again, there was the humor again, the laughs it elicits and the wonderful alliances with irony, strength of spirit, and a profound world view of equality, justice, and of course peace world peace.

The womyn in Risk are risk takers. They thrive in the complex culture of the Bay Area with chutzpah, hilarity, compassion, and a keen sense of for all women. Older dykes and femmes will so enjoy the references and contexts, and for our younger sisters in dykedom, it will open both heart and mind to the history of lesbian culture, which paved the way for the openness and acceptance so many lesbians enjoy today.

So, please join Merry Gangemi and all of us at Woman-Stirred Radio, in welcoming Elana Dykewomon. Tune in or stream the program live at WGDR, Thursday August 13th, at 4:15 p.m (eastern) for a delightful discussion of Risk and why we should all read it!

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. (Eastern) and streams live at http://wgdr.org. Phone calls are always welcome. 802 454-7762

July 14, 2009

April Bernard on Woman-Stirred Radio

This week on Woman-Stirred Radio, Merry Gangemi interviews poet April Bernard. The topic? Her latest volume of poetry entitled Romanticism (WW Norton 2009).

A recent post at Poetry Foundation notes that Romanticism "explores and challenges the central ideas of high Romanticism: the tragedy and gallantry of the individual's life journey, the appeal of revolution and violence, the beckoning forces of Nature, and the estrangement from but constant longing for God."

Move over a bit Goethe,and make some room. April Bernard has created a work of art that hums with intelligence. Romanticism is not about romance. It is about "the cloth edge of certainty" and the daemons of traditional culture mores that control it.

This is risky stuff. But life is risky. Love is riskier. Romanticism is the violence of passionate love and the violence we do to ourselves when we are coupled, in the process of uncoupling, or simple observing our search. "When did I learn/ to make fun of pain" she asks. "I offered him our bloods' river to drown in/ but he found the metaphor distasteful" (65). Indeed, when did we agree to learn how to be objects of love rather than beings of love?

Tune in (91.1fn) or stream us live (WGDR) Thursday, July 16th at 4:15 (eastern) for an interview with April Bernard. And join the conversation! 802.454-7762.

June 18, 2009

Julie R Enszer and the Lesbian Poetry Archive

Today on Woman-Stirred Radio, Julie R. Enszer brings us the Lesbian Poetry Archives, a digital online project that collects and preserves the work of lesbian poets.

Julie R. Enszer is a writer and lesbian activist who holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Women's Studies at Maryland. Her work has been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Room of One's Own, Long Shot, the Jewish Women's Literary Annual, and the Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly.

Enszer's Lesbian Poetry Archive "is conceived as a place to digitally preserve lesbian poetry and its ephemera and present them to not only scholars, but also poets and general readers. With this launch in December 2008, there are three items, the introductory material to Amazon Poetry, published in 1975; the introductory material to Lesbian Poetry, published in 1981; and the complete chapbook A Movement of Poets by Jan Clausen, published in 1982" (Enszer 2008).

We are funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its

June 04, 2009

Founders and Breadlines: Ray Raphael and Sasha Abramsky on Woman-Stirred

This week: Thursday June 4th: Ray Raphael at 4:15 and Sasha Abramsky at 5:00.

Founders: The People who brought You a Nation, is Raphael's closely focused exploration of the ordinary people who participated in the great experiment of American Independence. Raphael's sweeping narrative offers readers the fascinating stories of seven ordinary colonial Americans in a bottom-up study of Timothy Bigelow, Henry Laurens, Joseph Plumb Martin, Robert Morris, Mercy Otis Warren, and Thomas Young, with some delightfully scandalous behavior from George Washington to keep it all simmering along. In the words of noted historian Gary B. Nash, Director of The National Center for History in the Schools, historian Ray Raphael "teaches us more about the multiple dimensions of the American Revolution than one could ever have imagined." Ray Raphael has published books on subjects as diverse as male initiation rites, education, regional history (Northwest California), and timber politics. His first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, won the Commonwealth Club award for the best book of the year about California. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Reed College, he holds masters degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Political Philosophy) and Reed College (Teaching Social Science and History). In addition to teaching at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, he has taught all subjects except foreign languages at a one-room public high school in his remote community. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow with Humboldt State University, working full time as a researcher and writer. He lives in the hills of northern California and kayaks whitewater rivers.

Breadline USA dives deep into the lives of working-poor Americans who find themselves trapped by the confluence of the housing market collapse, erratic, rising energy costs, and a health care system that mismanages, damages and ruins the lives it is supposed to enhance. Add to this mix their struggle to access nutritious affordable food. In Breadline USA Abramsky brings us the stories of Americans in all types of communities and how they manage at the end of the month when money runs out and the social safety net isn't there to catch them.

Sasha Abramsky is a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, New York magazine, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Born and raised in England, Abramsky is a graduate of Oxford University, and holds a master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism. In 2000 he was awarded a Soros Society, Crime, and Communities Media Fellowship, and he is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based Demos think tank. In addition to Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It, (PoliPoint 2009), Abramsky is the author of: American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment, (Beacon 2007), Hard Time Blues (2002) and Conned (2006). /a>

May 27, 2009

The Poet and the Progressive: John Amen and Matt Rothschild

This Thursday, May 28, beginning at 4:15 pm (eastern), Merry Gangemi welcomes John Amen, editor of The Pedestal Magazine, and at 5:00, welcomes Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive Magazine, to Woman-Stirred Radio.

John Amen is the author of two volumes of poetry, More of Me Disappears (2005), and Christening the Dancer(2003).

Amen travels widely to give readings, performances, and workshops. In his spare time he is a folk/rock singer/songwriter, and a visual artist working primarily with acrylics.

Amen is editor of The Pedestal Magazine, an ezine widely respected for its content and layout.

At 5:00, Matthew Rothschild, editor and publisher of The Progressive Magazine, visits with Merry Gangemi to talk about Democracy in Print: 100 Years of The Progressive Magazine (University of Wisconsin Press), a recently released volume of articles and essays spanning 100 years of the Progressive's publication. Through his careful selections and editing, Rothschild brings to life the dialogues and participatory activism of notables Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Welstone, Noam Chomsky, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Huey Long, Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne Rich, Rita Dove, June Jordon and Frank Zappa. Voices that confirm The Progressive as a highly-respected and globally recognized community that continues the belief and actualization of peace and social justice in the United States.

Rothschild has made guest appearances on , C-SPAN, DemocracyNow!, Nightline, NPR, and The O'Reilly Factor. he is also a recognized commentator and has work in The Chicago Tribune, The L.A. Times, and The Miami Herald, among others.

Feel free to join in the conversation. The air-studio phone number is 802.454-7762.

May 21, 2009

Dickinson Electric Archives and Martha Nell smith

Today at 4:15 on Woman-Stirred Radio, Merry Gangemi welcomes Martha Nell Smith, author of Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson and executive director of the most amazing Dickinson resource yet, the Electronic Dickinson Archives.

The Dickinson Electronic Archives (DEA), is a website devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work. The DEA is produced by the Dickinson Editing Collective, with an executive editor, a general editor, two associate editors, a project manager, and a technical editor working collaboratively with one another and with numerous coeditors, staff, and users.

The DEA provides access to Dickinson's correspondence and facsimiles of actual letters and drafts of poems; constellations of poems; recordings of well-known poets reading Dickinson's work and adding commentary on the influence of Dickinson on their work and lives as women who are poets; critical resources, and teaching aids.

So please tune in or listen online to Woman-Stirred Radio, Thursday, May 21st at 4:15 (eastern).

Call in with questions or comments! The air studio phone is 802.454.7762.

May 06, 2009

Mary Roach Returns to Woman-Stirred Radio

This Thursday, May 7th at 4:15 (eastern), science writer Mary Roach returns to Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, just released in paperback from WW Norton.

A native of Etna, New Hampshire, Roach graduated from Wesleyan in 1981 and moved out to San Francisco, where she landed a stint in PR at the San Francisco Zoo. In her own words:

"I mostly write books these days, but I still write the occasional magazine piece. These have run in Outside, National Geographic, New Scientist, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine, as well as many others too embarrassing to name. A 1995 article of mine called "How to Win at Germ Warfare" was a National Magazine Award Finalist, and in 1996, my article on earthquake-proof bamboo houses took the Engineering Journalism Award in the general interest magazine category, for which I was, let's be honest, the only entrant. I often write about science, though I don't have a science degree and must fake my way through interviews with experts I can't understand. I also review books for The New York Times."

Mary is refreshing and fun and this week's interview promises to be just as interesting and lively as her first one was on Woman-Stirred. So tune in this Thursday, May 7th. 4:15 (eastern) for a delightful conversation with Mary Roach. air studio phone lines will be open 802 454-7762.

April 27, 2009

Lisa Williams Reads to the Sea

Woman Reading to the Sea

Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Lisa Williams, author of Woman Reading to the Sea to Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, April 30th at 5 pm (eastern) for a discussion of her award-winning collection of poems

A scholar and associate professor of English at Centre College, in Denville, Kentucky, Williams holds an MA in creative writing and poetry from the University of Virginia, an MA degree in literature from the University of Cincinnati, and a BA from Belmont University.

Joyce Carol Oates calls Woman Reading to the Sea "Poems of arresting intelligence, precision, and beauty. In wonderfully crafted language, with the startling subtlety of certain of Emily Dickinson's poems, Lisa Williams takes us into eerily imagined worlds---the interior of a jellyfish, and the interior of a glacier; she beguiles us with the most seductive of poetic possibilities... . This slender volume constitutes a journey of sorts, a pilgrimage 'out' that returns the questing poet, imagined as a companion 'you,' to her own life."

Here is the title poem, Woman Reading to the Sea.

There's a certain freedom in the long blue slant
of its uncaring, in the wind that knocks
the surface onto rocks, and there's a dent

made in that wind by the woman who recites
straight into it, pretending the waves might hear
or that some larger being that is sea

or seeing hangs there listening, when sea air's
so clearly full of its own gusts and grunts,
inanimate uprisings. In the line

of no one's sight, her voice lost in the spray,
she feels a chilling freedom: how the foam
edges the sheets of zigzag patterned water

while gulls' shrill outbursts punctuate the sky
(one cloudy, sentimental phrase
or canvas brushed with amber, green, and rose).

What welcomes, and ignores, and doesn't question?
Sheer emptiness. It's like a husk
for her alone. It's like a shell for absence.

Without an audience, she makes a noise
swallowed by waves and wind, just as
the waves themselves---or no, just like the drops

lost in the waves, which neither care nor keep
distinctions---sweep out a place
inside an amphitheatre she imagines

rising around her, with columns that crash
instantly, like the white foam that collides
and shreds its layered castles. Her words drift,

dissolve, and disappear. A crest
of words has surged and poured into the sea.
It doesn't matter now what the lines say.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and streams online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from bi-activist Jan Steckel, British writer Nicki Hastie, and lesbian literary historian and poet, Julie R. Enszer.

April 14, 2009

The Dirty Side of the Storm

Please join me this Thursday, April 16th, at 4:15 pm (eastern) in welcoming Martha Serpas to Woman-Stirred Radio.

We'll talk about her newest collection of poems, The Dirty Side of the Storm, a compelling testament to the splendor and disquietude of the bayous and coastlines of Louisiana, its Cajun culture, and its history of "pink-taffeta-ball-gown-and-bourbon/sky," and "faces like a darkened mirror,/an alchemized image no longer discernible."

The Dirty Side of the Storm offers lyrical perspective on the social and cultural consequences of a compromised ecosystem which, since the 1930s, has lost more than 2500 square miles of wetlands and essentially set up the disaster of Katrina.

In a review of The Dirty Side of the Storm, Ginny Kaczmarek points out that all but one poem in The Dirty Side of the Storm was written before Hurricane Katrina, giving the book an "eerie prescience."

Through the act of writing the poems in this book, Serpas honors what Grace Paley understood so well and demanded of us as poets: to keep an eye on/ this world and cry out like Cassandra, but be/ listened to this time ("Responsibility").

So tune in and listen! Thursday April 16 at 4:15 to Woman-Stirred Radio!

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that works to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

April 07, 2009

Eavan Boland and Rigoberto Gonzalez on Woman-Stirred Radio

On Thursday, April 9th, Merry Gangemi welcomes Rigoberto González and Eavan Boland to Woman-Stirred Radio.

The son and grandson of migrant workers, Rigoberto González was born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Michoacán, Mexico. His extended family migrated back to California in 1980 and returned to Mexico in 1992. González remained alone in the U.S. to complete his education. His childhood in Michoacán and difficult adolescence as an immigrant in California are chronicled in his coming of age memoir, Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa. González currently teaches at the writing program of Rutgers University in Newark, where he is Associate Professor of English. He also holds a part-time appointment with the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

Rigoberto González has written two poetry books: So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks, a National Poetry Series selection, and Other Fugitives and Other Strangers; two children's books: Soledad Sigh-Sighs and Antonio's Card; and the novel Crossing Vines, winner of ForeWord Magazine's Fiction Book of the Year Award, in addition to the memoir, Butterfly Boy.

Eavan Boland was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1944. Her father was a diplomat and her mother was an expressionist painter.

At the age of six, Boland and her family relocated to London, where she first encountered anti-Irish sentiment. She later returned to Dublin for school, and she received her B.A. from Trinity College in 1966. She was also educated in London and New York.

Her books of poetry include New Collected Poems (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008), Domestic Violence, (2007), Against Love Poems (2001), The Lost Land (1998), An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987 (1996), In a Time of Violence (1994), Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (1990), The Journey and Other Poems (1986), Night Feed (1982), and In Her Own Image (1980), Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time (W. W. Norton, 1995), a volume of prose, After Every War (Princeton, 2004), an anthology of German women poets, and she co-edited The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (with Mark Strand; W. W. Norton & Co., 2000).

[sources include: WW Norton; Rigoberto González; Poets.org;]

March 26, 2009

Alicia Ostriker is Woman-Stirred

Alicia Ostriker

is a major American poet and critic. Twice nominated for a National Book Award, she is author of eleven volumes of poetry, most recently No Heaven (2005). As a critic Ostriker is the author of two pathbreaking volumes on women's poetry, Writing Like a Woman and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America. Her most recent critical book is Dancing at the Devil's Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics and the Erotic. She has also published three books on the Bible, Feminist Revision and the Bible, the controversial The Nakedness of the Fathers; Biblical Visions and Revisions, a combination of prose and poetry that re-imagines the Bible from the perspective of a contemporary Jewish woman, and most recently, For the Love of God: the Bible as an Open Book.

Ostriker's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Antaeus, The Nation, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The Atlantic, MS, Tikkun, and many other journals, and have been widely anthologized. Her poetry and essays have been translated into French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew and Arabic. She has lectured and given performances of her work throughout the USA, as well as in Europe, Australia, Israel, Japan and China.

Ostriker has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Society of America, the San Francisco State Poetry Center, the Judah Magnes Museum, the New Jersey Arts Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She lives in Princeton, NJ with her husband. Ostriker is Professor Emerita of Rutgers University and is a faculty member of the Drew University Low-Residency Poetry MFA Program. Ostriker has taught in the Princeto University Creative Writing Program and in Toni Morrison's Atelier Program. She has taught midrash writing workshops in the USA, Israel, England and Australia.

So tune in on Thursday, March 26th at 4:15 pm (eastern) for a fascinating conversation with Alicia Ostriker.

March 11, 2009

Binstock and Glass on Woman-Stirred Radio

This week on Woman-Stirred Radio, at 4:15 (eastern), Merry Gangemi interviews art historian Ben Binstock, author of the book Vermeer's Family Secrets, an exploration of the life and work of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, best known for his iconic painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Vermeer was relatively unknown until the he was "discovered" in the mid-nineteenth century. Vermeer's Family Secrets details the painter's complex technical achievements by tracing sources and influences.

Vermeer's Family Secrets is the first painting-by-painting, year-by-year study and analysis of the artist's oeuvre, integrating Vermeer's relationship to his wife and her family with his development as an painter with the profound technical influences of his predecessors, Rembrandt and Carel Fabritius.

Binstock reveals through research and scholarship that Vermeer's daughter Maria was both his apprentice and his successor and that at least seven paintings, originally thought to be Vermeer's, were actually painted by Maria.

Benjamin Binstock holds a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University. He has studied in Aix-en-Provence, Berkley, CA, Berlin, and Amsterdam. He was a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the American Academy in Berlin. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, and CUNY. Binstock is presently teaching at Cooper Union in Manhattan.

Then, at 5:00, JD Glass returns to Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about her new novel, X, set in an accelerated cyberpunk world of love, betrayal, and political intrigue.

What is fascinating about X is its implications in the broader context of gender and power within queer culture. It is an intense and chilling schema of where the soul of America has gone in this post-9/11 world.

A Lambda Literary nominee, JD Glass is the author of American Goth, Punk and Zen, Red Light, and Punk Like Me. JD Glass lives in Staten island, and when she's not writing or surfing, she's playing music with her band, Life Underwater, or doing her job as an EMT in New York City.

March 03, 2009

Maxine Kumin on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Maxine Kumin to Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, March 5th, at 4:15 pm (eastern). We are going to discuss her latest book of poems, Still to Mow.

Kumin is the author of sixteen books of poetry,including Poems of New England, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1972. Kumin has written five novels and two short story collections, as well as essays, and a memoir, Inside the Halo and beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery.

Maxine Kumin's new volume of poems, Still to Mow is both the lyrical description of an altered American landscape and a complex chronicle of her exploration of experience and knowledge as an elder American woman in the age of Peak Oil. Kumin seamlessly connects the dots in lyric self-revelation and insight and casts an eye on America's delusion that we are somehow more evolved than any other people.

So tune in or stream it live at WGDR.org.

February 18, 2009

Judith Arcana returns to Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Judith Arcana back to Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, February 19th, at 5:00 (eastern). They'll talk about Poetry and Politics and Grace Paley.

Born and raised in the Great Lakes region, living now in the Pacific Northwest, Judith Arcana is a writer of poems, stories, essays and books, as well as a scholar, teacher, and activist for reproductive justice.

Praised by writers and readers, reviewers and community leaders, Judith's most recent publications are a signed/numbered edition five-poem broadside, POEMS and a chapbook manuscript in an envelope, Family Business. Her most recent full-length book is What if Your Mother, a collection of poems and monologues examining a constellation of motherhood themes rarely offered with such richness, including abortion, adoption, miscarriage and the contemporary biotechnology of childbirth.

She is the author of two classic prose books about motherhood, both published in the US and the UK: Our Mothers' Daughters — one of the earliest feminist analyses of the mother/daughter relationship; and Every Mother's Son —the first feminist book about the mother/son relationship published in the USA.

Judith is also the author of Grace Paley's Life: A Literary Biography. Studying Grace and knowing her for many years gave Judith what she was wanting when she wrote, in that book's Preface: "Where in literature are reflections of my experience, my sensibilities, my world view, my politics? When I read and write about John Keats, or D.H. Lawrence, or Beowulf, I am ranging far off, studying the history and possibilities of a distant 'other.' But when I study she-who-is-most-like-me, I learn what has been, and might be, possible for myself."

Here's what Alicia Ostriker has to say about 4th Period English, Judith's new book, due out in the spring: "4th Period English is so wonderful, I feel privileged to have read it, and I wish it were part of every curriculum starting right now. Listen to Adelita, Vicente, Mikoor, Huynh Chinh, Kathy and Megan, Corazón, Jamayah, the teacher Ms Solomon and her neighbor Khatereh Jafari� you'll think you too were there in George Washington High School, Anywhere, USA, surrounded by The World. And you were. This is absolutely terrific writing."

February 11, 2009

Kim Bebo on Wage Theft in America

Wage Theft in America: Why millions of working Americans are not getting paid— and what we can do about it

In what has been described as "the crime wave no one talks about," billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. The scope of these abuses is as staggering as it is wrong—paying employees far less than the legal minimum wage, purposefully misclassifying employees as independent contractors, illegally denying workers overtime pay—and only now are people beginning to take notice.

Nationally recognized activist Kim Bobo's Wage Theft in America (The New Press) is an incisive handbook for organizers, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent the flagrant exploitation of America's working people. Offering a sweeping analysis of the crisis and providing concrete solutions, with special attention to what the new presidential administration should do, Wage Theft in America addresses one of the most egregious and unfair practices affecting workers today.

"Kim Bobo has written an excellent and informative book on one of the most pressing issues facing millions of hardworking Americans. She offers bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America" (Senator Edward M. Kennedy).

"This is a powerful, timely, and enormously important book for the religious community, social justice organizers, and all who care about justice in the workplace" (Reverend Nelson N. Johnson, Ex.Dir. Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, NC).

Kim Bobo is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and a columnist for the online magazine Religion Dispatches. She is the co-author of Organizing for Social Change, the most widely-used manual on progressive activism in the U.S. Bebo has given congressional testimony on the ineffectiveness of the Department of Labor's wage enforcement work, which can be seen on YouTube.

So tune in (91.1fm) Vermont or stream it live from all over the world! Interview begins at 5:00 (EST).

January 21, 2009

Some Thoughts on Gay Rights and Woman-Stirred

Now that we have entered the post-W era in America and seen the fruition of the Civil Rights Movement, it is time for us to get busy on Equal Rights for GLBTQ Americans. It is no longer acceptable to wait and see what kind of bone is thrown our way from federal and state legislators. California's Proposition 8 has underscored the small-minded in religious communities and organizations. Religious and church leaders must demand an end to the continued discrimination and second-class status of GLBTQ Americans and our sisters and brothers all over the world.

I have particularly sharp impatience with religious and spiritual leaders who babble on about loving the sinner and hating the sin. But listen: being a lesbian is no more a sin than eating ice cream after midnight, so these whited sepulchers of evangelical self-righteousness better get off their knees and start living as Jesus instructed... as members of the human family, not high-handed hypocrites who are terrified of losing their heterosexual supremacy. Write letters to elected officials, religious and spiritual leaders, and local newspapers. Tell them it's time for all Americans to share in the work and benefits of equal civil rights.

Ok. Enough of that.

Once I return to Vermont after my winter break in Arizona, Woman-Stirred Radio welcomes Retta Dunlop (4:15 pm) and Jan Steckel (5:00) on Thursday February 5th. Retta is president of the Woodbury School board and Bi-Activist Jan M. Steckel, of Oakland California, is one hell of a writer. Check out her chapbook, The Underwater Hospital.

February 12th Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice visits WSR. Judith Arcana joins us on February 19th. Judith is a long-time activist and author of What if Your Mother. Pulitzer Prize Poet Maxine Kumin joins me on March 5th. Ben Binstock, author of a fabulous book on Vermeer and his artist daughter visits with me on March 12th, followed by one of my favorite NY writers and musician JD Glass, whose new book X is fantastic!

April is poetry month and we'll hear from poets Nathaniel Bellows Miscreants; Eavan Boland and Rigoberto Gonzalez on April 9th; on March 16th, Martha Serpas discusses her new book, The Dirty Side of the Storm, an exquisite book about Katrina, religion, and Cajun culture in Louisiana; and Lisa Williams joins me on April 30th to read from and discuss her new book, A Woman Reading to the Sea.

I'll kick off May by welcoming Alicia Gaspar de Alba on May 7th and we'll talk about her novel, which addresses the Juarez disappearances and murders. Dr. Gasper de Alba is a scholar, historian, writer, and poet whose works include novels and scholarly studies on Chicano culture and sexuality.

As always, I thank you for listening to Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR!

November 29, 2008

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father

This week, on Thursday, December 4th, Woman-Stirred Radio Merry Gangemi interviews John Matteson, author of Outcasts in Eden: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father. John T. Matteson has an A.B. in History from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. He also holds a law degree from Harvard University. Matteson has written for The Harvard Theological Review, Architectural Record, CrossCurrents, New England Quarterly, Streams of William James, and other publications. Matteson received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (W.W. Norton, 2007). He teaches literature and legal writing at John Jay College, and is currently working on a book tentatively titled The Lives of Margaret Fuller.

Eden's Outcasts delves into the complex emotional lives of Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson Alcott, and is contextualized within the America of Emerson, abolitionists, and The Civil War. The biography examines a father-daughter relationship that extends beyond family bonds, opening up a fascinating history of Alcott's development as a writer and thinker and the profound influence Bronson had on his daughter's career.

So tune in (91.1fm) Vermont or stream it live from all over the world! Interview begins at 4:15 (EST).

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR 91.1 fm and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews and music; plus commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentaries from Julie R. Enszer, and Jan Steckel. Our assistant producers are Lisa Harris (scheduling) and Sassafras Lowrey (social networking). Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College.

November 20, 2008

The Coat Hanger Project

Keep Abortion Legal. No exceptions. No apologies

The Coat Hanger Project is a documentary that analyzes the pro-choice/reproductive justice movement at a time when the first generation of men and women who have never known illegal abortion are coming into power and awareness.

The Coat Hanger Project director, Angie Young visits with Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio today, Thursday November 20th, at 4:15, for an in depth discussion of the project and the current political and social climate that informs it.

Interview begins at 4:15.

November 10, 2008

Jeff Chester and Julia Brown are Woman-Stirred

Thursday, November 13th, on Woman-Stirred Radio: Jeff Chester and Julia Brown.

Bill Moyers calls Jeff Chester, "the Paul Revere of the media revolution," and Bob McChesney calls Digital Destiny "the most important book on media policy in years," just two of the reasons Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio are delighted to welcome Jeff Chester this Thursday, November 13th at 4:15 (EST) for a discussion of, Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy, The New Press (2008).

In Digital Destiny, Chester illuminates the background and progress of the battle for media control and how interactive data collection drives an electronic media system designed to sell rather than serve the public, a system dominated by aggressive digital marketing, interactive advertising, and personal data collection, all of which conspire to obliterate privacy as we know it. The explosive growth of the internet and broadband communications gives Americans unprecedented access to information, but major communications companies as well as a host of lobbyists and policy-makers see dollars instead of democracy.

Chester is the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. His is a former investigative reporter and filmmaker and has been at the forefront of the fight against media consolidation and commercialism for nearly 30 years. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And at 5:00, we welcome singer-songwriter Julia Brown, and talk about her work, her life, and her second album, Strange Scars, which takes its title from a wonderful passage by Henry James: "And, then, I don't want any second-hand, spurious sensations; I want the knowledge that leaves a trace--that leaves strange scars and stains and reveries behind it."

Oh yes, Julia Brown is no lightweight and WSR is delighted to welcome her to the show.

Woman-stirred Radio (WSR) broadcasts live on WGDR every Thursday from 4 to 6 pm (EST) with interviews and music; plus weekly commentaries from British writer, Nicki Hastie and guest commentaries from Julie R. Enszer. Our assistant producers are Lisa Harris (scheduling) and Sassafras Lowrey (social networking). Our intern is Mikhael Yowe (Goddard College).

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by a grant from the Samara Foundation of Vermont. Click on the link to find out more about Samara and its mission.

October 22, 2008

Amy Ray, Amy Andre, and Sue Katz on Woman-Stirred Radio

It's fundraiser week here at WGDR, and we are thrilled to have a packed show this week that includes an interview with Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Amy Andre, and Sue Katz, author of Thanks but No Thanks: The Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin.

Here's some of what Amy Ray has to say about her new solo CD Didn't it Feel Kinder:

Didn't It Feel Kinder started a year ago in Durham, N.C.-a place I find musical resonance in ever since I met up with The Butchies in 2000. For this project, I started with Melissa York, the drummer from the now defunct Butchies. Mel kept saying, "Amy, I really want you to work with Greg Griffith." Greg Griffith is Mel's musical co-conspirator since the punk days in NYC and he is sort of a renaissance man of all things musical. I was ready to find someone to challenge me. I knew Greg's production work with The Butchies, but honestly was just going on Mel's word. So we met up, we played through a few songs together-Mel drumming and Greg on Bass (keys and guitar too) and wearing the producer's hat. Something must have clicked cause we set up another session, this time at Greg's home studio in Greensboro. Greg immediately raised the bar for me. I could tell he wasn't totally familiar with my prior recordings and this gave me a sort of uncomfortable freedom. I kept thinking, "Why do I want a producer, this is just what I am trying to get away from, I just want to do my own thing and fuck up and have fun?" But as Greg's ideas came to fruition, it just felt inevitable.

Amy Andre is a writer and LGBTQ and bi community advocate. She holds an MA in sexuality studies and is a Point Foundation Scholar at the Hass School of Business at UC Berkley. Her recent documentary, On My Skin, centers on the life of a mixed-race transgendered man and his family.

Sue Katz is the author of Thanks but No Thanks: The Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin. You can read more about Katz and her clear-cut portrait of Palin's half of the Republican ticket, click here.

So tune in (91.1fm) or log on to Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, October 23rd from 4 to 6 pm (easters) for interviews with Amy Ray, Sue Katz, and Amy Andre on Woman-Stirred Radio.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR 91.1 fm and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews and music; plus weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentaries from Julie R. Enszer, and Jan Steckel. Our assistant producers are Lisa Harris (scheduling) and Sassafras Lowrey (social networking). Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College.

September 09, 2008

Volunteer Job Announcement

Assistant Producer for Woman-Stirred Radio

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics, and policy makers.

We broadcast live on WGDR every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews and music; plus weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentaries from Julie R. Enszer, and Jan Steckel. Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College.

We are looking for an assistant producer to work with on-air radio personality and producer Merry Gangemi. We are looking for someone who is mature and responsible as well as creative, positive in outlook, even-tempered, hard-working and committed to promoting and developing queer culture. Responsibilities will include:

Scheduling guests for the radio show.
Advance work with guests to ensure information, advance materials, etc. are in the hands of the producer.
Writing a weekly blog entry on the radio show and the featured guests.
Promoting the radio show through the Woman-Stirred blog, facebook, myspace and other online tools.
Other tasks as assigned and interested.

We expect this to be a 3-4 hour a week volunteer job.

Work will be done remotely from any location. We are looking for someone who is email-responsive (particularly people who respond to email within 24 hours on a regular basis) and web-savvy. Some telephone work will be involved as well.

To apply, please email a statement of interest and resume or appropriate online links to Merry Gangemi, MGangemi@vtlink.net, and Julie R. Enszer, JulieREnszer@gmail.com.

August 28, 2008

Jan Steckel returns to Woman-Stirred Radio

Writer, bisexual activist, Woman-Stirred member and disabled/retired Harvard-and-Yale-trained physician Jan Steckel speaks to the question of coming out to your health care provider. Should you do it? What are the consequences of telling or not telling your doctor about the gender of your sexual or life partner(s)?

Not only can prejudice or simple ignorance about sexual orientation hurt the quality of your care � it can affect who is allowed to visit you when you�re in the hospital. On the other hand, keeping your health care provider in the dark about your sexual preference can get you absurdly or dangerously inappropriate care. All of this may determine whom you choose to tell what when you step inside the medical system.

Jan Steckel has a BA summa cum laude in Creative Writing from Harvard and was a member of the Radcliffe Lesbians Society. She has an MD from Yale School of Medicine, where she was a member of Lambda. She became a member of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics while she was taking care of field workers� children at a county hospital in California. As a pediatrician taking care of low-income immigrant children for Kaiser-Permanente, she taught a continuing Medical Education class in Culturally Competent Care for LGBT Patients and Their Families. She also helped copy-edit the Kaiser Permanente Handbook on the subject. She has dropped her membership in all �Gay and Lesbian� societies whose names and agendas don�t include bisexuals.

She has written for biMagazine, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, Yale Medicine, Scholastic Magazine and many other publications. Her poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital is available from Zeitgeist Press and Amazon.com. Her story "Mixing Tracks" won the 2008 Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Contest for LGBT writing and will be published as a slim book in several months. You can find out more about her at www.jansteckel.com.

So join Merry Gangemi, this Thursday, August 28th, 4 to 6 p.m.(Eastern time) for Woman-Stirred Radio: the best in Queer culture.

Our phone lines are always open. Call 802 454-7762 to join the conversation. Tell us about your own experiences with the medical system.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

August 20, 2008

Angie Evans is Woman-Stirred!

It's not often one comes across a young artist/singer-songwriter with the ability to create a truly unique sound and mix it with empowering, insightful lyrics that leave you groping for more. Angie Evans combines folk, soul, jazz, and funk as if they were meant to be together. Her lyrics and voice speak of love, sex, passion, and consciousness.

Born in the suburbs of Northern California, Angie started playing guitar at seventeen and within a year wrote her first song and began performing for her friends. She earned a BA in creative writing with a minor Womyn's Studies at Cal State University Long Beach. It was there, after finding the wonders of Womyn's studies, sociology, politics and the literature of ethnic and female writers, that she began to believe in the greater good of the poetic and political word. All while discovering the beauty in conscious hip hop, soul and funk music, she began to find a voice that was the perfect fit in content and vibration.

Angie Evans has performed at countless venues ranging from coffee shops to college campuses in Long Beach and the greater Los Angeles area, at events for various feminist, LGBTQ and women-centered causes, and Angie has been a featured performer at the Michigan Womyns Music Festival (2008), Estrogen Fest (2008), Fort Wayne, Indiana Pride Festival (2008), UC Irvine Queer Fest (2008), San Diego Pride Festival (2006), Long Beach Pride Festival (2005/2006), Ladyfest San Diego (2005), Ladyfest Las Vegas (2006), Phoenix, Arizona Pride Festival (2007/2008), MODELS OF PRIDE (2006), RAISE UP & SHOUT (2007) and at Whiskey A Go Go in West Hollywood, The Mint, in LA, The Temple Bar, in Santa Monica, & BB King's, in Hollywood.

Angie has built a strong local and national fan bases. Since 2005, Angie has been regularly performing with her band: Elliot Lawrence (bass & backup vocals); Natalie Martin (drums & backup vocals); Chi Austin (sax); and Greg Rutledge (keyboards). The band recorded Angie's debut album Cycle of Fruit late 2007; it was released May 10, 2008 on the Independent Freedom Tribe label.

"My music is not just for me," Angie says. "It is for those who listen."

Angie believes in sisterhood, pride, good espresso, handmade organic bar soap, pino grigio on a cold day, green vegetables, and using the Fword as much as possible.

Say it with me: FEMINISM, FEMINISM, FEMINIST!

To purchase Angie's debut album Cycle of Fruit visit Angie's web site or her Myspace

So join Merry Gangemi, this Thursday, August 14th, 4 to 6 p.m. for Woman-Stirred Radio: the best in Queer culture.

Our phone lines are always open. Call 802 454-7762 to join the conversation.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

August 13, 2008

Furious Improvisation

Please join Merry Gangemi and Woman-stirred Radio, this Thursday, August 14th, for an in-depth interview with Susan Quinn, author of Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times.

Hallie Flanagan,the director of the Federal Theatre Project turned a WPA relief program into a platform for some of the most cutting edge theatre of its time, propelling a unique experiment of U.S. government support of the arts to heights of creativity, ingenuity, pragmatism, and social justice. The story of the Federal Theatre Project includes actors, writers, musicians, and producers, such as Orson Wells, John Houseman, Sinclair Lewis, Leonard de Paur, Rose McClendon, Asadata Dafora Horton, Canada Lee, Edna Thomas, Jack Carter, Joseph Cotton, composer Virgil Thomson, and Paul Bowles.

In Furious Improvisation, Susan Quinn brings to life the challenges of the Depression and the innovation, risks, and triumphs of Hallie Flanagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR, and Harry Hopkins to use art as a means to get millions of unemployed, hungry Americans back to work and offering drama, music, and comedy to millions of Americans who were desperate for hope and comfort.

Furious Improvisation is also a story of the Federal Theatre Project's struggles against racism, classism, despair, bigotry, and ultra-conservative attacks from the Hearst Corporation newspapers, the Midwest, Roman Catholic pro-Hitler priest cum radio host, Father Charles Coughlin, and the fascist, pro-Nazi Black Legion.

The book is better than vivid and engrossing; it is a panorama of details and personalities, and snatches of conversations that will make you laugh out loud. Furious Improvisation is also a book that brings home to us all the importance of community, self-reliance, dignity, and kindness. Here is an excerpt:

On inauguration day, Hallie Flanagan joined the throng heading up to Capital Hill to hear President Roosevelt lay out his agenda for his second term in office. Some of what he said that day may have reassured Hallie that he hadn't forgotten the people who elected him. As the rain poured down on the audience and swept into the inaugural pavilion, Roosevelt spoke eloquently...of those "who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life...I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished," he told the audience. "...The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Too bad George Bush doesn't read; he might learn something from Susan Quinn's excellent and important history of just one hand of the New Deal.

So please, join us, this Thursday, August 14th, 4 to 6 p.m. for Woman-Stirred Radio: the best in Queer culture.

Our phone lines are always open. Call 802 454-7762 to join the conversation.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

July 30, 2008

Two views of American Life: The Garden of Last Days and the murder of Larry King

This Thursday, July 31st, at 4:15 p.m. (eastern), Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, visits with Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio for a conversation about his new book, The Garden of Last Days.

Dubus's The Garden of Last Days is "set in the unabashedly seamy underbelly of American life in early September 2001, the moment before the world changed, and is told from the point of view of characters whose worlds intersect, among them a stripper, her landlady, a jihadist, and a bouncer at the stripper's club" (Book News).

The Garden of Last Days, with its complex structure and point of view, is not a heroic narrative of 9/11; it is a novel that brings together everything we don't want to think about when we consider the fabric and rubrics of an America that moved, inexplicably, towards an event that shattered more than the idyll of American prosperity and domestic peace. Indeed, the country we know and love has garnered more animosity and frustration on a domestic and global level, than at any time since McCarthyism, and later, the Vietnam War.

Following our interview with Andre Dubus III, Nicki Hastie comes online to talk about the horrific murder of 15-year-old Larry King, an openly gay adolescent who was a student at Oxnard California's E. O. Green Junior High School. Larry was murdered in his classroom, shot in the head by a classmate, Brandon McInerney, on the morning of February 12, 2008.

In an America irrevocably reinvented by the the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the burgeoning Gay Rights Movement, these two polarizing events expose more than murder and mayhem. They lay open only two of the complex and problematical issues that continue to drive America along a road of intolerance and hatred for everything and anyone who is different and threatening to the idyllic myths of what America is, and what America means to the rest of the world.

So please, join us, Thursday, July 31st, from 4 to 6p.m. Woman-Stirred Radio: the best in Queer culture.

Our phone lines are always open. Call 802 454-7762 to join the discourse on Woman-Stirred Radio!!

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

July 23, 2008

Nona Caspers visits Woman-Stirred Radio

Nona Caspers : author of Heavier Than Air, @ 4:30 pm. Nona Casper's short story, "Country Girls," the first in her marvelous collection, Heavier than Air, is ravishing, heart-rending, and dense with images of aching space and visceral moments of awe, the physical bearing of racing, drumbeating rock, something for me like Black Rebel Motorcycle Gang, or Erasure at its most mesmerizing, threatening, and transformative. But it is also both subtle and straightforward, with an intensity that forces you to read on, to pause and remember, to breathe!! Here is an excerpt:

"'I love this,'" I shouted into Cynthia's ear and she laughed�.I remember bumping into people. I remember bumping into Auntie Katie dancing with Alquin Schultz, and my mother and father. I remember whirling off, whirling and whirling with the pressure of Cynthia's hand in the middle of my back and Cynthia's breath against my temple. I could feel the squirrel-bone ring against my thigh in my pocket�I had my plans�. I slipped my hand up Cynthia's back between her shoulder blades and she looked into my eyes and I saw our future; Cynthia and I living together like man and wife. I didn�t know what that meant exactly, but I married Cynthia with every feeling in me, with every sound I heard in my fourteen years, with every breath and eyelash, with everything I knew. I married Cynthia Hinnencamp under that darkening sky, with the Melrose band thumping, the smell of sweat and corncobs and mowed church grass in the air. I married her I married her I married her. I must have dropped to my knees, I must have dropped and folded my hands, like a declaration. I got the ring out of my pocket and took Cynthia's hand. And at first, they must have thought something was wrong, that I was ill or had hurt my ankle. The people around us stopped dancing, and then people around them stopped and on and on until a hush formed and the band stopped playing and I was on my knees looking up at Cynthia and I couldn�t get up. Someone shifted on the wood. Someone coughed. A crow cawed."

So. tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio, tomorrow, Thursday, July 24th, for an conversation with Nona Caspers, at 4:30 (eastern). Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR 91.1 fm or streamed live online at wgdr.org. Queer culture at its best!

Nona Caspers moved to San Francisco from rural Minnesota. She is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University. Her recent book of stories, HEAVIER THAN AIR (University of Massachusetts Press) won the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction and was an Editor�s Choice in the New York Times Book Review. Nona�s stories have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies; she has received an Iowa Fiction Award from the Iowa Review, a Cooper Prize from the Ontario Review, a Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award, and a Barbara Demming Memorial Award. http://online.sfsu.edu/~ncaspers/Welcome.htm

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live on WGDR every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm (Eastern), with interviews and music; plus weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentary from Julie R. Enszer. Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College. Want to join the conversation? Call the air studio at 802 454-7762

June 11, 2008

Antara on Woman-Stirred Radio!

Please join Woman-Stirred Radio for a live, in-studio interview with Antara, a Burlington-based independent singer-songstress. Antara will bring her guitar along to radio station and will play new songs, some not so new songs, and well, whatever, actually!

Whether busy conjuring variations of rhythm folk poetry in song lyrics or exploring the percussive-like dynamics of her trademark guitar riffs, independent folk songstress Antara continues to establish herself as a 'new' folk artist that is expanding the forefront of women�s music and the independent folk movement. Antara has been performing, professionally, for a dozen years in more than five hundred venues throughout New England, The Midwest, The South, and Canada.

Antara's unique fusion of rhythmic folk music and interactive coffee house performance capitalizes on a consistent sharing of the sociological perspective that shapes her life, love and work. Perhaps the artist clarifies herself and her work best when she says, "Songs just come to me all the time, and I never really thought I'd be a singer/songwriter. But, it's the most rewarding experience in the world to hear audience members singing your lyrics back to you. It makes me want to cry, it's so moving,n like an out of body experience for me as a woman, a musician and especially, as a human being."

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

June 04, 2008

JD Glass Returns to Woman-Stirred

JD Glass, 2008 Lambda Literary Award nominee novelist and musician

JD started writing as a child. Her first story was a kindergarten writing assignment called "A Mouse in the House." It was a combination of truth and fiction, and her mother was not pleased that she shared it with the class!

She started writing stories and reading them to a trapped audience, her younger siblings. She joined the Society for Creative Anachronism as a teenager and became the Household bard, which required the creation of epic ballads, usually based on historical romances, to be performed at Household events. This, of course, was in addition to the typical angst-ridden poetry that seems to be required at a certain age. From http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/Reviews/BSBNews-Glass.htm

"Punk Like Me....is different. It is engaging. It is life-affirming. Frankly, it is genius....This is our future standing tall and, most of the time, alone, and this is the impact of the story. At a minimum it compels us to listen and to remember....This is a rare book in that it has a soul; one that is laid bare for all to see" (Just Abut Write). More about JD glass can be found on her web site http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=133823279

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live on WGDR every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm (Eastern), with interviews and music; plus weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentaries from Julie R. Enszer. Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College.

May 15, 2008

Liza Cowan is Woman-Stirred!

Liza Cowan, artist and owner of Pine Street Art Works, in Burlington,Vt. Liza Cowan is a painter and photographer. One of her video shorts debuted on Vermont PBS. Pine Street Art Works is located in the south end of Burlington on Pine Street, across from the Maltex Building next to Speeder and Earl's. This gallery has hosted works from artist like Alison Bechdel, Cara Barer, David Klein, David Putman, Marie La Pre Grabon, Liza Cowan, SP Goddman and H. Keith Wagner. From www.pinestreetartworks.com

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

May 08, 2008

Amy Hoffman and Anais Mitchell on Woman-Stirred Radio

Amy Hoffman, editor-in-chief of The Woman's Review of Book, is the author of An Army of Ex-lovers. She is a writer and community activist, she has been an editor at Gay Community News (GCN), South End Press, and the Unitarian Universalist World magazine. She has served on the boards of GCN, Sojourner, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and the Boston Lesbian and Gay History Project and as a judge of the Lambda Literary Awards. Hoffman�s memoir, Hospital Time, about taking care of friends with AIDS, was published by Duke University Press in 1997. It was short-listed for the American Library Association Gay Book Award and the New York Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award, and was a New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age selection. Her memoir An Army of Ex-Lovers, about Boston's Gay Community News and the lesbian and gay movement of the late 1970s, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Hoffman lives in Boston with her spouse, Roberta Stone. From http://www.wcwonline.org/content/view/515/214/

Anais Mitchell local singer and songwriter

Born on a Vermont sheep farm, the 25-year-old singer/songwriter, Ana�s (ah-NAY-iss) Mitchell has been around the world. It�s no surprise that Mitchell�s Righteous Babe debut, The Brightness, is infused with the restless, worldly perspective of a real troubadour. Mitchell gives us a glimpse into the raw talent and infectious energy of today�s underground folkies, not to mention a handful of the places she�s been. Fromhttp://www.righteousbabe.com/artists/anaismitchell/thebrightness/index.asp

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

April 29, 2008

Susan Werner, Rachel Jury, & Clare Summerskill!!

Rachel Jury, British writer & performance artist.
Rachel has been performing her poetry for the past seven years at a variety of locations across Britain and Europe from Brighton to Dundee to Dublin. Rachel studied acting, but is more into writing. She is in the process of writing her third collection of poetry Politics Post Postmodernism. Her second collection of poems, 'Laughin' Lesbians Vol 2' is due to be published early in 2008. She currently resides in Glasgow Scotland where she is developing her first musical �The Gates�. �Miss Smith�, her second musical is in the works . Rachel received the Jackie Forster Memorial Award for Culture, Pride Awards 2006, for outstanding contribution to culture in Scotland. From http://www.racheljury.co.uk/

Clare Summerskill is a stand-up, a writer, an actress and a singer-songwriter.

As a Lesbian Comedienne, Clare performs an original cocktail of stand-up and comedy songs to mainly Gay and Lesbian audiences and has even been known to make straight people chuckle just a little bit!!! She brings "Dyke" humour to the forefront of alternative comedy! As a writer Clare has worked for many years in theatre and for radio. Clare has had two short stories published and she also runs comedy writing workshops.

Clare has her own professional theatre company, ARTEMIS Theatre Company. The company performs theatre to audiences who are often excluded by main stream commercial productions. Last year ARTEMIS performed a sell out National Tour of the play "GATEWAY TO HEAVEN", based entirely on the memories of older lesbians and gay men,by Clare Summerskill. From http://www.claresummerskill.co.uk/

Susan Werner, songwriter and singer.

Susan Werner was raised on a farm in rural Iowa. She studied classical voice at Temple University. Werner left behind her opera training and began performing as a singer-songwriter at coffeehouses throughout the northeast. She self-released her first album "Midwestern Saturday Night" in 1992 and then went on to put out "Live at Tin Angel" the following year. In 1995 came her breakout album, BMG/Private Music's "Last of the Good Straight Girls."

Werner went on, recording two albums even better than her previous work, adding some country and soul sounds to her signature vocal stylings with the help of Nashville multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Darrell Scott, who produced "Time Between Trains" and Colin Linden (Blackie & The Rodeo Kings), who produced her 2001 "New Non-Fiction." Werner's latest endeavor, "The Gospel Truth," a collection of originals she describes as "hymns for the spiritually ambivalent."

Susan will be playing at Ragle Hall/ Marboro College in Marboro, Vermont on May 1st.

from http://www.susanwerner.com/imagen/index.html

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live on WGDR every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm, with interviews and music; with weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentary from Julie R. Enszer. Our intern is Mikhael Yowe, an IBA student at Goddard College.

Want to join the conversation? Call the air studio at 802 454-7762.

April 24, 2008

Margarethe Cammermeyer & Sharron Proulx-Turner on Woman-Stirred Radio

Today on Woman-Stirred Radio, join Merry Gangemi for a double-header with Margrethe (Grethe) Cammermeyer and Sharron Proulx-Turner. Up first is Proulx-Turner at 4:15 p.m., followed by Cammermeyer at 5p.m. (Eastern). Sharron Proulx-Turner is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. She�s from Mohawk, Algonquin, Wyandot, Ojibwe, Mi'kmaw, French, Scottish and Irish ancestry. She is a two-spirit mom of three adult children, Graham, Barb and Adrian, mother-in-law to Harold, and nokomis to Willow, Jessinia and Mazie. Her previously published memoir, Where the Rivers Join (1995), written under the pseudonym Beckylane, was short-listed for the Edna Staebler award for creative non-fiction, and her second book, what the auntys say (2002), was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets� Gerald Lampert Prize for best first book of poetry. Sharron's work appears in several anthologies and journals. Proulx-Turner has two upcoming books, she is reading her blanket with her hands, (Frontenac Books, April, 2008) and she walks for days/ inside a thousand eyes/ a two-spirit story (Turnstone Press, Fall, 2008).

Grethe Cammermeyer was born in Oslo, Norway in 1942 during the Nazi occupation. Her family immigrated to the US in 1951, when Grethe was nine-years-old. She joined the army in 1961 and entered the Army Student Nurse Program. Cammermeyer served fourteen months in Vietnam.

In 1988, Colonel Cammermeyer accepted the position of Chief Nurse of the Washington State National Guard. In 1989, during an interview for top-secret clearance, to apply for the War College, she told the military "I am a lesbian". She was separated from the military despite an exemplary military and civilian professional record. On that same day, 11 June 1992, her attorneys filed suit in Federal District Court in Seattle challenging the existing ban on homosexuals in the military and requesting her reinstatement. After twenty-five months, Judge Zilly ruled that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", a policy implemented by the Clinton administration, is unconstitutional and based on prejudice. She was reinstated in the National Guard in June,1994 and resumed her previous position as Chief Nurse. Cammermeyer retired in March 1997, after 31 years, with full military privileges.

In 1994, the feature film, Serving in Silence, based on Grethe's book of the same title, was released, starring Glenn Close as Margarethe Cammermeyer, and Judy Davis as Cammermeyer's life partner, Diane Divelbess.

Cammermeyer's story is profoundly significant to the Gay Rights movement. She successfully fought a brutal system of repressive discrimination within the U.S. military that had destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives, careers, and families. Her courage contributes mightily to our collective determination to attain both equal rights and protections under U.S. military and civil law.

Cammermeyer's interview begins at 5 p.m. (eastern).

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

Want to join the conversation? Call the air studio at 802 454-7762.

April 17, 2008

The Curious Coupling of Science & Sex: Mary Roach is Woman-Stirred!

"Here is something eerie about spinal reflexes: You don't need a brain...you don't even need to be alive. The spinal reflex known the Lazarus sign has been spooking doctors for centuries. If you trigger the right spot on the spinal cord of a freshly dead body or a beating-heart cadaver... it will stretch out its arms and then raise them and cross them over its chest" (233).

Curious? Want to know why Masters had a penis with a camera inside built? Or why that Egyptian doctor dressed seventy-five rats in polyester underpants for a year?

Tune in, then, and have some laughs while you learn some odd facts and lesser-known truths about sexual physiology and why it is still shrouded in shame and secrecy.

Obsessed as we are with sex, we still know little about the world of sex research, and so Mary Roach takes us there, from laboratories, MRI centers, bedrooms, and even a Danish pig farm. Roach brings Masters and Johnson, Alfred Kinsey, Dr. Ahmed Shafik, and others to the discussion of what is, ultimately, what brings us all here.

So. Tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio, today, Thursday, April 17th at 5:00 p.m., for an interview with Mary Roach, author of Bonk, Stiff, and Spook.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

Want to join the conversation? Call the air studio at 802 454-7762.

April 09, 2008

Jill Raney is Woman-Stirred!!

Jill Raney has been a staff member for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network since 2006. She is a grassroots organizer who works with activists nationwide to raise visibility for repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and call on Congress to lift the ban. Jill�s background brings in technology and grassroots organizing on issues related to gender and sexuality.

As an undergraduate student at University of Virginia, she was involved in intimate violence services, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and Democratic politics. Jill is an active member of the Women's Information Network Washington's premiere professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women. She is a co-chair of WIN's Technology Network.

Join us on April 10th, at 4:30 pm for an interview with Jill Raney. Want to join the conversation? Give us a call at 802.454.7762.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live on WGDR every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm, with interviews and music; with weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentary from Julie R. Enszer.

From: Service Members Legal Defense Network

April 03, 2008

Nancy Polikoff is Woman-Stirred!

Please join Merry Gangemi, today, on Woman-Stirred Radio, for an interview with Nancy D.Polikoff, author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: valuing all families under the law. Polikoff is a professor of law at American University Washington College of Law. With this salient, clear-written treatise on the uniquely American legal construct of marriage, that grants special rights to heterosexual couples who marry, Polikoff argues for a legal system that values the myriad variations of families, bringing into the definition extended family units, single-parent households, lesbian and gay families and "many other familial configurations [that] need recognition and protection to meet the concerns they all share:building and sustaining economic and emotional interdependence and nurturing the next generation."

In Beyond Straight and Gay Marriage,published by Beacon Press, Polikoff defines and contextualizes marriage, contending that "no one should have to marry in order to reap specific and uniques legal legal results." She carefully, and with compassion underscores several cases that illustrate key issues and problems in current U.S. law regarding marriage.

Are you catching this, Bill Reilly?"

Perhaps, with the recent sensationalism of the Thomas Beatie-the-first-man-to-get-pregnant man-story, minds and sensibilities will be thrust into hyper drive. Can we understand this? Do we even want to understand this? Regardless, any progressive legislative must be sown in the context of social justice.Does our legal system have a mandate to change the current definition into one that is egalitarian? Is the American definition of marriage just?

We'll talk about it, because Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage, is important. If anyone doubts this, consider that 90% of the 7000 frequency applications submitted to the FCC in the window opened briefly in 2007,were submitted by religious media organizations and their affiliates.

The work of feminists and scholars, all direct us to a path that requires thought, honesty, and pragmatic federal policy.

Read Nancy Policoff's book, Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage.It tells us something important. "For 30 years, [Policoff] has [written]about...cases involving lesbian and gay families. Her articles have appeared in numerous law reviews, and her history of the development of the law affecting lesbian and gay parenting appears as a chapter in J. D�Emilio, W. Turner, and U. Vaid, eds., Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights (2000).

Polikoff has helped develop legal theories in support of second-parent adoption and visitation rights for legally unrecognized parents. Policoff was successful counsel in a case that "established joint adoption for lesbian and gay couples in the District of Columbia. She was also involved in Boswell v. Boswell, the 1998 Maryland case overturning restrictions on a gay noncustodial father�s visitation rights."

So join us today, April 3rd, at 4:30 pm for an interview with Nancy Polikoff. Want to join the conversation? Give us a call at 802.454.7762. Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm, with interviews and music; with weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentary from Julie R. Enszer.

March 26, 2008

Straight Spouse Network Visits Woman-Stirred Radio

Amity Pierce Buxton, Ph.D. is the founder of Straight Spouse Network. She provides informal counseling to straight spouses or partners, couples, family members and friends.

She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Bisexuality and the Journal of GLBT Family Studies. Amity served on the board of Family Pride Coalition (FPC), and currently collaborates with them as well as with Parents Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) (GLAAD), and Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE).

It is estimated that up to two million gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals have married or will marry. Some come out after a long struggle of trying to make a go of the heterosexual marriage that society prefers. Others have yet to disclose. Still others may stay closeted. When they come out, attention focuses on them. Their heterosexual spouses are largely forgotten. Family members and friends minimize the straight spouses' concerns. Few therapists understand their unique issues of sexual rejection, betrayal, and identity crisis. So, spouses cope alone, their anger and pain escalating. Once they find peer support in SSN, they resolve their profound issues constructively.

Professionals and the wider community need to become more aware of the impact on spouses and family members when a partner comes out. Addressing their unique needs will lessen isolation, aid healing, and increase understanding of everyone involved.

The Straight Spouse Network (SSN) is an international organization that provides personal, confidential support and information to heterosexual spouses/partners, current or former, of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender mates and mixed-orientation couples for constructively resolving coming-out problems. SSN also offers research-based information about spouse, couple, and family issues and resources to other family members, professionals, community organizations, and the public. SSN is the only support network of its kind in the world. Source: Straight Spouse Network

Please join Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio on Thursday March 27, 2008 at 4:30pm for an interview with Amity Pierce Buxton. Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that celebrates and preserves the lives and work of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered artists, musicians, writers, academics and policy makers.

We broadcast live every Thursday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm, with interviews and music; with weekly commentaries from British writer Nicki Hastie and guest commentary from Julie R.Enszer.

March 20, 2008

Betsy Warland is Woman-Stirred!

Please Join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Betsy Warland to Woman-Stirred Radio, Thursday, March 20th, at 5pm (eastern).

Warland was born in 1946 and currently lives in British Columbia. A long-time feminist, Warland is a queer and linguistic theorist. She has edited several compilations, including Inversions, Telling it, and In the Feminine. Warland is also well-known for her collaborative work with Daphne Marlatt, specifically Two Women in A Birth.

Her most recent book, Only This Blue: A Long Poem with an Essay, Mercury Press (2005).

Warland's ground-breaking work is "language-focused writing and ways of working with silence, her scoring of blank space on the page evokes as much meaning as her inscribing of written language. The unsayable, the secreted, the unknowable: these are her obsessions � how one encounters them in lover relationships, family, a homophobic society, a mono-truth society, or the inner work of spiritual practice."

Warland is dedicated to emerging writers; she is the Director of Poetry, Lyric Prose, Nonfiction � in The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University's Writing and Publishing Program in Vancouver.

So join Merry Gangemi, Nicki Hastie, and Mikhael Yowe, Thursday, March 20th (Happy Equinox!!) at 5pm for an interview with Betsy Warland.Stream the interview live on WGDR.

March 13, 2008

Näkki Goranin's American Photobooth

Today on Woman-Stirred Radio, Näkki Goranin talks with Merry Gangemi about her groundbreaking new book, American Photobooth, released February 18, 2008, by W.W. Norton & Company.

American Photobooth has generated an enormous amount of energy and attention, including interviews, articles, speaking invitations, and serious cultural and social analysis. The New York Times, BBC, and London Telegraph, have all published and carried major stories about Näkki Goranin and her work. John Updike's article in The New Yorker (Dec 2007), "Visual Trophies" mentions Goranin and borrows many of her images, including a newlywed photo of Jacqueline and John Kennedy.

Näkki Goranin is a Burlington-based photographer whose work is underscored by her graduate work in fine art, anthropology, and education launches American Photobooth as the first of its kind—a mesmerizing compilation of the personal portrait of America.

In the foreword to American Photobooth, David Haberstich, head of photographic collections at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, writes that American Photobooth "virtually defines the art or the aesthetic of the photobooth.... [Goranin] has rescued from oblivion... many amazing self-portraits created by amateurs confronting themselves in the fleeting privacy of a humble, sometimes tacky photobooth...."

Reading and engaging these photographs provides an astounding spectrum of nondiscursive rhetoric. Each photo captures the intimacy, humor, self-consciousness, happiness and pride of its subject every moment the shutter clicked.

Originally from Chicago, Näkki Goranin came to Vermont more than twenty years ago. Thank heavens Goranin got off that bus in Burlington, she is yet another reliably brilliant artist—another reason why Vermont is one of the most culturally-rich states in America.

An exhibit of American Photobooth is showing at Pine Street Art Works, Liza Cowan's gallery in Burlington,. Originally scheduled through the month of March, Goranin's show has been extended through April.

So tune in or log on to Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR 91.1fm. Woman-Stirred Radio is a queer cultural journal that explores, articulates, and preserves the cultural heritage of glbtq artists, writers, musicians, academics, political figures, and policy-makers. We also feature cultural commentary with British writer Nicki Hastie and broadcast every Thursday, 4 to 6pm, on Vermont's only community radio station, WGDR 91.1fm.

Want to join the conversation? call the air-studio at 802.454.7762 or go to the Woman-Stirred blog and post away!

February 28, 2008

Liz Bradfield on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi and welcome Liz Bradfield to Woman-Stirred Radio for a discussion of her new book, Interpretive Work.

Interpretive Work (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2008) explores the collision of natural history, work, queerness, and family, reaching toward a moment where one finds "this unsettlement, / this beauty applauded at last."

Elizabeth Bradfield grew up in Tacoma, Washington and has lived on Cape Cod and in Alaska. She holds an MFA from the University of Alaska, Anchorage and is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. When not writing, she works as a naturalist and web designer.

This week's program is especially important because Nicki Hastie, our British link to Woman-Stirred Radio is visiting in Vermont and will join Merry in the air studio for a lively discussion of the latest issue of Diva, to chat on lesbian destinations, why gay guys and gals can't get along, and Erin Daniels, aka Dana from the LWord, who does NOT look like a lesbian anymore.

This week Merry and Nicki welcome Woman-Stirred intern Mikhael Yowe (pronounced "you"), who brings the important trans perspective to the program. Mikhael is a junior at Goddard College and a long-time Vermont resident who transitioned more than twenty years ago. Mikhael won the prestigious Mr. Empire State Leather in 2006.

So join us today on Woman-Stirred Radio for serious poetry and intelligent conversation about lesbians, and queer culture.

February 13, 2008

Live from San Francisco, Valentine's Day with Marvin R. Hiemstra

This Valentine's Day Thursday, February 14th, at 5:00pm (eastern) I'm delighted to welcome Marvin R. Hiemstra, one of my favorite Bay Area poets, back to Woman-Stirred Radio.

Jean King describes Hiemstra as "zany, agile, funny...Marvin talks as though the Mad Hatter's tea party is his natural habitat." I concur. he is mightily articulate, lots of fun, and very, very sharp.

So join me and the Woman-Stirred community this Thursday, February 14, at 5pm for poetry, philosophy and Marv Hiemstra.

Marv will read his poems and we'll talk about his newest book and DVD, French Kiss Destiny. Released in September, 2007, French Kiss Destiny has already become a sleeper success across the United States and Europe. The work suggests the wild and woolly kick of poetry before the Victorians so relentlessly glued poetry to the printed page and sat on it. Don't miss the two poem toss race that appears near the end of the dvd's third segment: it's inspired by the simultaneous poetry read out races, an English parlor game dating back to Elizabeth I.

Following Marvin Hiemstra, cultural commentator Nicki Hastie, of Nottingham, England comes on board and we'll talk about lesbians and Valentine's Day.

So tune in and listen up! Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live from the campus of Goddard College, and streams online at WGDR.org.

January 22, 2008

A Quiet January

January has been a month of down time for Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio. Some winter ills, much-needed rest , and travel was in order, but February will bring new energy and great guests, including poets Liz Bradfield and Marvin Hiemstra. And my favorite British cultural commentator and poet, Nicki Hastie, will be visiting the US in February and will join me in the studio.

So stay tuned, so to speak, because 2008 will be another wonderful year of poetry, music, art, film, media, and politics, off-the-wall and spot-on radio with Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio, broadcasting live every Thursday 4 to 6 pm on WGDR 91.1fm

January 02, 2008

Jeanne Lupton is Woman-Stirred

Poet Jeanne Lupton comes to Woman-Stirred Radio to ring in the New Year with Merry Gangemi this Thursday, January 3.

Jeanne Lupton is a fine performer of her poetry as well as a mistress of the tanka form and of free verse. She leads writing groups in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. She hosts Frank Bette Center for the Arts Second Saturdays Poetry and Prose reading series on the island of Alameda.

Her collection of tanka but then you danced is available through Jeanne's website and from that of her publisher, RAW ArT PRESS. She's working on a collection of "skinny narrative memory free verse" poems with the working title "Sacramento Street." She currently has work in languageandculture.net and Haight Ashbury Literary Journal.

Tune in this Thursday, January 3, for some beautiful poetry and conversation. Interview begins at 5 p.m. (EST), 2 p.m. (PST on WGDR 91.1fm from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Stream it live at WGDR.

January 01, 2008

Special Christmas Program

Join Merry Gangemi today for a holiday-themed edition of Woman-Stirred Radio. The queer cultural journal broadcasts every Thursday, 4pm to 6pm EST, on WGDR 91.1fm from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Wherever in the world you may be for the holidays, listen in to the live stream from the WGDR website.

Expect seasonal music, new musical treats, and observations on life from an LGBT perspective as the year end draws near. At 4.30pm Nicki Hastie joins Merry for a discussion of all things Christmassy - the good and the not-so-good.

Do we develop our own traditions, and what new meanings can we bring? How do we maintain ourselves at this peculiarly family-oriented time, when definitions of family often seek to exclude LGBT individuals? Is the holiday season really worse for lesbians, as a recent survey suggests? What have been the highlights of the year, and what political and cultural events have made our personal, or collective, blood boil?

Then there's 2008 to anticipate, as Woman-Stirred Radio looks ahead to a third year on air. Don't forget you can add to the debate and express your opinion by phoning in to the studio: 802 454 7762. What makes or breaks your holiday?

December 13, 2007

Jianda Visits Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join me in welcoming Jianda to Woman-Stirred Radio.

Jianda is a Berkley-based singer-songwriter whose music and film work brings lesbian creativity to a new level. You can listen to her music at MySpace, or her Jianda.net.

A health-conscious artist, musician, vocalist and widely-published writer, Jianda's also a poet, guitarist, actress and singer-songwriter with singles/albums that are both self-released and available on several international independent labels including: Om Records, Merck, Ghostly, Kinkysweet Records, Jam Music Australia and Gammaphone.

A regular Pride, Open Mic and Feature performer, Jianda's many genres include electronica, conscious soul, jazz and acoustic folk. In various venues, she primarily performs as a solo acoustic act. Jianda also improvs and jams with DJs, rap artists and other artists, performs her poetry or that of others and collaborates in staged readings live and in-studio.

She spent many years creating content and artist promotions for the then San Diego-based MP3.com, and also facilitates and teaches workshops.

She has written, recorded and videotaped interviews, prose, features, reviews and interviews for websites like MP3.com, ChickClick (defunct), SonicNet, B-gyrl.com, BlogCritics, Saucyvox.com, Doorknobs and Bodypaint, UC Irvine's "Faultine," ScarletLetters, CleanSheets, About.com, RollingStone.com, Emusic.com, Africana.com and GoGirlsmusic.com. She sings. Plays guitar and piano, and writes screenplays and songs�. Mouthsful.

Look for "Faster Pussycats" (Alyson ) and "Zaftig: Well-Rounded Erotica" (Cleis Press ) in progressive bookstores near you�she's in them.

Previously, she was an editor and contributor at RollingStone.com, EMusic.com and MP3.com, doing promo and A&R for artists of all stripes. Passion Flower is her drug of choice. Sample her wares at SugarmamaPR.com & Jianda.net.

Currently, she works in label promotion, and is a featured supporting actress in Griot Soul Films' "She Wasn�t Last Night." She�s also been a regular contibutor to The Lavender Lens (www.thelavenderlens.com) and the Promotions Director for Griot Soul Films (www.griotsoulfilms.org).

Jianda has a sincere love for harmony, cultural enrichment and communicating love through entertainment, art, sharing and song. Jianda's flexible and able to perform as a solo feature or as part of an ensemble or a multiple bill event.

And as usual, Nicki Hastie will share her thoughts and perspectives about the lesbian world across the Pond.

Woman-Stirred Radio, every Thursday 4 to 6 (EST). Want to join the conversation? the air studio phone is 802.454.7762. So tune in or stream it live at WGDR. Interviews begin at 5:00

December 05, 2007

Dickinson Scholar Martha Nell Smith Visits Woman-Stirred Radio!

Well-known Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith comes to Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, December 6, at 5:00 p.m. (EST), to talk about Open Me Carefully, a work that illuminates the correspondence between Emily Dickinson and her friend, confidant, and sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson.

For more than thirty-five years, Emily and Susan wrote to each other almost daily. The uncensored letters and poems in Open Me Carefully "invite[s] a dramatic new understanding of Emily Dickinson's life and work.... Here is Dickinson in her own words--humorous, playful, passionate, and fully alive."

Emily Dickinson has been variously described as a weird recluse and a brilliant poet, whose body of work still mesmerizes and influences millions of readers.

Through the research and scholarship of Martha Nell Smith and Ellen Louise Hart, Open Me Carefully reveals the truth about the poet and her relationship with Susan, a passionate friendship that has been hidden, erased, and reconstructed to fit a heterosexual paradigm.

So join Merry Gangemi and Martha Nell Smith for an exploration into the life and love of Emily Dickinson. Interview begins at 5:00 p.m.

Woman-Stirred Radio, the premier queer cultural journal, can be streamed live at WGDR.

Nicki Hastie joins me afterwards to continue our discussion of what lesbians read.

November 07, 2007

Morgan Hunt's Tess Camillo Comes to Woman-Stirred

Morgan Hunt

Mystery writer Morgan Hunt brings Tess Camillo to Woman-Stirred Radio for a visit with Merry Gangemi.

"Tess Camillo never meant to be a sleuth. Then again, this wry lesbian never imagined someone would try to kill her...especially not with a snake. The police are convinced the incident at Tess's home was an accident. But when another woman is found murdered a few weeks later--with a snake as the culprit--Tess and her loopy hetero housemate try to unravel the mystery."

Curious? Tune in this Thursday for a talk about mysteries, writing, lesbians, and breast cancer. Interview begins at 5 p.m. (EST), 2 p.m. (PST). Stream it live at WGDR.

Born in raised on the Jersey Shore, Morgan Hunt did a stint in the Navy and lived in San Diego for more than 25 years. A breast cancer survivor, Morgan now lives in Ashland Oregon and is working on the next Tess Camillo mystery.

Nicki Hastie joins me at 5:30 (EST) to talk about lesbians beyond the LWord.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live every Thursday on 91.1 fm and on WGDR.org. Air studio phone: 802 454-7762. Join the conversation!

October 30, 2007

Laura Flanders and Gregory Kompes Visit Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Laura Flanders and Gregory Kompes for some politics and geography!

Gregory Kompes Gregory joins me in the first hour for an interesting look at some of the best cities and towns to live in if you're queer. His bestseller, 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live covers the East, West, South, Mid-West, and Burlington, Vermont! A veteran author, teacher, and editor, Kompes's Queer Collection offers some of the best in lesbian and gay prose and poetry.

Laura Flanders Laura is up at 5p.m. to talk about the latest "provocative and unflinching look" at the Democratic contenders for the 2008 presidential run. With five fellow commentators, Flanders and Company offer insight and perspectives on Clinton, Edwards, Gore, Kucinich, and Obama. The The Contenders includes Laura Flanders on Hillary Clinton, Richard Goldstein on Barack Obama, Dean Kuipers on Al Gore, James Ridgeway on John Edwards, and Dan Savage, with Eli Sanders, on Dennis Kucinich.

And at 5:40, the incomparable Nicki Hastie, from across the Pond, joins me for her most excellent commentary on lesbian culture.

Air-studio lines are always open, so don't hesitate to call 802.454.7762 or email Merry your question or comment.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a collective, queer cultural journal that broadcasts every Thursday on WGDR 91.1fm from the Eliot Pratt Center on the campus of Goddard College, in Plainfield Vermont.

Get interested. Get involved. Tell your friends about Woman-Stirred Radio.

October 16, 2007

Holly Near and Laura Flanders on Woman-Stirred Radio

This week, Woman-Stirred Radio has a full slate of interesting women. Holly Near at 4:30; Laura Flanders at 5:00; and of course Nicki Hastie, Woman-Stirred Radio's weekly guest commentator, who chats with Merry Gangemi about the latest rages and outrages in British and American lesbian culture.

Holly Near & Amy Goodman

Near is a unique combination of entertainer, teacher and activist. Her career as a singer has been profoundly defined by an unwillingness to separate her passion for music from her passion for human dignity. She is a skilled performer and an outspoken ambassador for peace who brings to the stage an integration of world consciousness, spiritual discovery, and theatricality.

Fiercely independent, Near was one of the first women in the U.S. to go it alone when she founded Redwood Records in 1972. Her vision for Redwood was to promote and produce music by politically conscious artists from around the world, a mission it fulfilled for nearly 20 years. Finding herself at the forefront of a movement, Near worked for world peace, multi-cultural consciousness, and feminism. The world was her university and social change movements informed her songs. She sang the secrets long before such ideas found space in the major media.

Near has received numerous accolades for her work for social change. Most notably, she is part of the nomination for �1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.� She has also received honors from the A.C.L.U., the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, N.A.R.A.S., Ms. Magazine (Woman of the Year), and the Legends of Women�s Music Award.

Laura Flanders

True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians!

The subtitle of Laura Flanders' new book Blue Grit speaks volumes to the cynical and discontented, specifically that the 2004 election was NOT the total defeat Republican's bleated about. Flanders is a self-defined "optiholic" and has plenty to tell:

More voters cast ballots... and participated in election-related activities than in any election in years.

Almost 60% of eligible Americans cast a ballot.

Every one of the Democrats who voted against the Iraq war resolution won reelection by a healthy margin.

Rock the Vote Rock the Vote registered 1.4 million new voters.

As many as 20.1 Americans, age eighteen to twenty-nine voted, up from 18 million in 2000, the biggest leap of any age demographic!

So. Cheer Up and tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio for a talk with Laura Flanders, author of Blue Grit.

October 11, 2007

Sharon Bridgforth on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi as she welcomes Sharon Bridgforth to Woman-Stirred Radio, today at 5pm (Eastern). Merry and Sharon will discuss Bridgforth's work and her creative process, her roots in African-American culture and how her work is vital to lesbian culture.

Sharon Bridgforth is the Lambda Award winning author of the bull-jean stories (RedBone Press), and love conjure/blues a performance/novel published by RedBone Press. Bridgforth has broken ground in the creation and presentation of the performance/novel and in doing so has advanced the articulation of the Jazz aesthetic as it lives in theater.

Bridgforth has fostered the study of Black lesbian performance literature in academic settings. Some of the professors who have taught her work are: Lisa Anderson at Arizona State, Phoenix; Elmo Terry-Morgan at Brown University; Laura Harris at Pitzer College; Daniel Banks at New York University, Tisch School For The Arts; Lisa Hernandez at St. Edward's University; Mattie Richardson at University of California, Berkeley; Lisa Arnold at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Kirsten Gardner at University of Texas, San Antonio; Carol Guess at Western Washington University; Lisa L. Moore, Daniel Alexander Jones, Jafari Allen, Mattie Richardson, Dr. Joni Jones at University of Texas, Austin.Bridgforth has developed a method of facilitating creative writing that she calls, Finding Voice. With the Finding Voice method Bridgforth mentors/and or facilitates writers through a creative process, encouraging them to use the page as a canvas; to use identity-culture-memory-family histories-dreams to articulate and examine the socio-political realities of their lives in a form that is part poetry, part oral history, part performance art; to examine their creative process; to work in community as they use art as a vehicle for social justice.

Bridgforth uses the Finding Voice method in her work as Anchor Artist for The Austin Project (sponsored by The Center for African and African-American Studies, U. T. Austin) for past five years. Bridgforth's Finding Voice Facilitation Manuel will be published in 2007 by University of Texas Press in a book, The Austin Project Archive: Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic, edited by Dr. Joni Jones, Acting Director, Center for African and African-American Studies, Associate Professor, Department of Theater and Dance U.T. Austin; Dr. Lisa L. Moore, Associate Professor, English and Women�s and Gender Studies, U.T. Austin; and Bridgforth. Bridgforth is an Affiliate Faculty member at The Center for African and African-American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, where she teaches an undergraduate course that focuses on art as a vehicle for community organizing.

Widely anthologized, Bridgforth has received support from the National Endowment For The Arts Commissioning Program; The National Endowment For The Arts/Theater Communications Group Playwright in Residence Program; National Performance Network; and the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Award.Widely anthologized, Her work has presented nationally at venues including:the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN., The Theater Offensive Out on The Edge Festival in Boston, MA., LaPena in Berkeley, CA., The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Penumbra Theater Company in St. Paul, MN.

So. 5pm eastern. Sharon Bridgforth. Air studio phone = 802.454.7762.

And of course my weekly chat with Nicki Hastie. This week: the LWord.

September 20, 2007

Gwyn Kirk on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi and her guest, Gwyn Kirk, this Thursday, September 20 at 5pm (EDT), on Woman-Stirred Radio.

Kirk holds a PhD in political sociology from the London School of Economics. She is a scholar-activist concerned with gender and racial and environmental justice. Kirk has taught courses in women's studies, environmental studies, political science, and sociology at U.S. universities and colleges, and publishes a textbook/anthology, Women�s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (McGraw-Hill), co-edited with Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey.

Kirk writes extensively on ecofeminism, militarism, and peace organizing. A current project is Women for Genuine Security. She is a founding member of the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism, which links scholars and activists who deal with the effects of U.S. military bases, budgets, and operations on local communities.

Her current research and writing focuses on organizing efforts to promote cleanup and healing from contamination caused by military operations and war.

New on Woman-Stirred Radio! Commentaries with British writer Nicki Hastie, lesbian pundit and writer Julie R. Enszer, and bi-writer Jan Steckel.

September 12, 2007

Diana Souhami is Woman-Stirred

Please join Merry Gangemi this Thursday, September 13th, at 5pm (EDT), for an interview with British author, Diana Souhami. Souhami is the author of Coconut Chaos (London: Orion, 2007), Selkirk's Island (the 2001 U.K. Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (short listed for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography and the U.S. Lamda Literary Award), Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (Lamda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Wild Girls, and Alice, Greta and Cecil, and Gluck: Her Biography.

Coconut Chaos "connects the famous mutiny on the Bounty in the Pacific Ocean in 1789 to the plight of the islanders of Pitcairn now.

Its conceptual core is how a small chance thing, the taking of a coconut by Fletcher Christian from William Bligh's stores on the ship, had dramatic ramifications that continue today. The analogy is with chaos theory in science: how a small variation in conditions can result in dynamic transformations elsewhere. This story moves from a simple, random event to its complex connections. The vivid narrative includes mutiny, travel, biography, incest, homosexuality, murder and rape, science and technology, fantasy and selective history.

Sea voyages, most of them extraordinary, drive the narrative forward, the author's own journey to Pitcairn where Fletcher Christian hid to escape punishment; Bligh's navigation to Timor in violent weather, without maps, in a small boat, with scant supplies and starving men; the voyage to England with mutineers in chains and their shipwreck...

This is not be a "one thing after another" book, it is a continuum where things interrelate a metaphorical voyage that leads to the chaos of Pitcairn's unlawfulness today."

August 24, 2007

Interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

Some things always work out no matter what the planning or the expectations. And today things converge to bring Woman-Stirred Radio's Merry Gangemi and Nicki Hastie together with the Indigo Girl's Amy Ray at 1:05 pm for a live interview in the studio of Provincetown's own WOMR 92.1 fm.

Even though this interview was arranged this morning because of a change in Amy Ray's schedule and we're on vacation on the Cape hundred's of miles from home, the incredible energy and hospitality of WOMR makes this interview possible.

So tune in or stream it LIVE at www.womr.org. And when I get home to Vermont, I'll replay the interview on Woman-Stirred Radio for all of my listeners at WGDR 91.1 fm.

August 14, 2007

Queer Reading at Black Sheep Books

BLACK SHEEP BOOKS presents:

Three Queer Poets: Readings by Julie R. Enszer, Merry Gangemi, and Nicki Hastie

Tuesday, August 14 at 7:00 p.m. at 4 Langdon Street, Montpelier, VT

Julie R. Enszer, a Maryland-based writer and lesbianactivist, is published in Iris: A Journal about Women, Room of One's Own, Long Shot, the Jewish Women's Literary Annual, and the Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly. Her book, Homesteading: Essays on Life, Death, Sex, and Liberation, is forthcoming in winter 2008. For more on Julie, see http://www.JulieREnszer.com.

Merry Gangemi lives in Woodbury, VT, and is the host of Woman-Stirred Radio, a weekly queer cultural journal on WGDR 91.1 fm. Her work is published in the Paterson Literary Review, Journal of NJ Poets, Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, the Harrington Lesbian Literary Review, Vermont Woman, and the Hardwick Gazette. She produces the annual Tea & Poetry series, a Vermont literary festival now in its sixth year. For more on Merry, see http://www.merrygangemi.org.

Nicki Hastie lives in Nottingham, England. She is a founding member of the Woman-Stirred blog. Her work is published in Chroma, Diva, Trouble & Strife, and also in critical anthologies relating to women's health, coming out stories, lesbian fiction, and representations of lesbians in popular culture. For more on Nicki, see http://www.nickihastie.demon.co.uk.

Black Sheep Books, a community space and bookstore in Montpelier, Vermont, offers affordable radical and scholarly books, and hosts educational events on cultural and political topics. As an all-volunteer project, we are operated by a five-member collective hand in hand with a group of dedicated volunteers. Our principle focus is to provide access to anti-authoritarian Left ideas in a way that promotes intellectual debate and challenges today�s hegemonic culture. Together with horizontalist social movements and political projects, bookstores, infoshops, and publishers, Black Sheep Books works toward an egalitarian, ecological, and nonhierarchical society.

Black Sheep Books 4 Langdon Street, Montpelier, Vermont www.blacksheepbooks.org / 802-225-8906 Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6, Sun 11-5, Mon closed

July 18, 2007

Julia Vinograd on Woman-Stirred

Don't miss Julia Vinograd on Woman-Stirred Radio!

Berkeley street poet and award-winning author Julia Vinograd will be interviewed this Thursday, July 19, by Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio at 5 pm (EDT); 2 pm on the West Coast. Listen to Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR Goddard College community radio (91.1 fm in Vermont) by streaming it live at www.wgdr.org. Click on the "Listen Live" link between 4:30 pm and 5:50 pm EDT. The first hour of the show is music, followed by the interview with Julia Vinograd.

Have a question for Julia? Call the air studio phone at (802) 454-7762, or e-mail host Merry Gangemi at mgangemi@vtlink.net, during the show.

Julia Vinograd, also known as "The Bubble Lady," is a Berkeley street poet who has published fifty books. Her collection of Jerusalem poems, THE BOOK OF JERSUSALEM, won the Before Columbus Foundation Book Award. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Iowa Writers Workshop, the winner of a Pushcart Prize, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry from the city of Berkeley.

Woman-Stirred is a writer's collective and cultural blog dedicated to bringing the amazing talent and creative spirit of Queer Culture to the world, and to preserve our culture for future generations. So please join Julie R. Enzer, Nicki Hastie, and Jan Steckel this Thursday, July 18th at 5pm (EDT). Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday from 4 to 6 pm (EDT). Great music from 4 to 5; interviews from 5 to 5:50 pm.

July 11, 2007

Dr Helen Caldicott on Woman-Stirred Radio

Join Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, July 12th, at 5pm (EDT) for a conversation with Dr Helen Caldicott on Caldicott's life and work. One of her most recent books, Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, analyzes the nuclear power industry in the United States, and the public policies that drive the assumptions about its capacity, efficiency, and safety, despite intense public opposition and anemic interest from Wall Street.
Helen Caldicott has received numerous awards for her work, including the Lannan Foundation's 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom. She holds nineteen honorary doctoral degrees, and was personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling.
The Smithsonian Institute has named Dr Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century. She has written for numerous publications and has authored seven books, Nuclear Madness, Missile Envy, If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth, A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography, (published in Australia as A Passionate Life in Australia, and The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush�s Military Industrial Complex. Caldicott�s most recent book is War In Heaven.
So join us on Woman-Stirred Radio tomorrow, Thursday, July 12th, at 5pm (15:00).Woman-Stirred Radio and the Woman-Stirred Blog is a writer's collective and cultural blog dedicated to bringing the amazing talent and creative spirit of queer culture to the world, and to preserving our culture for future generations. So please join Merry Gangemi, Julie R. Enszer, Nicki Hastie, and Jan Steckel.
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June 23, 2007

Janell Moon Visits Woman-Stirred Radio

Woman-Stirred Radio is thrilled to have Janell Moon join us on Thursday, June 28th, at 5:00pm (EDT) 2pm (PDT). Janell Moon is an interactive counselor who uses the Enneagram, a personality system, when appropriate in counseling.

Moon is the author of Stirring the Waters: Writing to Find the Spirit (Charles E. Tuttle) and The Wise Earth Speaks to Your Spirit (Red Wheel/Weiser). Both award-winning books are available in books stores and online. The Prayer Box: Create, Write, and Live Your Prayers, published by Red Wheel/Weiser, and How to Pray Without Being Religious, published by ThorsonsElement/Harper Collins, are two new books written by Moon and available at your local bookstores or on the internet. She is currently working on a book on midlife and aging.

She is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who graduated from Ohio University (Athens), and obtained her hypnotherapy training at the Humanistic School of Hypnotherapy in Berkeley, California. Janell Moon has taught counseling and writing classes at City College of San Francisco, the College of Marin, and The Learning Annex. Besides these community classes, she offers private workshops: Stirring the Waters: Writing to Find Your Spirit, Poetry as Prayer, Life as Story, The Spirit in Nature Writing, and Prayer Without Being Religious.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a writer's collective and cultural blog dedicated to bringing the amazing talent and creative spirit of Queer Culture to the world at-large, and to preserving this culture for future generations. So please join Merry Gangemi, Julie R. Enszer, Nicki Hastie, and Jan Steckel this Thursday, June 28th at 5pm (EDT) or 2pm (PDT), for what is certain to be an interesting and informative interview with Janell Moon.

Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6pm (EDT) on WGDR 91.1fm (Goddard College). Stream us online at WGDR.org
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June 07, 2007

The Islands Project: Poemsfor Sappho

As Julie R. Enszer writes in her review of The Islands Project, "Eloise Klein Healy�s fifth book of poetry, The Islands Project: Poems for Sappho, (Arktoi Press)is the sort of book that lesbians pass to one another saying, urgently, 'Here, you must read this.' The poems of The Islands Project are important for the stories that they tell and for the history that they explore."

And so Woman-Stirred Radio, is thrilled to host Eloise Klein HealyThursday June 7th.

Eloise Klein Healy's work speaks volumes for the intensity and lucid images of one of Queer culture's most beloved source of inspiration and imagination. The interstices of lesbian present and imagined lesbian past fold into each other:

It's a complicated embodiment
I'm after. Meaning. Snapshots from my life
need to be arrangedon pages
and linked in a timeline
like papyrus chips
put back in order.

Eloise Klein Healy was the founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the author of five books of poetry and three spoken word recordings. Her most recent collection, Passing (Red Hen Press), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry and a finalist for the Publishing Triangle�s Audre Lorde Lesbian Poetry Prize. Artemis In Echo Park (Firebrand Books) was also a finalist for the Lambda Book Award. Women�s Studies Chronicles, a chapbook from The Inevitable Press, appeared in 1998. Ordinary Wisdom, from Paradise Press, was reprinted by Red Hen Press in 2005. Healy was awarded the Horace Mann Award by Antioch University Los Angeles for her contributions to the arts and simultaneously was named Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing.

Ms. Healy�s work has been widely anthologized in collections such as Another City: Writing From Los Angeles; California Poetry: From The Gold Rush To The Present; Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals; Grand Passion: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond; The Geography Of Home: California�s Poetry of Place; and The World In Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave. She has been awarded artist�s residencies at The MacDowell Colony and Dorland Mountain Colony and was Guest Writer at Ohio University in 2004. Healy was also the recipient of a COLA Fellowship from the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles and a California Arts Council Grant.
So please join Merry Gangemi and Eloise Klein-Healy for a conversation about her new book The Islands Project with . Tune in to WGDR 91.1fm or stream online at www.wgdr.org.
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May 16, 2007

An Honest Look at Homelessness Among Queer Youth

Since the watershed of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, in NYC's Greenwich Village, two generations of gays and lesbians have grown-up and benefitted from the gains in visibility, econmic security, and cultural richness. But not all of our sisters and brothers and children have been fortunate. Throughout the United States, legions of exiled, poor, and vulnerable young men and women are living on the margins of our abundance. They have been discarded by their families, tormented by straight peers, and disappeared by many networks of social services and children's services. Through the process of producing this series, An Honest Look at Homelessness among Queer Youth, I have been told that some local Vermont social services are "sensitive" to the issues; rather than openly identify queer youth as part of their client population, queer clients are simply blended into mainsteam programs and counselors.

What are the costs of these practices? What can we do? How can we, collectively as a Community and a Nation, work for change? How can we reachout and provide the resources necessary for our queer children, youth, and young adults?

Please join Merry Gangemi and Lluvinia Stanard-Mulvaney of OutrightVT, tomorrow, on Woman-Stirred Radio, as we begin a dialogue on the the epidemic of homelessness among queer youth. The discussion begins at 5 p.m. (edt), 2 p.m. (pdt), and 3 p.m. (cdt).

Tune into Woman-Stirred Radio at 91.1fm in Central Vermont, or steam it online at WGDR. Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. Music from 4 to 4:55, interview begins at 5:00.

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May 02, 2007

Ellen Bravo on Woman-Stirred Radio

Ellen Bravo has been rescheduled for Thursday, June 14, 2007, at 5:00 EDT

Join Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, May 3rd for an interview with Ellen Bravo, a long-time activist for working women. She began working for 9to5, National Association of Working Women in 1982, when she helped found the Milwaukee chapter, and served until 2004 as its national director.

Ellen Bravo teaches Women�s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, including masters level classes on Family-Friendly Workplaces and on Sexual Harassment, and serves as a consultant to 9to5.

She coordinates the Multi-State Working Families Consortium, a network of state coalitions working for family-flexible policies.

In addition to Taking on the Big Boys, Ellen co-authored (with Ellen Cassedy) The 9to5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and wrote The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide, and numerous articles.

So in Central Vermont, tune in to Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio, on WGDR 91.1 fm, or stream it live at WGDR.

Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday afternoon, from 4 to 6pm (EST). Music from 4 to 5. Interviews begin at 5.

WGDR, the best community radio in Vermont, and the rest of the world!
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April 25, 2007

Melissa Ferrick

Melissa Ferrick's twelfth album, In the Eyes of Strangers.was released this past October and as with all her past complilations, the music continues to mature and the emotion is deeper,enthusiastic, and honest.

Leave it to Melissa Ferrick to catch the listener straight out.

Join Merry Gangemi and the rest of Woman-Stirred for a conversation with Melissa Ferrick, this Thursday, April 26th. Music from 4 to 5; interview begins at 5. Listen live at 91.1 fm in Central Vermont or stream it live at WGDR

Woman-Stirred Radio,the best GLBTQ programming in Vermont...and the rest of the world!
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April 11, 2007

The Interviewer is Interviewed

Don't miss Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday 12 April, when the spotlight is reversed and listeners will have the pleasure of finding Merry Gangemi sitting in the guest chair. Yes, Woman-Stirred Radio's very own host is to be interviewed on her own show.

Each week, Merry turns her well-researched and careful attention to her guests. She is an insightful interviewer, unafraid to ask those searching questions, and at the same time she never dictates the journey of the conversation, encouraging her guests to explore and share the best of themselves. An interview with Merry Gangemi is always an experience to be enjoyed.

Now, Merry's Woman-Stirred friends - Jan Steckel, Julie Enszer, and Nicki Hastie - have the opportunity to engage our favourite radio host and interviewer in conversation about her life. We invite you to share in Merry's journey as a writer, activist, poet, editor, and all round dilettante.

Join us to find out how Merry arrived as a winter pioneer in Vermont via San Francisco; learn about Woman-Stirred Radio and the plans for future programming, bringing you the best of GLBTQ culture for Vermont and the rest of the world; and, most importantly, tune in to hear Merry read from her poems as we investigate her inspiration, influences, cultural dreams, political activism, and motivation to speak out for truth.

Merry Gangemi holds a BA in English Literature from New York University, and an MA in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University. Merry has studied at the University of Copenhagen and has traveled widely in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and South America. In 1999, she received the Audre Lorde Creative Writing Award in poetry (SFSU). Her poems and short fiction have been published in Paterson Literary Review, Sinister Wisdom, Street Spirit, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, and The Journal of NJ Poets.

Merry is a writer, freelance copy editor and editor, organizer of Vermont's annual Tea & Poetry festival, and she is a member of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Vermont program committee.

And, of course, Merry is programmer and host of Woman-Stirred Radio, the GLBTQ cultural journal that airs every Thursday afternoon, from 4 until 6 (ET) on WGDR 91.1 fm, Goddard College's community radio station, also streaming online at www.WGDR.org.

So - tune in this Thursday, 12 April, to hear Merry spin some great music from 4pm (ET). The not-to-be-missed interview is live from 5.
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April 04, 2007

The Reverand Jane Newall visits Woman-Stirred Radio !!

Please join Merry Gangemi and Woman-Stirred Radio for a visit with The Reverand Jane E. Newall, the founding pastor of Yakima�s Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church. And as anyone of any religion or spiritual practice could, in these times of escalating violence and perfidy and the relentless attacks on GLBTQ Americans, a woman with her vision and insight shines.

So tune in to 91.1 fm, in Central Vermont, or stream it live on WGDR.

Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday afternoon from 4 until 6 pm (ET). Tune in at 4 for great music, all interviews begin at 5.

Call in and join the dialogue: 802 454-7762.
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March 29, 2007

Marla Brettschneider on Woman-Stirred Radio

Marla Brettschneider's latest book, , is a virtual romp through the multicultural constructions of the Queer Family.Through the lens of her own experience, Brettschneider leads the reader through a a critical analysis of the queer family and its connections to Jewish lives and race politics.The Family Flamboyant is an fascinating narrative that traces the many permutations of family formation.

So please join Merry Gangemi and all of Woman-Stirred Radio today. Music begins at 4pm, interview starts at 5. Feel free to call in and join the dialogue. Air studio phone is 802 454-7762.
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March 22, 2007

Same Sex Different States: When same-sex marriages cross state lines

Andrew Koppelman is professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law. Koppelman joined the law school faculty in fall 1997; he is an expert in constitutional law and political philosophy. His current research focuses on paternalism and perfectionism in the law, with special attention to the enforcement of morals. He has also written The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law and Antidiscrimmination Law and Social Equality.

The disagreements over interstate recognition are almost as profound as those over the underlying marriage issue. Some think that recognition of same-sex marriage is demanded by the provision of the U. S. Constitution that requires states to give "full faith and credit" to each other's legal judgements.... Others think that states should adopt a blanket rule of nonrecognition, under which same-sex marriages would be void outside the jurisdiction that recognized them. (xii)

In crisp, clean language such as this, Andrew Koppelman elucidates the background, precendents, and legal decisions that are foundational to his discussions about same-sex marriage in the context of law and public policy.

So please join Merry Gangemi this Thursday, March 22nd at 5 p.m.(ET) on Woman-Stirred Radio, for an illuminating conversation with Andrew Koppelman, only on WGDR 91.1 fm, the best GLBTQ community radio for Vermont and the rest of the world! Stream it online at WGDR.
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March 14, 2007

Samn and Jackie on Woman-Stirred Radio!

In her own words, Samn Stockwell describes herself and Jackie:

"Samn writes poetry and teaches at CCV and works at the Family Center of Washington County. She has published two books of poetry and one book was a winner of the National Poetry Series. She is interested in how people understand themselves and history and words. She has had many jobs.

Jackie works at Vermont Adult Learning and used to work at the Family Center. She is interested in theology and sociology. She has had a few jobs.

They both had a show on WGDR.

They both like dogs and swimming and food. Jackie has a longer attention span, Samn is more athletic. Jackie listens to NPR, Samn listens to old rock and roll.

Samn belonged to a lesbian-feminist collective, and Jackie worked at a library and had two children.

They both like books. They both like walks. They love their friends and children.

They live in a house in Montpelier that is not in the flood zone."

How can you resist? Please join Merry Gangemi this Thursday, March 15th at 5:00 p.m. (EST) for a delightful hour with two of Vermont's extraordinary women. Tune in to WGDR 91.1 fm or stream it live at: www.wgdr.org.

Woman-Stirred Radio: the GLBTQ cultural journal for Vermont...and the rest of the world! Every Thursday 4 to 6 p.m. Music begins at 4. Interviews at 5.
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March 05, 2007

Marcia Karp Visits Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Woman-Stirred Radio for an interview with Marcia Karp, poet extrodinaire! Marcia Karp has poems and translations in Partisan Review, The Republic of Letters, Literary Imagination, The Guardian, Seneca Review, Agenda, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and in both Penguin Book's Catullus in English, and Petrarch in English. Karp's work is also forthcoming in Pusteblume and the TLS.

Accepting the invitation of Oxford Professor of Poetry, Christopher Ricks, Karp read her poems at Balliol College, Michaelmas Term 2005.

Marcia's poems are lyrical and sometimes haunting sketches of fragile relationships, poignant self-discovery, and imagination.

So please join us on Thursday March 8th at 5:00 p.m. (EST), for a wonderful visit with Marcia Karp.

Tune in at 4:00 and enjoy the first hour of great music. Woman Stirred Radio the best of GLBTQ culture in Vermont and the rest of the world.

So please tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio airing every Tursday afternoon from 4 to 6p.m., and streaming online at a>
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February 28, 2007

Samara Foundation on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi today, Thursday, March 1st at 5:00 p.m. (EST), for an interview with Samara Foundation's executive director Suzanne Stofflet and founder Bill Lippert (D-Hinesberg). Bill was a driving force behind the successful civil union legislation and serves in the Vermont legislature.

You can find out more about Bill Lippert, Suzanne Stofflet, and Samara Foundation by clicking on the names.

So tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio this afternoon at 5:00 for an interesting and informative discussion with Bill Lippert and Suzanne Stofflet.

Tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio at 4:00 and enjoy music that celebrates the vibrant and creative lives of GLBTQ communities in Vermont and the rest of the world!
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December 04, 2006

Alison Bechdel is Woman-Stirred!!

Please join Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, December 7th for a live interview with Alison Bechdel, the creator of Dykes to Watch Out For.

Bechdel's new book, Fun House (Houghton Mifflin), is an intricate memoir of her childhood in rural Beech Creek, Pennsylvania. Fun House is a narrative layered with observation, insight, and humor.

So join Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, December 7th for a conversation with Alison Bechdel. Interview begins at 4:30 (EST). Tune in to WGDR 91.1 fm or listen online WGDR.
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October 26, 2006

Scudder Parker on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi and Scudder Parker, Vermont's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, on WGDR's Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, October 26th at 4:30 pm.

Scudder Parker will be in WGDR's air studio for a live discussion about the race, his candidacy, and issues pertinent to Vermont.

Tune in to 91.1 fm or stream us online at WGDR

Phone lines will be open, so give us a call if you have questions or comments: air studio phone number: 802 454-7762.
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October 19, 2006

Fundraiser Week Show

This week's show is a potpourri of music, commentary, and a live on-air discussion with Mary Meriam and Nicki Hastie, two of the founding members of the Woman-Stirred Blog.

And if Eve Beglarian remembers to email me tonight from Italy, she'll join us too!! Eve is an amazing composer whose work has been performed all over the world.

So join us this week on Woman-Stirred Radio! on WGDR 91.1 fm. Also streaming live at WGDR. Air-studio phone # is 802 454-7762.
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October 03, 2006

Penny Coleman on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Merry Gangemi Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, October 5th, on WGDR 91.1 fm(Goddard College), for a conversation with Penny Coleman, whose new book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War ( Beacon Press 2006), explores posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the intricate yet clear connections to veteran suicides.

In Flashback, Coleman draws on her personal life during the Vietnam War, and her professional experience to explore PTSD and the ways in which the U. S. military and government institutions neglect to address and treat the tens of thousands of veterans and their families who have been deeply affected and damaged by PTSD.

More than 50,000 combat veterns of the Vietnam War have committed suicide, and this number continues to grow; it has exceeded the 50,000 known U. S. combat deaths
from the Vietnam War.

With the continuing escalation of full-scale war in the Middle East, PTSD remains a tragic consequence of war and the ballooning, corporatized U.S. military.

So please join Merry Gangemi and Penny Coleman on Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, October 5th. Interview begins at 4:30. Air studio phone # is 802 454-7762.

Penny Coleman is the author of Village Elders. She lives with her family in New York.
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September 28, 2006

Judy Grahn on Woman-Stirred Radio

Join me this Thursday, September 28th, at 4:30 pm (EST), for a conversation with Judy Grahn, co-director of the Women's Spirituality MA program and Program Director of the MFA in Creative Inquiry, at New College of California. Grahn is also editor of Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture.

Judy Grahn is well-known and respected throughout the world as a cultural theorist; she is an early, and foundational contributor to the literature of women's spirituality. Her work engages the reconstitution and recuperation of the rituals, stories, and values of sacred, feminine traditions, and her decades-long work is integral to the holistic body of lesbian-feminist theory.

Grahn's identity as a lesbian-feminist informs all of her work, which includes poetry, essays, herstory, cultural theory, social practice, fiction, and post graduate education.

Her most recent book, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (Beacon Press) outlines a new origin theory of culture, which she believes emerged from the peaceful blood rituals of primitive and ancient women. Blood, Bread, and Roses explores cultural perceptions and social mores that both encapsulate menstruation as a curse and the female body as unclean and perverse.

Within the context of metaformic theory, Grahn's most current project is writing a book that explores the origins and trajectories of goddess practices.

Judy Grahn's books include:

Mundane's World: A Novel
Fragments Of Desire: Sapphic Fictions In Works By Hd
Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A selected anthology with essays
Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna
The Common Woman Poems
She Who: A Graphic Book of Poems
Edward the Dyke and Other Poems
A Woman is Talking to death
The Work of a Common Woman
The Queen of Wands
The Highest Apple: Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition
Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds

So tune in Thursday, September 28th, 4:30 pm (EST) to WGDR Plainfield (Goddard College) or stream it live. Tune in at 4:00 and enjoy Woman-Stirred music before the interview!!

Be part of the dialogue! You can call the air studio at: 802 456-1630.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by a grant from Samara Foundation of Vermont, and airs every Thursday afternoon from 4:00 until 6:00 pm (EST).
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September 23, 2006

Book Review: The Underwater Hospital

The Underwater Hospital. Jan Steckel. San Francisco: Zeitgeist Press, 2006.

To read The Underwater Hospital is to enter a world that many in America choose not to acknowledge, let alone read about. But for those who do want to know, The Underwater Hospitalis an important addition to the landscape of protest against current American public policy.

The poems bear witness to the brutal consequences of every single administration since that B-movie-cowboy Reagan slid into the White House. Jan's work challenges the hypocrisy and evil of compassionate conservatism, an idiomatic smoke screen for greed, indifference, and cruelty.

In "Three Little Sisters", the poet-physician struggles against a recurring nightmare:

The three little Salazar sisters from Salinas
come crestfallen into my bedroom some nights,
all crying with rotten teeth and gum abscesses.
The younger two are California-born.
I give them antibiotics and send them to a Medicaid dentist
so the infections won't spread to their jaw or brain.
For the eldest, eight years old, I can do nothing,
because she was born in Mexico
so doesn't qualify for Medicaid.
I prescribe extra medicine,
knowing the mother will split it
between all three little girls.
I send them out crying.
Night after night, I curse and ask,
what kind of country
denies an eight-year-old girl
relief from pain like that
because she was born
on the wrong side of the border
from her sisters?

In "Dios le bendiga," the narrator evokes the desperation of the mother's guilt and self-loathing because:

I pretended to be sick
and stayed home from church....
My uncle came by drunk from a lost cockfight.
He raped me in the kitchen
where I had made cactus candy with my mother and sisters.

Here is the mother whose child was born with syphilis, a mother damned by the embedded misogyny in Catholicism, but a mother grateful for the care that, at the very least, cured her baby of syphilis. Here they are, woman to woman, doctor to patient, equals in the desperation of social and cultural systems that perpetuate pain.

Another poem, "Daddy's Little Girl," translates a similar system of patronization and paternalism that, even as a woman, a professional, a doctor, the narrator cannot escape her mad participation in the charade:

I was
deeply moved by his acceptance of me,
for which I was more hungry than for sex,
even with such a dish as his daughter.
I stepped easily into the role of
prospective son-in-law....
My performance was satisfactory:
my lack of love went unremarked by all,
by her, by him, and not the least by me.

Jan Steckel's exquisite honesty is what engages her soul in the task of poetry: an ability to not only remember and imagine, but to see and to hear her past, her family's history and its rich and fecund characteristics.

In "The Maiden Aunts," Steckel brings them to life:

My grandmother was alive again,
the one who said to me on her deathbed,
"You must write!" and
"Don't waste your life cooking, honey,
it's all over in ten minutes."

Her family is the bridge Steckel travels across to find the strong, colorful threads woven from her life to theirs. Through the memory of her grandmother, Jan meets those maiden aunts:

who visited her in the squalor
of the Lower East Side.
Dressed in black, the maiden aunts
bent and kissed her eight-year-old head
saying, "Never forget, Selma,
you are one of the heher menschen."
you're one of the higher people,
a gentlewoman....What they meant was,
you come from a long line of ten chief rabbis
of the city of Riga.
Your grandfather wrote a treatise on Maimonides
that is in the Library of Congress.
Your family, the Widow Romm and Sons,
is the largest publisher of Yiddish books
in Eastern Europe.... She dreamed of the last Rabbi of Riga,
turning from the door of the gas chamber,
as he shepherded his congregation in.
Beyond him, her two old-maid aunts
clutched each others hands
and stared past the Rabbi's shoulder,
whispering "Never forget, Selma...."

Clearly, Steckel has never forgotten and will never forget:

...the elderly female patient with dementia
whose nephew had raped her
though we refused to recognize it....
Carmen with her box of chocolates
inviting me onto her bed to watch
Puerto Rican girls mud-wrestling
on late night black-and-white hospital TV.
...Old women with rose petals strewn
around their hospital beds die alone.
Whores giggle and crack babies keen.
A woman kisses her baby
to show me how much she loves him
after she has broken all his limbs...
If I open this door, the dead will rush in
like a thousand tons of water, filling me up,
and I will never be able to shut that hatch again.

Maybe not, Jan Steckel, but that is why this book is so imperative: because you remember and you feel and you tell the truth about what it was you saw, and heard, and know.

Pushcart-nominated writer, Jan Steckel, MD. Jan is a bisexual activist and a Harvard- and Yale-trained (former) pediatrician.

She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and cared for Spanish-speaking families in California at a county hospital and at a large HMO.

In 2001, she left the practice of medicine to write full-time, and her chapbook, The Underwater Hospital was released in April, 2006.

Poems from The Underwater Hospital first appeared in: The Pedestal MagazineInk Pot, Lit Pot, Writers Monthly, Street Spirit, Coffy Time Blues, Erotica Zine, and the HarpersSF anthology, WomanPrayers.

Her poems, short stories and nonfiction pieces have also appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Margin, and Lodestar Quarterly.

Continue reading "Book Review: The Underwater Hospital"

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September 06, 2006

Melissa Moon on Woman-Stirred Radio

Join Merry Gangemi, this Thursday, September 7th, at 4:30 pm (EST) for a Woman-Stirred Radio interview with WGDR's own Melissa Moon.

Melissa Mariah Moon is an MTF transsexual, lesbian, priestess, witch, and activist,. She is a member of WGDR's The Quilting Hour collective on WGDR, herbalist-in-training, drummer, singer, artist, has been living in Vermont nearly three years.

To paraphrase Melissa: she loves living in Vermont and she will share her experiences about her past, about coming home to herself, and her current life of learning to live without cars, bank accounts, and family... "and finding joy and love in every minute of it!!"

So join us, this Thursday afternoon, at 4:30 on Woman-Stirred Radio for an intriguing hour with Melissa Moon.

Air studio phone (802) 454-7762.
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Tee A. Corinne Prize for Lesbian Media Arts

This information was posted in an earlier post about Tee Corinne (whose memory is a blessing) and we're moving it to the main page to disseminate the information more widely.

A new prize has been created to honor Tee A. Corinne, an artist with bold vision and a fierce dedication to encouraging and preserving lesbian art. The Tee A. Corinne Prize for Lesbian Media Artists, established by Moonforce Media, will award unrestricted grants of up to $1,000 annually. JEB (Joan E. Biren) will choose the inaugural prize winner. Application guidelines are online at http://www.jebmedia.com/5322.html. Applications are due by November 1, 2006.

The prize is for artists working in photography, film, video, digital media, new media, or any fusions of these forms and in any genre including documentary, narrative, experimental, or any other styles or combination of genres. The work may be about any subject.

Lesbian media artists are usually excluded from funding opportunities because the form and/or content of their work lie outside the bounds of traditional grantmaking. This prize furthers Tee�s wish that individual lesbian artists be financially supported to work independently and without censorship.

If you wish to add your financial support to help ensure the ongoing success of this grant, you can send a tax-exempt donation to: Moonforce Media, PO Box 13375, Silver Spring, MD 20911. All checks earmarked for the Tee A. Corinne Prize will go entirely toward funding the prize.

Moonforce Media is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that has been serving progressive communities by producing and distributing documentary films and videos since 1979. Our productions have been broadcast and used by organizers and activists in the peace, feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender movements. We are dedicated to promoting social justice through media and to encouraging queer media making.
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August 30, 2006

Joan Armatrading is Woman-Stirred!!

Joan Armatrading was born in the West Indies and grew up in Birmingham, England. In the early 1970s, Joan moved to London and released her debut Whatever's for Us. Her enduring classics include: Love and Affection, Down to Zero, Drop the Pilot, and Willow. Joan Armatrading has won 2 Grammy nominations, 18 gold records and 10 platinum records in seven countries. Join Merry Gangemi and Joan Armatrading this Thursday, August 31st at 4:30 pm for a conversation with Joan Armatrading; one of the best musicians of the age.
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August 24, 2006

When a Man Becomes a Woman

Ken Prince was a married, Mormon father of six and a member of the city council in the conservative Salt Lake suburb of Sandy, Utah.

Yet, Ken Prince, an active member in the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS), struggled all his life with feelings of being in the wrong body and of the wrong gender.

Join me this Thursday, August 24th, on Woman-Stirred Radio, for a fascinating discussion of gender, religion and politics with Jenny Lee Jackson.

Interview begins at 4:30 pm (EST). Stream it live at WGDR.org. Phone lines will be open.

Woman Stirred Radio is generously underwritten by the Samara Foundation of Vermont.
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August 15, 2006

Judith Arcana on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday at 4:30 (EST) for an interview with writer and poet Judith Arcana.

In the years before the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v Wade, Judith Arcana was a Jane, a member of the underground network of women that provided safe abortions services.

Judith's latest book of poems, What if Your Mother, ...sparks and burns with the hidden language and stories of women (Minnie Bruce Pratt).

Grace Paley writes: What I love about this important book is how the work Judith began in Chicago years ago has deepened in poetry and prose with love for the lives of women.

Judith Arcana, herself, writes: This happened in the years I was writing What if Your Mother; I began to move my writing into the center of my life. I began to create an image of myself as an old woman, writing. Now I'm burnishing that image, working and dreaming myself into this coming of age, time among the witches and spinners, the magic queens and wise crones. I'm imagining myself into an old woman, a generative old woman who makes art with words, makes words out of years, makes years of words into poems and stories.

So tune in at 91.1FM or stream it live at wgdr An hour in the mind of Judith Arcana should be a most interesting journey!
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July 30, 2006

Shakespeare Undone?

Move over Harold Bloom and Frank Kermode! Robin P. Williams is poised and ready to challange the most important question in Literature.

In her latest book, Sweet Swan of Avon, Williams outlines and discusses a topic she has been researching for seven years: Did a woman write Shakespeare?

Consider these documented facts:

More than two hundred books have been acknowledged by experts as sources for the Shakespearean plays. Often several editions of the same book were used.

About two dozen of the French, Italian, and Latin sources had not been translated into English during Shakespeare's lifetime.

No book owned or used by William Shakespeare has ever been found.

So tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio this week for a fascinating discussion with Robin P. Williams, author of Sweet Swan of Avon. Woman-Stirred Radio every Thursday afternoon 4 to 6pm (EST) only on www.wgdr.org.
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July 13, 2006

Barbara A. Taylor

Barbara A. Taylor is Woman-Stirred!!!!

Join me this Thursday, July 20th at 4:30 pm (EST) on Woman-Stirred Radio for a live interview with Australian poet and activist, Barbara A. Taylor (BAT).

Barbara A. Taylor lives and works on five organic acres in the Rainbow Country, Mountain Top, in northern NSW, east coast of Australia, over 1000kms north of Sydney, known as the tropical north coast but it is actually sub-tropical.

Barbara's work has been published in Visibilities, Sinister Wisdom, No. 63, and is forthcoming in Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly. A 15-line sonnet has been recently published at Red Morning Press, Washington DC.

Here is a sweet Haiku she wrote:

autumn mists
the mountain
disappears

Barbara has done some radio herself; back in 1977 she was part of a radio collective called Stand Up and Be Counted, a women's music program., which played a lot of the old songs and jazz music by Kay Gardiner, Willie Tyson, Trish Nugent, and Linda Tillery.

Visit Barbara's web site to read more about her and her work.

So please join me and all Stirred Womenon Woman-Stirred Radio. this Thursday, July 20th at 4:30 pm (EST) for what is sure to be a fascinating dialogue with Australian poet Barbara A. Taylor. Live from NSW Australia. Tune in at 4pm for some great music! Interview begins at 4:30.
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July 03, 2006

Renate Stendhal

Renate Stendhal on Woman-Stirred Radio Thursday, July 6, 2006 4 to 6pm.

Tune into Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, July 6th for an interview with Renate Stendhal, PhD.
Dr. Stendhal is a Lambda award-winning writer, translator, writing coach, and counselor. Born in Germany, she lived in Paris for 20 years as a cultural correspondent for German radio and press. She moved to California, where she earned a degree in clinical psychology and is currently in private practice.

Her books include:

True Secrets of Lesbian Desire
Die Farben der Lust: Sex in lesbischen Liebesziehunger
The Grasshopper's Secret
Gertrude Stein in Words and Pictures
Love's Learning Place: Truth as Aphrodisiac

Cecilia Bartoli: The passion of song and
Sex and Other Sacred Games are co-authored with Kim Chernin.

Stendhal is the first German translator of feminist authors Audre Lorde, Susan Griffin, and Adrienne Rich. She has also translated Gertrude Stein's only mystery novel, Blood on the Dining-Room Floor, into German.

Join Merry Gangemi and Renate Stendhal, this Thursday July 6th on Woman-Stirred Radio. Music from 4 to 4:30. Interview begins at 4:30.

If you have questions or comments for Dr. Stendhal during the broadcast, call the air studio at 802.454.7762. Or email your questions and comments to me at mgangemi@sover.net and they will be forwarded.

Woman-Stirred Radio is generously supported by The Samara Foundation of Vermont.
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June 14, 2006

Ferron on Woman-Stirred Radio

Tune into Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, August 15th for an interview with singer/songwriter Ferron. Her many albums include: Ferron Backed Up, Testimony, Shadows on a Dime, Not a Still Life, Turning into Beautiful, and Driver.

Ferron's musical genius took root in the early 70s and developed under the many signs of social change and political turmoil that mark the age. She has been compared to Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne but Ferron's genuis is uniquely lesbian-feminist and Sturm und Drang brilliant. Far and away she transcends the language of loss and longing in personal as well as political, truth.

Join Ferron and Merry Gangemi, this Thursday May 4th. Interview begins at 4:30 pm (EST) on Woman-Stirred Radio. www.wgdr.org

Music from 4 to 4:30. Interview begins at 4:30 pm.
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May 24, 2006

Elana Dykewomon on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join us this Thursday, May 25th, at 4:30 pm (EST), on Woman-Stirred Radio, for an interview with Elana Dykewomon, author, poet, activist, and teacher, whose lesbian classic, Riverfinger Women (1974), captured the attention of the lesbian community, heralded her prolific body of work, and identified her as a writer of intelligence and insight.

Elana has also written Moon Creek Road (2003), Beyond the Pale (1997), Nothing Will Be as Sweet as the Taste: Selected poems 1974-1994 (1995), Fragments from Lesbos (1981), and They Will Know Me by My Teeth: Stories and poems of lesbian struggle, celebration, and survival (1976),

Dykewomon was editor of Sinister Wisdom from 1987 to 1995, and teaches, from time to time, at San Francisco State University.

Elana Nachman was born in NYC, in 1949; she changed her name to Dykewomon to identify to identify herself as an indisputably committed cultural worker, and member of the lesbian community.

Elana Dykewomon has much to say about the complexities of lesbian life and community, and its location within the ongoing struggles for personal and political freedom in a global culture of violence and exploitation.

So join us, this Thursday, May 25th 4:30 (EST) for an interview with Elana Dykewomon. And please feel free to call in. Join the discussion and share your thoughts. 802.454.7762.

Woman-Stirred Radio 91.1 fm (Goddard College) and at: www.WGDR.org.
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May 18, 2006

Jane Rule on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join us today on Woman-Stirrred Radio for an interview with Jane Rule, an extraordinary writer gifted with clarity, compassion, and humor.

Rule's elegant novels have graced the world since her first novel, Desert of the Heart, was published in 1965. Since then, Jane Rule has written and published numerous novels, short stories, and essays, including:

Lesbian Images, Theme for Diverse Instruments, After the Fire, Memory Board, Hot-eyed Moderate, Inland Passage, and Contract with the World.

Jane Rule was born in Plainfield, NJ (1931) and graduated from Millls College in 1952. She has lived and worked in Canada for over 40 years.

Rule writes about a world of diversity and the seemingly small acts of courage that speak volumes to the quiet, persistent struggle of all people to understand their world and to share that understanding with others.

Tune in to Woman-Stirred Radio and share the world!! www.WGDR.org. Call in and share your thoughts 802.454.7762.
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May 03, 2006

Minnie Bruce Pratt on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, May 4th at 4:30pm for an interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt

Minnie Bruce was born September 12, 1946, in Selma, Alabama. She graduated from segregated Bibb County High School and attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a year after George Wallace 'stood in the schoolhouse door.'

She completed a Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to her academic training, Minnie Bruce was educated by the great liberation struggles of the 20th century ----through grass-roots organizing with women in the army-base town of Fayetteville, NC, and through teaching at historically Black universities.

Her books of poetry include: The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Poetry; Walking Back Up Depot Street, which was named book of the year by ForeWord magazine in the Gay/Lesbian category and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry; Crime Against Nature, which was chosen as the Academy's Lamont Poetry Selection, received the American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award for Literature; We Say We Love Each Other; and a chapbook, The Sound of One Fork.

Join Merry Gangemi and Minnie Bruce Pratt, this Thursday May 4th @ 4:30 pm on Woman-Stirred Radio. Only on WGDR 91.1 fm Community radio for Central Vermont and the rest of the world!

Music from 4 to 4:30. Interview begins at 4:30 pm.
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April 21, 2006

Jan Steckel, MD on Woman-Stirred Radio

Please join me this Thursday, April 27th, for a conversation with Pushcart-nominated writer, Jan Steckel, MD, a Harvard- and Yale-educated and trained (former) pediatrician, and bisexual activist.

Woman-Stirred Radio airs every Thursday on WGDR. It is a collaborative production of Woman-Stirred and Quiddities.

Jan served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and cared for Spanish-speaking families in California at a county hospital and at a large HMO.

In 2001, she left the practice of medicine to write full-time, and her chapbook, The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press) was released in April, 2006.

Poems from The Underwater Hospital first appeared in: The Pedestal Magazine, Ink Pot, Lit Pot, Writers Monthly, Street Spirit, Coffy Time Blues Erotica Zine, and the HarpersSF anthology, WomanPrayers.

Her poems, short stories and nonfiction pieces have also appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Margin, and Lodestar Quarterly.

Jan lives in Oakland, California with Hew Wolff.

To read The Underwater Hospital is to enter a world that many in America choose not to acknowledge, let alone read about. But for those who do want to know, The Underwater Hospital is an important addition to the landscape of outrage and protest against current American public policy.

The poems bear witness to the brutal consequences of every single administration since that B-movie cowboy Reagan slid into the White House. Jan's work challenges the hypocrisy and evil of "compassionate conservatism," an idiomatic smoke screen for greed, indifference, and cruelty.

In Three Little Sisters, the physician-poet struggles against the nightmare:

The three little Salazar sisters from Salinas/ come crestfallen into my bedroom some nights,/ all crying with rotten teeth and gum abscesses./ The younger two are California-born./ I give them antibiotics and send them to a Medicaid dentist/ so the infections won't spread to their jaw or brain./ For the eldest, eight years old, I can do nothing,/ because she was born in Mexico/ so doesn't qualify for Medicaid./ I prescribe extra medicine,/ knowing the mother will split it/ between all three little girls./ I send them out crying./ Night after night, I curse and ask,/ what kind of country/ denies an eight-year-old girl/ relief from pain like that/ because she was born/ on the wrong side of the border/ from her sisters'

In Dios le bendiga, the narrator evokes the desperation of the mother's guilt and self-loathing because:

I pretended to be sick/ and stayed home from church..../ My uncle came by drunk from a lost cockfight./ He raped me in the kitchen/ where I had made cactus candy with my mother and sisters.

A mother whose child was born with syphilis. A mother who is damned by Catholicism and its embedded misogyny. But a mother grateful for the care that at least cured her baby of syphilis. Woman to woman, doctor to patient, equals in the desperation of social and cultural systems that perpetuate pain.

And another poem, Daddy's Little Girl, translates a similar system of patronization and paternalism that, as a woman, a professional, and a doctor, the narrator cannot escape her mad participation in the charade:

I was/ deeply moved by his acceptance of me,/ for which I was more hungry than for sex,/ even with such a dish as his daughter./ I stepped easily into the role of/ prospective son-in-law.... My performance was satisfactory:/ my lack of love went unremarked by all,/ by her, by him, and not the least by me.

Jan Steckel's exquisite honesty is what engages her soul in the task of poetry. Her ability to not only remember and imagine, but to see and to hear her past, her family's history and its rich and fecund characteristics. In The Maiden Aunts, Steckel brings them to life:

My grandmother was alive again,/ the one who said to me on her deathbed,/ "You must write!" and/ "Don't waste your life cooking, honey,/ it's all over in ten minutes."

Her family is the bridge Steckel travels across to find the strong, colorful threads woven from her life to theirs. Through the memory of her grandmother, Jan meets those maiden aunts:

...who visited her in the squalor/ of the Lower East Side./ Dressed in black, the maiden aunts/ bent and kissed her eight-year-old head/ saying, "Never forget, Selma,/ you are one of the heher menschen."/ you're one of the higher people,/ a gentlewoman....What they meant was,/ you come from a long line of ten chief rabbis/ of the city of Riga./ Your grandfather wrote a treatise on Maimonides/ that is in the Library of Congress./ Your family, the Widow Romm and Sons,/ is the largest publisher of Yiddish books/ in Eastern Europe.... She dreamed of the last Rabbi of Riga,/ turning from the door of the gas chamber,/ as he shepherded his congregation in./ Beyond him, her two old-maid aunts/ clutched each others hands/ and stared past the Rabbi's shoulder,/ whispering "Never forget, Selma...."

Clearly, Steckel has never forgotten and will never forget:

...the elderly female patient with dementia/ whose nephew had raped her/ though we refused to recognize it./ ...Carmen with her box of chocolates/ inviting me onto her bed to watch/ Puerto Rican girls mud-wrestling/ on late night black-and-white hospital TV./ ...Old women with rose petals strewn/ around their hospital beds die alone./ Whores giggle and crack babies keen./ A woman kisses her baby/ to show me how much she loves him/ after she has broken all his limbs.../ If I open this door, the dead will rush in/ like a thousand tons of water, filling me up,/ and I will never be able to shut that hatch again.

Maybe not, Jan Steckel, but that is why this book is so imperative: because you remember and you feel and you tell the truth about what it was you saw, and heard, and know.

Woman-Stirred Radio Woman-Stirred
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April 04, 2006

Catie Curtis on Woman-Stirred Radio

There is something about an artist, who loves music so much that she becomes music; her lyrics poetry.

Catie Curtis�s melodies and rhythms inspire and bring together those who treasure the gift.

I am very please to welcome Catie Curtis to Woman-Stirred Radio!

Please tune in, this Thursday, April 6th for an interview with Catie Curtis. Music starts at 4pm. The interview with Catie begins at 4:30.

Visit Catie's website at: www.catiecurtis.com.

Tell your friends about Woman-Stirred Radio�at www.wgdr.org.

And see what's happening at the Woman-Stirred weblog: www.woman-stirred.blogspot.com.
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February 24, 2006

Ruth Mountaingrove on Woman-Stirred Radio!!

Join Merry Gangemi on Thursday, March 2nd, for an interview with Ruth Mountaingrove on Woman-Stirred Radio.

Ruth Mountaingrove was born in Philadelphia, in 1923, and has lived on the West Coast since 1971. She earned an MA in Photography from Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, and has had numerous one-woman exhibitions.

As a poet and songwriter, Ruth realized that artists, such as Bob Dylan, could write songs as a way to bring poetry to a wide audience.

Ruth Mountaingrove was co-publisher of The Blatant Image: A Magazine of Feminist Photography, 1981-1983, and ran the Ovular Photography summer workshops, in the mountains of Oregon, for six years, 1979-1982. She was also the co-publisher of WomanSpirit for ten years, 1974-1984.

Her book, For Those Who Cannot Sleep, was published in 1977 and a CD of the same title was recorded in 2000. And another CD, Disjunctive Poem and Soul Conversations, was recorded in Arcata, CA.

Please join us for what will certainly be an interesting conversation about the world of lesbian poetry and song. The phone number of WGDR's air studio is 802 454-7762.
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February 17, 2006

Judith Stelboum on Woman-Stirred Radio!

Judith P. Stelboum is Editor-in-Chief of Alice Street Editions for lesbian fiction and non-fiction books. She is the author of Past Perfect, a novel of lesbian life, and co-editor of The Lesbian Polyamory Reader: Open Relationships, Non-Monogamy and Casual Sex. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in various anthologies and journals. She is a reviewer/essayist for Lesbian Reviewof Books, and Lamda Book Report. Judith is Professor Emerita of English, Woman's Studies, and Lesbian Studies at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.

So tune in this Thursday, February 23th. Woman-Stirred Radio begins at 4 pm. The interview with Judith begins at 4:30. Calls and comments are welcome. Air studio phone number: 802- 454-7762
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February 03, 2006

Woman-Stirred Radio

Julie R. Enszer will be my guest on Woman-Stirred Radio, February 9th. Julie is a poet, writer, lesbian activist, and executive fundraiser. She lives in Maryland and works as the Executive Director of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, an organization led by Dr. Helen Caldicott.

Julie's poems have been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Room of One�s Own, Long Shot, the Web Del Sol Review, and Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly. She has completed a full-length poetry manuscript, Limnings, and a chapbook, Mottled Midrash. Her favorite poets are Marilyn Hacker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Mary Oliver. Julie studied poetry at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Writer's Center in Bethesda.

Join us on Thursday, February 9th, from 4 until 6 pm.
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