Cindi Stewart – Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Merril Mushroom: Lifelong Feminist Butch, Radical Advocate, and so much more

Merril Mushroom at her present home in 2022. Photo by Jill Spisak.

Merril Mushroom came out in the 1950s in Miami Beach, Florida, where she experienced homophobia and racism while learning the rules of being butch or femme. A lifelong butch, she has written scores of articles about lesbian life, including a play, Bar Dykes, that has been produced in San Francisco, California; New York City; and other cities in between. Her interview describes growing up Jewish in a city with signs saying “No Jews Allowed,” teaching elementary school in Harlem in the 1960s, and moving to rural middle Tennessee, where she has lived since the 1970s.

Posted on May 5, 2025 Posted in Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with AAUW, adoption, Alabama, ALFA, American Association of University Women, Anti-war movement, antisemitism, Association for Mentally Ill Children, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, Bank Street School, Brown v Board of Education, Caffe Cino, Camp Skytop, Charlie Johns, Coleman Younger, Dowelltown, Duke archives, Ed Sullivan, Feminist activism, feminist movement, Florida, Florida State University, Francis Lee, Freedom Bus, Gadsden, Gainesville, Girlfriends magazine, Gloria Steinem, Greenwich Village, Harlem, head shop, Jack, Jewish, John Harris, Johns Committee, Julia Penelope, Julia Penelope Stanley, Knoxville, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, lesbian, Lesbian Home Movie Project, Lincoln Legion of Lesbians, LSD, McCarthy hearings, Miami Beach, Millbrook Group, motorcycle messenger, New York, New York City, New York MIX Festival, OLAC, old lesbians organizing for change, Paranoia, Penny Stanley, photoanimator, psychedelics, puppeteer, racism, Ram Dass, Raspberry Exercises, Rosman, Sharon Thompson, Sinister Wisdom, Southeast, southern, Tampa, Tennessee, Tennessee Red Book, Timothy Leary, Toast of the Town, Tommy Trent, University of Florida, University of Miami, vaudeville

Kecia Cunningham: Bodacious African American Trailblazer

In 1999, Kecia Cunningham was the South’s first, openly lesbian African American elected to office, winning a seat on Decatur, Georgia, City Commission.

Mendy Knott: The Writer’s Life on the Mountain

Mendy Knott, North Carolina poet, reflecting her experiences as a former police officer, military veteran, and Southern preacher’s kid. She is an award-winning screenplay writer, too.

Posted on January 20, 2025 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers Tagged with A Little Lazarus, academic poets, Across the ARK-LA-TEX: A Cross Family Cookbook, alcoholic, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg Tennessee, Asheville North Carolina, Asheville Womens Chorus, Austin Texas, Burnsville North Carolina, butch lesbian, Climbing Mt Pisgah, cultural mecca, DeKalb County at Emory University, Down and Dirty, downtown church Jubilee, fantasy novel, Fayetteville Arkansas, Goddess Festival, HOWL, In My Dreams, Jackson Mississippi, Leigh Knott, Leigh Wilkerson, lesbian feminist cultural center, lesbians, Malaprops Bookstore, married, Matinee, mecca for lesbians, Men Only Screenplay, Mendy Knott, military veteran, Minden Louisiana, mountains, Peacework, Peggy Seeger, performance poets, poet, poetry chapbooks, Poets Under the Maples, Police Academy, police officer, poppyseed cake, post apocalyptic, Presbyterian ministers family, Raising Voices: A Café of Our Own Anthology, raped in the military, Rhodes in Memphis, S M sexuality, screenplay writer, screwed over by a lesbian press, sexuality, slam poets, sober, Southern preachers kid, Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly, street poets, tattoo, The Pentaculum, University of Memphis, US Air Force, violence against women, Voice Like a Hammer: Women Respond to 9 11, Womansong, womens open mic, womens voices, Womonwrites, write a novel, writer

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change

Interview by Rose Norman by telephone on April 12, 2013 Rose Norman: What made you a social justice activist? Mandy Carter talked about getting turned on by an American Friends Service Committee speaker in high school. What was your “aha” moment? Joan Garner: I grew up in Washington, D.C., during the 1950s and 1960s, the height of the civil rights movement. I was in the eleventh grade when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. That event was the aha for me. That very weekend, I was attending the annual conference of my high school sorority. Girls from several surrounding states were meeting in Washington, D.C., the weekend of April 4, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Dr. King was assassinated, and a curfew was put on the city. We couldn’t leave the hotel. We were about 150 African American girls, and the rest of the hotel was completely white, except for some of the maids and other service staff. We were petrified about the assassination and the curfew; and we didn’t know what was happening. We could look out of our hotel window and see U Street starting to burn. Our sponsors decided …

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Posted on December 15, 2023 Posted in Social and Political Groups Tagged with advocacy, African American lesbian woman, Atlanta, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, civil rights movement, Creating Change conference, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, first Black mayor of Atlanta, Fund for Southern Communities, Funding Exchange Network, Human Rights Campaign, Jewell Gomez, Joan Garner, lesbian and gay movement, lesbian feminists, Mab Segrest, Mandy Carter, Mayor Maynard Jackson, North Carolina, out Black radical dykes, Pam McMichael, Simone de Beauvoir, Sinister Wisdom, social justice, SONG, South Carolina Georgia, Southerners on New Ground, Suzanne Pharr, Washington DC, Washington Hilton Hotel, women’s movement

Author: Cindi Stewart

Merril Mushroom: Lifelong Feminist Butch, Radical Advocate, and so much more

Kecia Cunningham: Bodacious African American Trailblazer

Mendy Knott: The Writer’s Life on the Mountain

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change