ALFA – Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

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

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

Sandra Gail Lambert: Becoming A Writer

Sandra Gail Lambert: Becoming A Writer

Sandra has been involved in many kinds of activism, including anti-racism through the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA); Lesbians for Empowerment, Action, and Politics (LEAP); and anti-nuclear protests and peace activism; and disability rights actions in South Carolina and Florida.

Posted on February 27, 2023 Posted in Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social and Political Groups Tagged with able-bodied, ALFA, anti-nuclear protest, anti-racism, Atlanta, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, Atlanta’s Lesbian-Feminist Community, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Augusta, Black Women’s Health Project, Boogie Women Committee, Carolyn Mobley, Changer and the Changed, Charis Books and More, civil disobedience, Common Lives Lesbian Lives, Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, Connie May Fowler, Cris Williamson, Dee Liston, Disability and Intimacy, disability rights, disability rights consciousness, disabled, domestic violence, Emory, feminist bookstore, Feminist Bookstore News, fiction, Florida, Gainesville, Georgia State University, I Know You Know, incest, Jill Marsh, Karate, Kay Hagan, LEAP, Lesbian Land, Lesbian Readers Potluck, Lesbians for Empowerment Action and Politics, Linda Bryant, literary citizenship, Liz Hill, Mariana, Medical College of Georgia, Meg Christian, memoir, Norway, Oslo, peace activism, peace walk, Physician Assistant, polio, post-polio syndrome, Pteradyktil, River Plant, Sandra Gail Lambert, Sandra Lambert, Santa Fe College, Savannah, self-defense courses for women, Sherry Emory, Sinister Wisdom, social inequalities, Southern Voice, Suzanne Carlton, Swainsboro, The River’s Memory, wheelchair, Womonwrites, worker-owner

Bonnie Netherton: Traveling a Winding Path to Women’s Community

Bonnie Netherton: Traveling a Winding Path to Women’s Community

Bonnie Netherton in the rowboat she used to travel back and forth to her Chinese junk, Ming Meng

The very best years of my life were the years that I lived on the water, on the boat. I think of those years as the best, the best I ever lived.

Posted on January 30, 2023 Posted in Lesbian Land Groups Tagged with ALFA, Atlanta, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, Barbara Deming, Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund, Barbara Lieu, Blue Lunden, Bonnie Netherton, Chicago, Chinese junk, Coast Guard, consciousness raising groups, feminist lawyer, Florida, Frances Pici, Ft Lauderdale, Gainesville, Georgia, Harriett Green, Hurricane Wilma, Jewish, joint custody, Key West, LaGuardia Airport, Latvia, Lavender Lieu, Lesbian Connection, lesbian hotel, Manhattan, Margie Pitts Hames, Mermaid Inn, Mexico, Mickey Alberts, Ming Meng, Mobile Alabama, Morgana, New Orleans, New York City, New Yorker, Pagoda, Pearls, Pici, pograms, Rainbow Williams, real estate license, Red Dyke Theatre, San Francisco, Sandy Hagan, school bus, scooter, Skyler Maxwell, St Simons Island, Star, storm surge, Sugarloaf Community, Sugarloaf Key, Sugarloaf Womens Village, Wilma, Womens Peace Walk

Red Dyke Theatre with Mickey Alberts and Frances Pici

Red Dyke Theatre with Mickey Alberts and Frances Pici

The Android Sisters, left to right: Murry Stevens, Frances Pici, and Mickey Alberts. Courtesy of Frances Pici.

Frances Pici, Mickey Alberts and three others started Red Dyke Theatre in Atlanta in 1974 with a New Year’s Eve show at their home, Tacky Towers.

Posted on April 8, 2022 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Social and Political Groups Tagged with ALFA, ALFA Omegas, Amy Darden, Amy Estelle, Atlanta GA, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, Bonnie Netherton, Buffalo Women's Studies College, C.C. (aka Carol Gallant), C.K, Charlotte Bunch, coming out, communal households, DAR II, Debra Gray, Dino Martin, Donna Price, Dyke, Dykes for the Second American Revolution, Fanny Fernow, feminist process, Frances Pici, Gail Reeder, Garbo’s, Harriett Green, Jaen Black, Jeanne Aland, lesbian feminist theatre, Lily Tomlin, Maoism, Marxism, Mickey Alberts, Moral Hazard, Murry (Mary) Stevens, music, Nancy Oswald, performance, Rebecca Ranson, Red Dyke Theatre, SAME – Southeastern Arts Media and Education, Sarah Holmes, Stars and Dykes Forever Theater, Sue Berry, Sweet Gum Head, Tacky Towers, The Great Southeastern Lesbian Conference, The Tower, theatre, University of Buffalo Women’s Studies College, Wilson Huff, Winona Holloway, women's radio shows, women’s movement