Georgia - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Lenny Lasater: Coal Miner, Electrician, Musician, and Renaissance Butch

Lenny Lasater Photo credit Candi Pollitt

In the 1970s, Lenny Lasater was a trailblazer for women, first in the Birmingham coal mines, then, in the trade union for electricians, The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, when she was in Nashville, Tennessee, and later, in Atlanta, Georgia. She formed her own business, Lenny Lasater Electrical, in Atlanta, where she also got clean and sober. Also, she started a band that is now called “Just Roxie.” Throughout, she has been out and proud of who she is, “a very butch lesbian.”

Epicurean of the Heart: In Memory of Shay Youngblood

Shay Youngblood at Charis Books and More in 2020

By E.R. Anderson, on behalf of Charis Books and More, and Charis Circle Shay Youngblood, novelist, playwright, artist, and poet, died on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, after an extended illness. She was surrounded by loved ones sending her to meet the ancestors. In the days since Shay has gone from this Earth, our Charis community has been longing for her to come back, and has sought sustenance in her words and in the words of all those whose lives she touched. Shay Youngblood was an epicurean of the heart, a writer’s writer, a generous gift-giver, a marvelous cook, and a cheerleader for everyone’s wildest dreams. Shay got her start at Charis Books and More in Atlanta, Georgia (now located in Decatur, Georgia), at the Charis Circle Young Women Writers Group. “The first evening Mama doesn’t come back, I make a sandwich with leaves from her goodbye letter.I want to eat her words.” We are fortunate that we got to witness and celebrate the entire trajectory of her writing career that went from her first, pre-publication poetry reading at Charis Books and More in 1980 all the way to her picture book release …

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Posted on July 15, 2024 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers Tagged with A Family Prayer, Amazing Grace, Atlanta, Big Mama Stories, Black Girl in Paris, Charis Books and More, Charis Circle, Decatur, Firebrand Books, Georgia, Horizon Theatre Company, Linda Bryant, Lisa Adler, Nancy Bereano, Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery, Shay Youngblood, Soul Kiss, Square Blues, Talking Bones, Ticket to Paris, Yaddo, Young Women Writers Group

Ellen Spangler and Starcrest

Ellen from Memorial

After finding feminism and feminist spirituality while living in Florida, Ellen Spangler founded a teaching and healing center in rural South Carolina.

Posted on June 29, 2023 Posted in Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services, Spirituality and Religion Tagged with 1990 Census, A Ritual Declaring and Affirming Our Birth, abuse, age and wisdom honoring, Alapine Village, Alaska, Anderson South Carolina, barter, battered women’s shelter, Beverly Little Thunder, Boston, Carol Christ, channeling, chanting, Charlene Spretnak, Clemson University, Clinton Tennessee, Cloudland Georgia, collective, croning, cross country trip, ecofeminism, Ellen Spangler, Elsa Gidlow, energy, Equinoxes, feminist activist, first national womens spirituality conference, Florida State University, gardening, Georgia, grass and sod roof, hands-on healing, healing center, Illinois, inner-child work, intuition, Jacksonville Florida, Jean Adele, Kaimora, Kay Mora, Knox County Education Association, Lakota, Lesbian and Landdyke Documentary, lesbian residential community, lobbying, lobbyist, Maine, Margot Adler, Martha Stozier, Mary Alice Stout, Mary Daly, Mary Stout, meditation, Methodist ministers, Mississippi, Moon circles, Mountain Mamas consignment shop, native American Sundance, Native American women, negotiating contracts, One Bead at a Time, Owl Song, Pagoda, Pagoda cottages, Peace and Justice Center, Phoenix Arizona, psychic, rainbow colors, rape crisis center, Riane Eisler, Rose DeBernardo, Ruth Mountaingrove, sacred rototiller, seven chakras, singing, Sinister Wisdom, Solstices, South Carolina, spiritual leadership, Split Creek Goat Farm, St Augustine Florida, Standing Rock North Dakota, sweat lodges, The Chalice and the Blade, Through the Looking Glass, trance, trance work, two spirited Lakota Elder, underground house, Vermont, Washington D.C., Wiccan circles, women artists, women dancers, Women Earth and Spirit, women’s ceremonies, women’s council of the sweat lodges, women’s spirituality, workshops, Z Budapest

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.

Tag: Georgia

Lenny Lasater: Coal Miner, Electrician, Musician, and Renaissance Butch

Epicurean of the Heart: In Memory of Shay Youngblood

Ellen Spangler and Starcrest

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