Sinister Wisdom – 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

My Mother Was Many Things

June Arnold in 1977. Photo by Barbara Adams.

Roberta Arnold writes about her mother, June Arnold, novelist and founder of Daughters, Inc. publishing company. Julia Penelope once said that June filled out a form stating her religion as “Women,” and this was true. She was fierce in her devotion to the Women’s Movement.

Posted on September 7, 2024 Posted in Lesbian-Owned Enterprises, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social and Political Groups, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with 5th street building takeover, Alice Echols, and Naiad Press, Applesauce, Barbara Adams, Bertha Harris, Big Mama Rag, Black Maria, Charlotte Bunch, Connie Samaras, Daughters Inc., Deborah Ritchey, Diana Press, Fanny Arnold, Feminist Presses & Feminist Politics, Gus Arnold, Iowa City Women’s Press Collective, Jaime Harker, judy grahn, June Arnold, Kate Arnold, Lesbian Connection, Lesbian feminist activist, Lover, Monique Wittig, Nancy Stockwell, off our backs, Parke Bowman, Patty Bowman, Quest, Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Reeni Goldin, Roberta Arnold, SEWSA, Sinister Wisdom, Sister Gin, Southeastern Women’s Studies Association, The Cook and the Carpenter, The Lesbian South, The Opoponax, the women’s movement

Between Betty and Me: Art, Activism, and Accessibility

Betty Bird with Ellie

Susan Robinson writes about her then partner Betty Bird, and tells the story of how she and others began a system for recording feminist journals like *Sinister Wisdom* and distributing those recordings through services for the blind.

Posted on August 19, 2024 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with Atlanta, Betty Bird, blind, Blizzard, Catherine Nicholson, College of William and Mary, Columbia South Carolina, Commission for the Blind, Conditions, Connie Panzarino, Durham Chapel Hill, Eileen Pagan, exclusion from literary discussion, Feminary, Feminist Taping for Handicapped Readers, Free Matter for the Blind, Harriet Desmoines, Henri Cole, independent mobility, Jelly, Kady van Deurs, Kathy Hagar, lesbian journals on tape, library of Congress, Marj Schneider, minneapolis, Monticello, Nebraska, New York, New York City, New York Lighthouse for the Blind, North Carolina, off our backs, Peaches lesbian bar, planning meetings, print handicapped, Ramon, Recordings for the Blind, Shorty, Sinister Wisdom, southern lesbian writers, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Susan Robinson, Susan Wood Thompson, The Me in the Mirror, The Paris Review, University of Texas, Vicki Gabriner, visual memory, Washington DC, Williamsburg Virginia, WomanWrites, Womomwrites, Womyns Braille Press

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Herstory Project

May and June 2024 are multiple anniversaries for the SLFA Herstory Project. It’s the fifteenth anniversary of our first Herstory Project planning workshop at Womonwrites. It’s the tenth anniversary of our first special issue of Sinister Wisdom. And it’s the second anniversary of the launching of this website.

We celebrated the publication of our sixth and final Sinister Wisdom volume two years ago. The six special volumes contain a treasure trove of collected stories, interviews, timelines, and photographs from three decades of twentieth-century, lesbian-feminist activism in Southern states. Now, we are focusing on making these edited interviews available online as we continue to add new interviews.

The herstory of lesbian-feminist activism in the South was rapidly being lost as these stories of unsung sheroes were not being reported in any of the memoirs and histories of the women’s liberation movement in the twentieth century.

Posted on May 5, 2024 Posted in Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers Tagged with 2019 last Womonwrites, 30th Womonwrites Anniversary 2009, Atlanta, Barbara Ester, Beth York, Carol Hanisch, class diversity, consciousness raising groups, Corky Culver, descendent of Womonwrites, Duke University archive, Durham NC, education diversity, first womens land community 1972, first Womonwrites 1979, Florida, Gainesville, Herstory Project 2009, Jaye McNeil, Jessica Lenn Chia, Kathy Sarachild, Knoxville Tennessee, Lennie Lassiter, lesbian activity, Lesbian Connection, Lesbian Home Movie Project, Lorraine Fontana, Mandy Carter, Merril Mushroom, Nashville, New York Radical Womens group, North Forty, old lesbians organizing for change, OLOC, Pagoda project, participant led, race consciousness, reading groups, Rose Norman, Sinister Wisdom, SLFA, Southeast, Southern dykes, Southern Festival, Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project, Southern Women’s Music and Comedy Festival, timeline of activism, twentieth century lesbian feminism activism in Southern states, University of Florida Oral History Program, WeMoon 1973, Womens Liberation Movement, Womonwrites, writing groups

Tag: Sinister Wisdom

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

My Mother Was Many Things

Between Betty and Me: Art, Activism, and Accessibility

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Herstory Project