Ruth Dworin

Last updated

Ruth Dworin is a feminist, women's activist, sound engineer, music producer and concert organizer based in Toronto, Canada. She is the owner of music production company Womynly Way Productions, an important contributor to the women's music scene in Toronto during the 1980s.

Contents

Dworin was introduced to feminism from a women's workshop at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. [1] She moved to Canada in the 1970s, settling in Toronto. Dworin was an important part of the women's festival scene in the United States, sitting on the board of directors of the Association of Women's Music and Culture. [2] She was actively involved in the women's cultural scene in Toronto in the 1980s and 1990s and was involved in the publication of The Other Woman and Broadside: A Feminist Newspaper. She viewed her involvement in music production as a political act, reflecting: "[m]aking culture is a way of shaping how people perceive the world and it's a powerful and relatively painless [activity]." [3]

Music production and concert organizing

Ruth Dworin founded music production company Womanly Way Productions in 1980. She organized concerts in Toronto and southern Ontario featuring women performers. [4] [5] She established an open door policy for her concerts, advertising in both queer and mainstream media. [6] This occasionally led to controversy within the lesbian and feminist communities. [7] [2] In addition to music production, the company also offered workshops on sound and light editing. [8]

In an interview, Dworin noted:

...when I put on a concert, I'm trying to do two things. One is to provide the meeting place, the sustenance, the emotional support for the lesbian-feminist community. I know I need that! I wasn't getting enough of it in Toronto. But the other thing I'm trying to do is outreach – to attract the broader audience, to make some of the people politically aware. [9]

In the 1980s, Dworin's company organized multiple one-day festival events featuring women. Some notable performers included Holly Near, Meg Christian, Alix Dobkin, Lucie Blue Tremblay, Lillian Allen, Cris Williamson and Heather Bishop. [10] [8] She focused on making events accessible to differently-abled people, including the hearing-impaired, and those who use wheelchairs, as well as providing childcare at all events.

Some festivals she produced included:

Womynly Way Productions also put on joint events, including:

Some records related to Womynly Way Productions were collected by the University of Ottawa as part of the Canadian Women's Movement Archives. [12]

Collecting

Dworin, along with Kathy Lewis and Lucia Kimber founded the Women's Music Archives in the fall of 1978. [13] The group's aim was "to collect and preserve, for herstorical listening and research purposes, all types of materials related to women's music." [14] This material was eventually deposited with the Sophia Smith Collection in 2004. [14]

Dworin was also an avid collector of lesbian pulp fiction novels. This collection was featured in the 1991 documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives . [15] [16] In 2005 she donated her collection to York University Archives & Special Collections, along with her personal papers which contain recordings of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. [17] [18]

Interviews

Publications

Related Research Articles

Womyn is one of several alternative political spellings of the English word women, used by some feminists. There are other spellings, including womban or womon (singular), and wombyn or wimmin (plural). Some writers who use such alternative spellings, avoiding the suffix "-man" or "-men", see them as an expression of female independence and a repudiation of traditions that define women by reference to a male norm. Recently, the term womxn has been used by intersectional feminists to indicate the same ideas while foregrounding or more explicitly including transgender women, non-binary women, intersex women, queer women, and women of color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Womyn's Music Festival</span> Feminist music festival

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, was a lesbian feminist women's music festival held annually from 1976 to 2015 in Oceana County, Michigan, on privately owned woodland near Hart Township referred to as "The Land" by Michfest organizers and attendees. The event was built, staffed, run, and attended exclusively by women, with girls, young boys and toddlers permitted.

<i>Hothead Paisan</i> Alternative comic by Diane DiMassa

Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist is an alternative comic written and drawn by Diane DiMassa published 1991–1998. It features the title character generally wreaking violent vengeance on male oppressors. Recurring characters include Hothead's cat Chicken, her wise mystical friend Roz, a talking lamp, and her lover Daphne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transfeminism</span> Branch of feminism

Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies. Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama in The Transfeminist Manifesto.

Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men. Much of the theorizing is based in lesbian feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Lady Records</span> Independent record label

Mr. Lady Records was a San Francisco-based lesbian-feminist independent record label and video art distributor. Artists on the label included Le Tigre and The Butchies. OutSmart magazine noted that Mr. Lady was "queercore's strongest label."

Women's music is a type of music base on the ideas of feminist separatism and lesbian-separatism, designed to inspire feminist consciousness, chiefly in Western popular music, to promote music "by women, for women, and about women".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faith Nolan</span> Musical artist

Faith Nolan is a Canadian social activist, folk and jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist of mixed African, Mi'kmaq, and Irish heritage. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Gardner (composer)</span> American classical composer

Kay Gardner, also known as Cosmos Wonder-Child, was an American musician, composer, author, and Dianic priestess known for using music for creative and healing purposes. She was very active in promoting the work of contemporary female musicians and was a pioneering figure in women's music.

Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members included Jane LeCroy and poet Eileen Myles. The group were noted for their Ramblin' Roadshow, performing at feminist events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The Boston Phoenix described it as "the coolest line-up of talented, tattooed, pierced, and purple-pigtailed performance artists the Bay Area has to offer."

Olivia Records is a record label founded in 1973 in Washington D.C. which centers female musicians. Its founders included prominent lesbian figures Ginny Berson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, Jennifer Woodul, Kate Winter and five others. Olivia Records sold two million records and produced about 40 albums during its twenty years of operation.

Joan E. Biren or JEB is an American feminist photographer and film-maker, who dramatizes the lives of LGBT people in contexts that range from healthcare and hurricane relief to Womyn’s Music and anti-racism. For portraits, she encourages sitters to act as her “muse”, rather than her “subject”. Biren was a member of The Furies Collective, a short-lived but influential lesbian commune.

<i>Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives</i> 1992 Canadian documentary film directed by Lynne Fernie

Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives is a 1992 Canadian hybrid drama-documentary film about Canadian lesbians navigating their sexuality while homosexuality was still criminalized. Interviews with lesbian elders are juxtaposed with a fictional story, shot in fifties melodrama style, of a small-town girl's first night with another woman. It also inserts covers of lesbian pulp fiction. The film presents the stories of lesbians whose desire for community led them on a search for the few public beer parlours or bars that would tolerate openly queer women in the 1950s and 60s in Canada. It was written and directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman and featured author Ann Bannon. It premiered at the 1992 Toronto Festival of Festivals and was released in the United States on 4 August 1993. It was produced by Studio D, the women's studio of the National Film Board of Canada.

Ana María Simo is a New York playwright, essayist and novelist. Born in Cuba, educated in France, and writing in English, she has collaborated with such experimental artists as composer Zeena Parkins, choreographer Stephanie Skura and filmmakers Ela Troyano and Abigail Child.

The Lesbian Organization of Toronto was a lesbian organization founded in 1976 and disbanded in 1980. The group was Toronto's first openly lesbian feminist group, and its members elected to open Canada's first Lesbian Centre.

Womyn-born womyn (WBW) is a term developed during second-wave feminism to designate women who were assigned female at birth, were raised as girls, and identify as women. The policy is noted for exclusion of trans women. Third-wave feminism and fourth-wave feminism have generally done away with the idea of WBW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Moving Coffeehouse</span>

The Mountain Moving Coffeehouse for Womyn and Children was a lesbian feminist music venue, located in Chicago and known across the United States. It operated for thirty-one years, from 1974 until 2005. The name of the organization evokes the political task that feminists must "move the mountains" of institutional sexism and homophobia. The alternative spelling of "womyn" represented an expression of female independence and a repudiation of traditions that define women by reference to a male norm.

Nedra Johnson is an American rhythm and blues and jazz singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has performed internationally at jazz, blues, pride and women's music festivals as a solo artist, a tuba player, and vocalist.

Womyn's land is an intentional community organised by lesbian separatists to establish counter-cultural, women-centred space, without the presence of men. These lands were the result of a social movement of the same name that developed in the 1970s in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and western Europe. Many still exist today. Womyn's land-based communities and residents are loosely networked through social media; print publications such as newsletters; Maize: A Lesbian Country Magazine; Lesbian Natural Resources, a not-for-profit organisation that offers grants and resources; and regional and local gatherings.

References

  1. ↑ Baker, Edna (January–February 1983). "Upfront: What keeps Ruth Dworin Producing concerts? Edna Baker Finds Out. Music, Money, Politics and Lipstick". The Body Politic. No. 90. pp. 37–38.
  2. 1 2 Kuhns, Connie (1990). Turner, Joan (ed.). Women's Music and the Mothers of Invention. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba. pp. 27–37. ISBN   0887556248.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ↑ Ross, Becki (1995). The house that Jill Built: a lesbian nation in formation. Toronto: University of Toronto. p. 146.
  4. ↑ "Womynly Way Productions". Connextions. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  5. ↑ Cole, Susan G. (2017-05-19). "Get mad, play rock 'n' roll: how my bands queered up Toronto's clubs". NOW Magazine. Retrieved 2019-03-09.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ McCaskell, Tim (2018). Queer Progress: from homophobia to homonationalism. Between the Lines.
  7. ↑ Bearchell, Chris (March 1982). "Deliberations: The closet and the umbrella". The Body Politic. Vol. 81. p. 7.
  8. 1 2 Sweet, Lois (1988-05-18). "Production company a cultural leader". Toronto Star. p. C17.
  9. ↑ Baker, Edith (February 1983). "Upfront: What keeps Ruth Dworin Producing concerts? Edna Baker Finds Out. Music, Money, Politics and Lipstick". The Body Politic. 90: 37–38.
  10. ↑ Brown, Heather Ann (2004-06-15). "the Toronto dyke scene :: section15.ca". section15.ca. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  11. ↑ White, Stephen (1987-09-08). "WAACO humor focuses on feminist concerns". Toronto Star. p. I24.
  12. ↑ "Womynly Way Productions [authority record]". Archives & Special Collections, University of Ottawa. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  13. ↑ Workers, Women Library (1990). "The Women's Music Archive". Women Library Workers: 19.
  14. 1 2 "Women's Music Archives Collection". Sophia Smith Collection. Archived from the original on 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  15. ↑ Aerlyn Weissman; Lynne Fernie. "Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives". National Film Board of Canada . Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  16. ↑ Rich, B. Ruby (26 March 2013). New queer cinema : the director's cut. Durham. p. 56. ISBN   9780822354116. OCLC   818416587.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. ↑ "F0491 - Ruth Dworin fonds". York University Libraries. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  18. ↑ "Ruth Dworin Collection listing". www.library.yorku.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-09.

Resources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.