Nine covers from Womanspirit magazine (published quarterly, 1974-1984). Via Womanspirit.“Many femini

Nine covers from Womanspirit magazine (published quarterly, 1974-1984). Via Womanspirit.“Many feminist magazine were born in the mid-seventies. One of these was Womanspirit magazine, which shared the problems and joys of publishing as an alternative press in America. Its success is documented by its ten-year publishing record. As its title suggests, the magazine’s focus was on women, our world, our growing consciousness, and our spirituality. Looking back, Jean and Ruth recall the conferences attended, the rituals created, the personal struggles:‘In the heat of an Oregon August, we labored to create a new kind of magazine, the first journal of feminist spirituality. What was that? We struggled to meld our diversity into a journal [which] would arouse women’s desire to share their awakened spiritual growth. From the beginning, our vision was international and radical feminist. We wanted a cultural revolution — a total reordering of institutions and values. It was to be a modest magazine with grand goals.’“And that it became. The production of the magazine mirrored similar experiences of feminist process building which were occurring nationwide. Many women gathered to produce each issue of the magazine, women who shared editing and layout skills, and who also collectively decided the content of each issue. The advent of the magazine coincided with the proliferation of women’s lands blossoming forth across the Southern Oregon hillsides, and indeed was an integral part in the community’s formation.”— From Circles of Power: Shifting Dynamics in a Lesbian-centered Community, by La Verne Gagehabib and Barbara Summerhawk (2000).“We don’t in any way wish to drain energy from the changes we wish to see happening in the world. What we envision as change is so profound and so total that all of us are needed to work at anything we can get our hands on … We hope that what we are doing is adding an ingredient to the womyn’s movement. We don’t see ourselves as the vanguard. I think if we think of things in spirals and circles that there is not so much of a vanguard. We’ve each got a piece of it and we’re all working as hard as we can, and we’re all going to transform it — perhaps more like a loaf of bread than a battalion or something. I do want the magazine to be … there’s no word 'enhopement’ … there’s encouragement … enjoyment … but I think this magazine might be an enhopement.”— Jean Mountaingrove, from an interview in Sinister Wisdom #8 (Winter 1979). -- source link

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