Sundays at Tip Top: History of the Women's Movement in the Upper Valley: Tip Top Women's Community Pgm, G/LEARN sponsored Reflections, September 21, 2003

(00:00:05)Alexis Jetter explains the event’s sponsorship by G/LEARN (Gay/Lesbian Education and Resource Network) of the Upper Valley

(00:04:32)Beth Dingman welcomes the group and explains the schedule

(00:05:27)Linda Mulley introduces the program, and sets the context of the women’s movement in the late 1960s in Ann Arbor, MI, and the gay liberation movement in New York City

(00:17:10)Betty Jean (BJ) Michelsen discusses moving to NYC from Wisconsin, consciousness raising groups in the West Village, the New York Radical Feminists in 1970, the speak-out conference format, their takeover of Ladies’ Home Journal, her move from “feminist” to “lesbian feminist,” and her discovery of the Upper Valley when the NY Radical Feminist Speakers Bureau was invited to speak at Dartmouth in 1974

(00:27:27)Linda McDonald talks about living in the Upper Valley all of her life, the group Women's Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE), the ca. 1977 group Lesbians of the Upper Valley (LUV) at Dartmouth, and being grateful that the “lesbians came to her"

(00:32:05)Trina Hyman tells of moving to Lyme, NH with her girlfriend and their daughters on July 4, 1967, both leaving men in NYC, being perhaps the first lesbian mothers in the Upper Valley, and how learning about the women’s liberation movement and the book The Women's Room changed her life

(00:38:40)Katrin Tchana, daughter of Trina Hyman, shows a photograph of her family, and discusses growing up with lesbian mothers and a single lesbian mom some of the time, and how things have changed for the better

(00:47:14)Parish (Parry) Dobson discusses feminist politics and activism in the Upper Valley in the 1970s, her move to Hanover to teach public school, her involvement with the anti-war movement, WISE, the Sagaris Institute at Lyndon State College, and a creative theatrical political women’s “play” group in the Upper Valley

(00:58:50)ReBecca Béguin talks about being a lesbian coming to the Upper Valley, working at the New Victoria Press in Lebanon, NH, the huge difference that the press made in the area, living communally and the concept of “trashing,” and going to Sagaris to see Rita Mae Brown

(01:05:54)Jessie Nord, mentions working at Planned Parenthood, and introduces and sings a song with lyrics she wrote for the birthday of Tina Morrow

(01:08:18)Mandy Vernalia discusses the women’s community in the Upper Valley being the WISE women and the friends of Beth Dingman and Claudia McKay, the social groups of lesbians being the “earth mommas” and the “baseball buddies,” the converting of the basement apartment below the New Victoria Press in 1979 into a clubhouse for the lesbian social club, the Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society, and the various events, newsletters, outreach, and community-building associated with the Amelia’s over the years

(01:18:33)Judith Kaufman touches on the activist community in the 1970s “thinking globally, acting locally,” helping to organize a Holly Near benefit concert, and her activity in the anti-nuclear movement, the Clamshell Alliance, the Upper Valley Energy Coalition, helping to form Women Against Nuclear Development (WAND), the Women’s Pentagon Action, getting arrested at many events, and the women’s community in the Upper Valley contributing not just locally, but regionally and nationally

(01:26:20)Beth Dingman talks about the opening of the New Victoria print shop in 1975, the current New Victoria Publishing Company, New Vic’s role as a nexus for the community, and nostalgically about the vision, values, and activity of the 1960s and 1970s -- 01:30:04: Susan Cox reads some poems by Dorothy Beck, who has passed away

(01:35:15)Priscilla Sherman, birth mother of Laura Mulley, mentions being a founding member of the Brattleboro Women’s Center, her story as a political activist and women/lesbian separatist, the obstacles and final success in having her baby daughter adopted into a lesbian feminist household in March 1979, and how activists today should stay active and stay hopeful

(01:41:55)Linda Markin talks about going to Dartmouth in 1973 as a part of the second class of women, coming out as a lesbian two years later, and the community and speaker series in the Upper Valley

(01:44:17)Laura Mulley thanks the whole community who helped raised her and for sharing their heritage

(01:45:05)Alexis Jetter thanks those who came before her for making the Upper Valley such a welcoming and great place

(1:48:55)Some audience participation, with limited audio

(01:50:46)Beth Dingman introduces Barbara Hirschfeld’s movie “Transformations” about a performative women’s ritual. The video ends with images of photographs and items set up around the meeting room

Sundays at Tip Top: History of the Women's Movement in the Upper Valley: Tip Top Women's Community Pgm, G/LEARN sponsored Reflections, September 21, 2003

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