-0...9-
Chesler on Mother Courage, Dolores Alexander, R.I.P.
This is an excerpt from Phyllis Chesler's latest post on her blog "Chesler's Chronicles".
Please go there to read the rest of it which I sobbed through yet feel so much better having read it. The many deaths of my working and poverty class friends and sisters have not been calm or happy. Women who changed the world received very little in return from the world and also, I am ashamed to say, from me. The goal was always just ahead, I did not look too long when comrades fell to the left or the right, just felt it and carried it until now. Sue Luecke, J Max, Dotty, Patty Dow... it is a long list. I remember you all. This was a good post to read. Plan people. The Second Wave ebbs and slowly recedes back into the Great Ocean.
Listen to Phyllis sing at the water's edge:
A Portrait of Love and Death. Dolores Alexander, R.I.P.
Members of my feminist generation have performed tirelessly on behalf of women’s rights and have paved the way, not only for Hillary’s race for president, but for women's’ entrance into politics and the professions in larger numbers. However, our feminist generation has also been dying out, one by one, for over the last quarter-century.
The first time I co-officiated at a funeral service for someone of my own generation was in 1987 or possibly 1988 and it was for my dear friend and colleague, Ellen Frankfurt who had committed suicide. I remember the vast crowd that had gathered in the courtyard of a West Village artist’s complex. We looked as if we had all seen a ghost; it could have been anyone of us although of course, that was not exactly true.
While there were some millionaires in our midst, most of us were bohemians who lived on the creative edge and prided ourselves on not planning for the future. (Unconsciously, perhaps, we thought that if did our world-work well, we were supposed to die young–or, that the future would take care of itself). Nevertheless, aside from the unpublished poets and novelists, we were professionally, maritally, or economically middle or upper middle class. We had safety nets of one kind or another. Ellen, feminist author and health activist, was heavily addicted to dangerous pills and might also have been genetically predisposed to suicide. It seems that she had a twin sister who had already committed suicide.
Since then, I have conducted mourning rituals for many New York area feminists and have attended Memorial Services, funerals, and speakouts for many more. The list includes: the poet, essayist and civil rights activist Barbara Deming; the author Elizabeth Fischer; the poet, essayist and activist, Audre Lorde; the architect and activist, Phyllis Birkby; the pioneering gynecologist/obstetrician, Marcia Storch; the novelist Alma Rautsong; the activist and lawyer Flo Kennedy (who had three funerals); the novelist and professor Bertha Harris; politician Bella Abzug; the novelist, essayist, and activist Andrea Dworkin; activist and author, Betty Freidan; my dear friend, the art critic Arlene Raven; journalist, teacher and activist, Ellen Willis; and my very dear friend, the health activist and author Barbara Seaman.
These are all women whom I have known and with whom I have worked or partied for more than forty years. And, this is only a partial list.
And now, there is one more name to add, that of Dolores Alexander, one of the founders of the National Organization for Women, a journalist, copy-editor, and visionary co-founder, together with Jill Ward, of the feminist restaurant Mother Courage. You may read her Obit HERE. But there is something more, something from which we may all draw courage.
When Dolores knew she was actively dying, she turned to two of the most spiritual and moral of feminists: Linda Clarke and Joan Casamo who now live in Florida where they have continued to perfect the art of gracious living and southern hospitality. Dolores wanted to live and die in the sun and she wanted to be near her friends who have made a calling of “being there” for those whom they love and admire. Linda and Joan have written a touching account of Dolores’ last days with them which follows below.
Mother Courage: Our Last Days with Dolores Alexander...Read More Here
Please go there to read the rest of it which I sobbed through yet feel so much better having read it. The many deaths of my working and poverty class friends and sisters have not been calm or happy. Women who changed the world received very little in return from the world and also, I am ashamed to say, from me. The goal was always just ahead, I did not look too long when comrades fell to the left or the right, just felt it and carried it until now. Sue Luecke, J Max, Dotty, Patty Dow... it is a long list. I remember you all. This was a good post to read. Plan people. The Second Wave ebbs and slowly recedes back into the Great Ocean.
Listen to Phyllis sing at the water's edge:
A Portrait of Love and Death. Dolores Alexander, R.I.P.
Members of my feminist generation have performed tirelessly on behalf of women’s rights and have paved the way, not only for Hillary’s race for president, but for women's’ entrance into politics and the professions in larger numbers. However, our feminist generation has also been dying out, one by one, for over the last quarter-century.
The first time I co-officiated at a funeral service for someone of my own generation was in 1987 or possibly 1988 and it was for my dear friend and colleague, Ellen Frankfurt who had committed suicide. I remember the vast crowd that had gathered in the courtyard of a West Village artist’s complex. We looked as if we had all seen a ghost; it could have been anyone of us although of course, that was not exactly true.
While there were some millionaires in our midst, most of us were bohemians who lived on the creative edge and prided ourselves on not planning for the future. (Unconsciously, perhaps, we thought that if did our world-work well, we were supposed to die young–or, that the future would take care of itself). Nevertheless, aside from the unpublished poets and novelists, we were professionally, maritally, or economically middle or upper middle class. We had safety nets of one kind or another. Ellen, feminist author and health activist, was heavily addicted to dangerous pills and might also have been genetically predisposed to suicide. It seems that she had a twin sister who had already committed suicide.
Since then, I have conducted mourning rituals for many New York area feminists and have attended Memorial Services, funerals, and speakouts for many more. The list includes: the poet, essayist and civil rights activist Barbara Deming; the author Elizabeth Fischer; the poet, essayist and activist, Audre Lorde; the architect and activist, Phyllis Birkby; the pioneering gynecologist/obstetrician, Marcia Storch; the novelist Alma Rautsong; the activist and lawyer Flo Kennedy (who had three funerals); the novelist and professor Bertha Harris; politician Bella Abzug; the novelist, essayist, and activist Andrea Dworkin; activist and author, Betty Freidan; my dear friend, the art critic Arlene Raven; journalist, teacher and activist, Ellen Willis; and my very dear friend, the health activist and author Barbara Seaman.
These are all women whom I have known and with whom I have worked or partied for more than forty years. And, this is only a partial list.
And now, there is one more name to add, that of Dolores Alexander, one of the founders of the National Organization for Women, a journalist, copy-editor, and visionary co-founder, together with Jill Ward, of the feminist restaurant Mother Courage. You may read her Obit HERE. But there is something more, something from which we may all draw courage.
When Dolores knew she was actively dying, she turned to two of the most spiritual and moral of feminists: Linda Clarke and Joan Casamo who now live in Florida where they have continued to perfect the art of gracious living and southern hospitality. Dolores wanted to live and die in the sun and she wanted to be near her friends who have made a calling of “being there” for those whom they love and admire. Linda and Joan have written a touching account of Dolores’ last days with them which follows below.
Mother Courage: Our Last Days with Dolores Alexander...Read More Here
posted by Greenconsciousness
at 4:20 PM - Link
0 Comments:
Post a Comment