From: trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski)
Subject: kytten goes to michigan
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 00:35:57 GMT

kitten yawns and stretches....finally roused from her nap and caught
up on her chores....

she bops up to the bar and gets her usual...."thanks, mike," she
says...and drains the glass quickly...she flings it into the fireplace
with a toast..."to BREASTS!!!!!!!!!!!!"

at the startled looks, she giggles..."well," she says..."i can't help
it...i spent an entire week, from monday till monday, surrounded by
7,500 women...and that's 15,000 breasts (give or take a few)...even
"the land" (that's how women refer to the festival site) feels like a
breast... warm and nurturing and full of the gift of life...like a
mother's breasts.

the michigan womyn's music festival was one of the most wonderful
experiences of my entire life...we left on monday morning...i went
with two other women.  tracy drove...i didn't know her at all before
this pas week.  and the other woman's name is kelly...i have seen her
around for years.  we sort of know each other, but are not really
friends. 

the festival actually started with a tragedy...to get into the
festival and onto the land we all waited in line on a county road that
borders the land.  two women were standing outsider their car and got
hit by a vw van which was being driven by two local boys.  the women
were both seriously hurt, but were  airlifted to the hospital in grand
rapids and they will both be okay.

it took a couple of hours to get onto the land and another couple of
hours to get a shuttle to the campsite (no cars allowed...we were
shuttled to different drop off points and then carried our stuff to
our camp sites.  well...that meant that i put my tent up at twilight
and wandered off to explore in the dark.  i thought i had checked out
the landmarks carefully...but when i went BACK to my tent...i lost it!
it took 20 minutes or so and the "kindness of strangers" to get me to
it...fortunately, michigan is a lot like callahans...there are no
strangers, just friends you haven't met.

the entire week was a long strange trip...for one thing...i have never
felt so free or so safe in my entire life.  there were NO MEN.  i
didn't feel threatened or judged or inferior...i didn't look in a
mirror from monday lunch till monday lunch a week later...

[i have to put a disclamer here....NOTHING in this post is a slam
against any of the men i know here in callahans...i LIKE men }:). and
i have never understood the idea of separatism...but i can honestly
say that i could have stayed forever...and lived in a world populated
only by women.]

what did i do?  i went to several workshops: a yoga workshop...a
journaling workshop taught by kay leigh hagan...a healing circle done
by z. budapest (where i was naked in the woods)...a circle song led by
rhiannon. there were a lot of concerts...heather bishop, the topp
twins (lesbians from new zealand who did old rock and roll, country
western and YODELED), peggy seeger, rhiannon, masa and the osaka jazz
women, kitka, casselberry-dupre, betty, toshi reagon, vicki randle
(jay leno's percussionist) and lots more...i spent time in community
(in workshops and workshifts) and lots of time with myself...met lots
of really wonderful people...but the nicest and most interesting
person i met was ME.

maybe i ought to explain why my overwhelming impression was of
breasts.  i told you how the land felt...warm and nurturing ...like a
mother's breast.  and there were partially and totally naked women all
around ....including this kitten.  no men...nobody to objectify. there
were women of all sizes, shapes and colors in various states of
dress...little girls dressed in nothing but tennis shoes...grown women
dressed the same.  of course, clothes were worn (and sometimes
necessary...it got so cold a couple of nights that i could see my
breath...i not only wore clothes...i wore everything i owned.)  but i
was PROUD of my body...and not afraid.  and it was okay.  

i had my breasts done in plaster to be part of an art
project...(called "the collaborators" i think...but i don't remember
the name of the artist...cat. # 030655)...i talked to a woman with
only one breast...one morning in the shower she told us about how
deoderants can contribute to breast cancer...especially if you shave
your underarms...i don't know...i can't explain it...

and i haven't even mentioned watching a mama mouse move her babies
away from the shower...or the oasis/womb (health care area)....or
seeing a "signed" version of _where the wild things are_ (all the
concerts were signed and any workshop that got a request)...or the
fact that the oldest woman there was in her 90's and the youngest was
2 months...or the drums....there were LOTS of drums."

kitten stops to catch her breath..."i know i have rattled...and i
don't think i have made much sense.  but i don't have the words to
really explain the experience....it was really fantastic."

--
***************************************************************************
conan the librarian a.k.a. kitten           /\ /\  barbara ann 
"my life's a soap opera, isn't yours?"      {=.=}
                                              ~   trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu 
"perhaps _any_ universe becomes real in proportion 
to the number of people who believe in it and spend time there." s. robinson