Sapphic Golden Anniversaries: These Queer Orgs Are Turning 50!

They are the bastions of women’s music, art, and culture—the institutions that met us in the moment, forging safe and sacred spaces. From providing a covert network of “Contact Dykes” for travelers in the ‘70s, to building the largest collection of lesbian pulp novels on Earth, they have infused our world with song and dance, turned farmland into festivals—and this year, they turn 50!

To ring in their golden anniversaries, SisterSpace Weekend Women’s Festival has been working hard to organize a coalition of other half-century celebrants for yearlong tributes and events—and it definitely won’t be a party unless you’re there to toast the motherships that rocked the evolution of our changing landscape.

“Women recognized that there was a need for safe space and a need for community, and that’s why these places were created,” SisterSpace Board Member Jo-Ann McIntyre tells GO. “I came out into a community that was very supportive. I came out with information.” McIntyre remembers being immediately pointed toward THE musicians and festivals, going to Lesbian Connection for news, finding the Ladyslipper music catalogue and later Goldenrod, and watching the first iteration of Dance Brigade in high school in the ‘80s.

“Those are some places that I’m really happy to have on board with us, because they have been part of my life for a while,” says McIntyre, who has seen a lot of changes over the past 50 years.

As the decades brought more mainstream acceptance, some of the outlets that historically served as refuge have fallen off the radar. Some have disappeared altogether. Maybe you didn’t even know that they were there. But in the year 2025, our rainbow is under attack with new ferocity. We’re living in an “I can’t believe that I still have to protest this” moment.

“The safety that everyone was taking for granted is now being challenged again,” McIntyre notes. “People’s foundations are being shaken, so they’re looking around for support, looking around for the safe spaces, and looking for ways to stay in contact and reach out— just to make sure that there are others, and that they’re not alone.”

So strap in (or strap on) for a ride to the villages of your queer lineage. Let’s see what they’re up to, and what they’ve got planned in this jubilee year:

SisterSpace Weekend Women’s Festival – Sept. 5-7, 2025
(Delaware Valley)

Stop everything and start packing your sunscreen and cute boxer shorts. SisterSpace, one of the longest-running women’s festivals in North America, has dropped a sneak peek of its lineup, and it’s not to be missed!

From its earliest iteration in the 1970s as a feminist women’s self-defense weekend, SisterSpace has evolved into a 3-day extravaganza of concerts, workshops, DJ dances, activities, and a place where attendees feel truly at home.

The annual post-Labor Day celebration of women’s music and culture has something for everyone. In addition to sound stages, tent grounds and cabins, plus a section for RVs, the land boasts a swimming pool, sweat lodge, sports, and The Georgia O’Keeffe ArtSpace—all set among the serene rolling hills of northern Maryland.

This year’s lineup of fabulous performers includes: Nashville-based indie-pop duo 76th Street, the Colombian Afro-Indigenous sounds of La Marvela, ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir (also celebrating 50 years!), queer pop’s Be Steadwell, Cris Williamson, Dara Carter, Indigie Femme, Medusa the Gangsta Goddess, and more.

Led by women passionate about their topics, past workshop offerings have included Organizing to Stop Project 2025, Sound Bath Meditation, Salsa Dancing, Breast Casting, Women of Color forums, Financial Planning, Cardio Boxing led by Olympic coach Gloria Peek-Thornton, and Under the Hood (that is cars, but what’s not to love about a woman who knows how to charge your battery).

When the lights go down, cozy up in your sleeping bag, or join the late-night migration to karaoke, the bonfire, or the Sexuality Space, where attendees over age 18 can explore consensual erotic play, or participate in sexuality and relationship workshops.

SisterSpace offers a sliding scale. The dining hall is wheelchair accessible, and volunteers are on site to assist with transport. Interpreters are available for deaf attendees. Children are welcome (boys under 7) at many activities and workshops. It’s a short drive from Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington, DC, southern NJ, and a few hours from NYC, plus it’s reachable by Amtrak with the shuttle.

Lesbian Connection

Before the internet, there was Lesbian Connection. A lifeline in the 1970s and ‘80s, LC (as it was affectionately called) helped bridge the gap for lesbians with limited access to coffee houses, bookstores, gay bars (few that there were), and other staples of community. It was especially meaningful for the many who felt isolated, by geography or by a society in which there was open hostility toward queers.

Originally distributed in paper, folded and stapled shut (ouch!), LC’s popularity has enjoyed a resurgence by women like myself who are heartened to discover that our beloved grassroots press is still rolling strong.

“A lot of our readers have aged along with us,” Margy Lesher, founder of LC, tells GO. “Today, we [also] get letters every issue from new readers who just found us, young lesbians who say, ‘I’m so excited, there’s something for lesbians that’s really for lesbians.’  A lot of them feel that they’ve gotten lost in the LGBTQ+ world.”

The appeal of LC spans generations who appreciate the homegrown community-driven vibe, with reader-submitted content that includes articles, cover art, topical discussions, and letters that burst with honesty:

“To LC – I’m so excited to receive my first issue! I grew up only 30 minutes from your office. In my town in the early 2000s, ‘Lesbian’ was a dirty word. While that was hard, it feels so special to now know that right down the road there was a magazine being made by and for lesbians. It gives me hope in these tough times and reminds me that our joy and our community will always be here.  –S. in Durham, NC” 

LC continues to reach subscribers by snail mail in plain brown envelopes, discreet packaging initially conceived to ensure privacy—critical in a time when it didn’t take much to lose a job (or family) over one’s sexual identity. Tradition is part of the charm. Fans of Alison Bechdel’s comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For—which first appeared in LC in May/June 1996—will be thrilled to see that it still occupies real estate on the newsletter’s pages. How to explain the allure of paper over screen?

“There’s a sense of community that a lot of our readers feel,” Lesher says. “It’s a lot safer [of a] space than discussing issues online often is.”

Lesher, a Michigan taxi driver at the time, launched LC in September 1974 following a 6-month road trip across the U.S. with her then-girlfriend. On the lookout for lesbians, they wanted to advertise a conference in Lansing, and stayed at various homes, including a little house in St. Augustine belonging to the mother of a lesbian they had stayed with in Atlanta. Such were the seedlings for what eventually became the “Contact Dykes” list; and 51 years later, CD remains an invaluable resource for lesbians on the go.

I found great places to stay with my then-girlfriend pre-internet in the 1990s, when information on welcoming inns was scarce. My favorite was “The Highlands Inn” in Bethlehem, NH, which was advertised in the LC women-owned business section. No longer operational as such, it was a wonderful B&B in picturesque New England. A “No Vacancy” sign perpetually hung at the entrance of the driveway to discourage the unwitting passerby. It was the original IYKYK.

The March 2025 issue boasts a listing of Contact Dykes from Ohio to Saskatchewan; a complete CD list appears annually in the Jan/Feb issue, with over 750 women from 25 countries and 49 U.S. states.

The paper is free to those who can’t afford to donate, in keeping with the ethos that has driven LC from the start: “Your L.C. is a source of strength and light to me while I am locked away from the rest of the world.” -written by an incarcerated woman in 1975.

Sinister Wisdom

Approaching 50 years of ink on the fingers, multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, Sinister Wisdom cranks out four issues each year.  Launched in July 1976, it takes the prize for the longest-established lesbian journal. While there have been threads of continuity, there are always new offerings for the reader that speak to the contemporary moment we are in.

“One of the things that I worked on in my tenure at Sinister Wisdom is really making our history visible and acceptable to new people coming into the journal,” Julie R. Enszer, editor and publisher, tells GO.  “Because people are always coming out, and even if they’re not coming out, people are discovering new things that are rooted in the lesbian community.”

Sinister Wisdom has digitized all its issues, which are freely available to download online. The journal also provides a reduced price for those with limited income, and free subscriptions to women in prison and mental health facilities.

“I think it’s important that people have a chance to read and understand our history, and think about the issues that animated our community in different ways,” says Enszer. “Some issues return time and time again, and we think about them anew. And some experiences really substantially change, and of course, we’ve seen over our lifetime some of the substantial changes that happened societally for lesbians. I think a part of that comes from the activist cultural organizations that women founded during the 1970s that really gave us a foundation to reimagine what life might look like in ways that are more lesbian-affirming, more feminist, and more just.”

In addition to its quarterly publication, the non-profit provides outreach and educational programs and book club meetings. We also have Sinister Wisdom to thank for keeping our Sapphic Classics on the radar by bringing back out-of-print books to reintroduce to audiences. On my short-list (my new shipment just arrived!):

Hungerheart, published under a male pseudonym in 1915, is regarded as the first Catholic lesbian novel. The story chronicles Joanna “John” Montolivet’s journey of sapphic spirituality and lifelong reverence for women, with a bit of crossover between lesbian and trans experiences. Forty years after its initial publication, Sinister Wisdom also brought back the poetry of liberation by Black queer feminist, Alexis De Veaux.

I’m excited to dig into Issue 136, “Icons,” which features a photo essay tribute to Audre Lorde and essays on Aretha Franklin, lesbian literature in Greece, and more.

Sinister Wisdom has lots of fun things planned starting in September, leading up to their 50th anniversary in 2026. Enszer attributes the longevity of the journal to writers who have consistently been supportive, and a tenacious series of editors throughout the life of the journal who have brought passion and fire to bringing our words into the world.

Lesbian Herstory Archives

The product of visionaries who saw the need for a space to view our past culture through women’s eyes, Lesbian Herstory Archives was birthed in 1974 and one year later, co-founders Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel set up shop in Nestle’s home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In the years that followed, historian Judith Schwarz brought her skills in information organizing, activist Georgia Brooks launched the first Black Lesbian studies group at the Archives, and Mabel Hampton (1902–1989), an activist and dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, donated her extensive collection of 1950s Lesbian paperbacks. Today, the LHA resides on two floors of a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which it opened in 1993. Our herstory is so vast, it’s no surprise that the portion of files and artifacts within represents a mere 10% of the collection; the remainder is in a climate-controlled warehouse.

Your “to-do” list this year should definitely include a tour. First stop: the bookcases of lesbian pulp fiction paperbacks—the largest collection in the world. Bonus points for reading Sinister Wisdom’s March 2025 issue, which has an entire section devoted to these 1950s, McCarthy-era titles suggestive of deviant love (think Warped Desire and Strange Sisters). Expect to see the occasional man lurking in the corner on the cover art.

You’ll find subject files on everything from marriage to bars, photo collections, reams of books to devour on site, and over 3000 biographical files (my personal tour guide and SisterSpace alum, Caro Caden, 25, recently made a biographical file for their celebrity crush, and you’re invited to create one for yourself or someone you know). My favorite folder held facsimiles typed by a secretary in the 1940s who had time on her hands, and covertly started the first lesbian newsletter.

You’ll find wardrobe paraphernalia—Deborah Edel’s 1970s leather jacket, and a black lace-trimmed slip worn by Joan Nestle, now age 84. Both can be seen in a Morgan Gwenwald photo at LHA in the Winter 1985 issue of On Our Backs (the first magazine to feature lesbian erotica). The title of that series is “Butch Fem Picnic.” Gwenwald heard about our story and emailed us to say: “It isn’t a typical picnic, there is no edible food.” (!!) 

More than four hundred collections comprise the Archives’ Special Collections—material donated by individual lesbians. My guide extraordinaire, Caden, led me to a bookcase with a touching, but harrowing, story. It was donated by Marge McDonald, who had invited LHA to give a presentation to her friends in Upstate New York in 1979, and kept a special place in her heart for the Archives. McDonald’s family in Ohio didn’t know she was gay until she died in 1986 and were aghast to learn that she had bequeathed her journals, books, and photos to Lesbian Herstory Archives. They set out to auction off the items, and LHA raced to intervene.

“They gave the Archives only one night to get the things she wanted to donate,” Caden explains. The organization scrambled to find the nearest college with a Women’s Studies department. Fortunately, finding two lesbians with a truck in Ohio wasn’t (and still isn’t) that difficult, but it’s miraculous that they could pull off the haul that night.

“I get chills thinking about this because of the journeys that these items have taken to come into our hands today,” Caden says. “Because so many queer collections get thrown away because of the lack of acceptance, or people not wanting to respect their relatives.”

“It’s just important that we have representation,” adds Caden, who grew up in a place without access to anything queer. “But it’s also important that we have proof of our existence when they try to wash that away, you know, they’ll try to eradicate us…We have a whole archive, and that is revolutionary to have this as representation of who we are in our history.”

ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir

ANNA Crusis Women’s Choir, the country’s longest-running feminist choir, celebrates its 50-year Legacy of Inclusion and Empowerment this year. It’s been an ongoing evolution that began with an idea: “Our founder wanted to create a program that told the story of America through a woman’s eyes, and it became clear that there was a need for music that celebrated women’s lives, struggles, and triumphs,” Artistic Director, Miriam Davidson, tells GO.

The choir burst onto the scene to accompany the second wave of feminism and became the forerunner of the women’s choral movement. The ensemble always was, and always will be, a social justice choir. Recently, after a four-year period of intense soul-searching, the group changed its name to ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir to reflect their gender-expansive community that includes trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid singers. The requirement: sing in the treble vocal range!

Based out of Philadelphia, auditions take place annually. Typically, anyone who can sing in the range can join. Community is everything, and some members have been singing with ANNA Crusis for 50 years.

Judith Palmer, 80, joined the choir at its inception, accepting an invitation from the first conductor, Catherine Roma, whom she met at a communal house for women. “It’s an inspiration to be with other people who not only sing beautifully together and make a wonderful sound, but form a community of people who are bonded to each other,” she tells GO.

Palmer has found it fulfilling to be part of a choral movement whose foundation is rooted in feminism and a commitment to sing for social change and economic justice.

“We really focus on that community aspect in our choir, and the people who belong get a sense of forming deep connections and a shared sense of purpose that goes beyond our rehearsal space,” Miriam Davidson says. “It’s about lifting each other up and celebrating our diversity.”

From a cultural and identity standpoint, the group is always looking to diversify repertoire and incorporate music from different cultures and traditions. A few pieces, however, hold a special place for members. Holly Near’s songs remain timeless, as does Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “Ella’s Song,” written by the late Bernice Johnson Reagon (1942-2024), whose music has been described as providing the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.

On May 31, ANNA Crusis will present their 50th anniversary concert, “Generations Unbroken: 50 Years Forward—Not One Step Back” at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. A blend of historic repertoire with contemporary feminist anthems will speak to both progress and battles still being waged, with this reminder at the forefront: “The movement for equality continues unabated, with music as its beating heart.”

Dance Mission Theater and Dance Brigade

Imagine hitting the road with five women in a van and touring for months at a time through America’s Heartland and beyond. That’s exactly what Krissy Keefer did—along with a handful of women who took inspiration from a single dance performance they saw in Oregon. Such were the bohemian origins of The Wallflower Order Dance Collective, birthed from a vibrant alternative culture in 1975.

The name is a play on the traditional definition of a “wallflower”—someone who sits by themselves at a dance. “We weren’t sitting around waiting to be included in somebody else’s company,” Keefer says.

Theirs was a time when many dance companies were moving away from the Martha Grahams of the world, shunning the dominant narrative that it was imperative to join someone else’s company. Their performances explored the intersection between art and social justice, and they were forging alternative approaches.

“It was such an incredible time period that we were in—that we had such a strong audience, and we were able to slightly bleed into the mainstream,” Keefer says.

The women’s music network was strong in those early days. Musicians were touring, like Sweet Honey in the Rock (also turning 50!), the Berkeley Women’s Music Collective, and banjo player Woody Simmons. “There was a production company in every city,” Keefer says, “so it was very easy to just go either all the way up to Vancouver, down to L.A. and then get over the Rockies and go all throughout Michigan and Ohio…Every city had a production company of lesbians, and we were on that network—and were very successful doing that.

“We were so successful that we got enough money to buy a reel-to-reel tape recorder in 1976. That very much cemented the importance of the work we were doing, and we decided that we would stay together and keep working together off of that.”

But nothing is static, and Wallflower Order evolved in response to upheaval, both within the organization and in wider spheres. As a result of internal political struggles, Keefer pivoted to form Dance Brigade with Nina Fichter in San Francisco in 1984. Over time, the economy shifted, and the network of production companies promoting women artists began to fall apart. Keefer turned the focus from touring to creating community events and began running a theater in 1996. Within two years, they moved to Mission Street to start Dance Mission Theater, which has been thriving for the past 25 years. Their ventures have included a jazz adaptation of the “Nutcracker Suite” called the “Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie,” with composer Mary Watkins—a progressive twist on the holiday classic that utilized over 500 Bay Area artists during the 10 years that it ran.

While the group isn’t touring the festival circuit this year, in November, Dance Mission Theater will joyously mark its 25th Anniversary with a huge performance at YBCA/Herbst Theater; and in January 2026, Dance Brigade will honor Women’s History with the premiere of “Match Girl,” a fairy tale reimagined, that explores class struggle, and San Francisco’s drug and homeless crisis.

Dance Brigade brought on its golden 50th anniversary in January, with a seven-city West Coast tour, “A Woman’s Song for Peace—A Tribute to the Past, A Vision for the Future.” The work featured live music with Holly Near, Ferron, and Afro-Caribbean jazz artist Christelle Durandy. Themes of war and foreign policy were conveyed through bold choreography and their distinctive melding of Hip Hop, Modern, Salsa, and Taiko styles.  The tour kicks up again in May 2026, with stops in Southern California, the Southwest, and the East Coast.

Keefer never lost the drive for shared humanity or the principles she carried from the women’s movement as a 22 year old when she transformed herself from a struggling ballerina to a full-fledged woman-dancing warrior.

“What stayed alive was that belief system of inclusivity, fairness, and compassion,” the Cincinnati transplant says. “And trying to equal the playing field for artists from all walks of life, and all ethnic backgrounds—sharing resources and producing and promoting other people. That is the legacy of that time that I’m still holding and translating to the next generation of young women who are in the GRRRL Brigade [ages 9-18] who learn female empowerment through dance and drumming.”

Goldenrod Music

April 25 commemorates exactly half a century since Goldenrod’s launch into the women’s music distribution space. It began with a friendly offer in 1975 by Terry Grant (now retired) to Olivia Records to see if they wanted someone to sell Meg Christian albums at a Michigan concert. Rather than sending back unsold vinyl, Olivia suggested Grant sell them to friends. From the humble beginnings of selling out of the trunk of a car, Goldenrod went on to become a force in retail sales for women artists and the behind-the-scenes driver that helped propel many careers.

Current Co-Owner and Sales Manager Susan Frazier got her start with Goldenrod in 1981, when Terry Grant asked if she wanted to sell at concerts in Ohio. “I get to see the show for free, AND you’re going to pay me? Is this like a question??” Frazier tells GO, with a laugh.

Frazier was there from those early days when Goldenrod started out mostly as a wholesale distributor. They sold albums, cassettes, and then CDs to all the gay and lesbian bookstores, Tower Records, and Borders. But there wasn’t much money in distribution—only about one dollar per album. They needed to have a hand in retail sales at concerts to survive. In time, they were selling merch for artists like Holly Near, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Linda Tillery when they came to town.

Frazier bought the business in 2017 with MJ Stephenson, whom she met at a festival on a chicken farm in Michigan. As the dozens of distributors in various cities dropped out of the business, Goldenrod gradually took over territories across the country.

“We were the first distributor for a lot of artists [like] Shawn Colvin and Dar Williams, and we were one of the first distributors for Ani DiFranco. She actually started with three different women’s distributor companies at the same time,” Frazier says. “We worked with all of them…We got pretty big for an independent distributor during the ‘90s, until the downloads started happening.”

Savvy and nimble, Goldenrod saw the writing on the wall when automakers stopped making cassette players for cars. It no longer made sense to be a wholesaler, so they adjusted their business model. Today, Goldenrod focuses on their website, projects, and services that help fill in some of the business gaps so musicians can focus on their craft—helping get swag manufactured, storage and product inventory, and selling their merch at festivals and concerts. Many of the artists she worked with since the ‘80s are still performing.

Frazier has also been digitizing and archiving women’s music, in what started as a pandemic project, working with Michigan State University’s Special Collections libraries, which also houses the Collection of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (which could explain the whereabouts of that missing photo of me standing topless in the rice and beans line in 1986).

Frazier has an explanation for the enduring power of the music that she stewards. “It’s not just entertainment,” she explains. “They’re also trying to change the world…Every social change movement has had its music. Women’s music was definitely the soundtrack to the feminist and gay and lesbian rights movement.”

Amazon Country (WXPN-Philly) 

Every DJ has a song that made an enormous impression. For longstanding DJ Debra D’Alessandro, it was a Margaret Adam tune called “Having Been Touched (Tender Lady),” covered by Cris Williams in 1975. “It was incredibly powerful as a 14-year-old teenager in love with my best friend to find this music coming out of my radio,” the Pittsburgh-area native tells GO.

“I was too young to go to a bar. I wouldn’t have known where to find a gay or lesbian newspaper, and so the power of radio, how intimate it is—it literally comes into your room, was just very, very powerful.”

The affair was brief because the girl was the daughter of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she was rightfully worried that her family would disown her. She refused to speak to D’Alessandro again. But D’Alessandro had told her about a radio show, and one night as a teenager, the future DJ dedicated “Tender Lady” to her first love.  

“It felt so powerful to do that, because, just imagine, a 14 year old getting to dedicate a lesbian love song on the airwaves and hearing it. I never found out if she ever heard it, but it was like this public attestation of my love for her.”

Years later, when she moved to Philly, all the good stuff on the radio was on the left side of the dial. She discovered 88.5, WXPN, and the show Amazon Country. She eventually volunteered for the show, became a temporary host, and applied for a permanent role by what is now archaically known as “a fax.” She had some advantages with experience in stand-up and performance, plus a wife, four years older, who came with an expansive record collection.

D’Alessandro loves mixing it up. The range of her favorite artists today includes Crys Matthews, whom she describes as “the voice of protest music of this generation.” Alice Di Micele, folk musician and environmental singer, has also made her playlist. The DJ played Brandi Carlile before she made the charts, and still has the demo that Sia sent to the station before she scored a big record deal.

“It’s a lovely position to be in, to get to hear artists when they’re on their way up.” She still spins the music of our founding mothers, and influencers like Bonnie Raitt, Motown, and Big Mama Thornton. She also keeps an ear out for rising artists, like Heather Mae, who just released a double-album of Americana Folk and Electronic/Dance.

Sometimes in life, an experience comes full circle. D’Alessandro got a note from a listener who wrote that her family didn’t understand why she would go grocery shopping late on Sunday evenings. “She leaves at eight, and takes the long way so she can listen to the show in the car,” D’Alessandro says. “She was married in a heterosexual relationship, and this show was giving her hope that someday she’d have the courage to leave and live her truth in life.  

“At the time, I always had announcements. And the woman wrote that she hadn’t the courage to go to any of those events, but just hearing about all the women’s dances—it was like a lifeline for her,” D’Alessandro says. “That was just so meaningful for me, because it literally felt like what happened for me, I’m making available for other people, which is to know they’re not alone, and that there’s a culture ready to receive them when they’re ready.”

Amazon Country can be heard live on radio or streaming. Tune in on Sundays 11–11:30 pm.

National Women’s Music Festival – July 3-6, 2025, Middleton, WI

Community, connected, renewed, empowered, and energized—these are words women have used to describe National Women’s Music Festival. This year, NWMF proudly stands with other coalition organizations “of a certain age” as they celebrate their 49th Festival (technically in business 51 years, but having missed two years of fests).

NWMF will take place July 3-6, 2025, and in keeping with tradition, will be indoors, taking over the Madison Marriott West Hotel in Wisconsin, a venue festival-goers have enjoyed since 2009.

“I like to say we’re a women’s music festival without camping,” says Terri Worman, president of umbrella non-profit, Women In the Arts Inc. Though if you’re looking to set up a tent, Dane County Parks can point you toward scenic options.

Over the decades, the festival has seen a range of Midwest locales, mostly on college campuses. I have fond memories of making a road trip from Ann Arbor to Indiana to play piano on a day stage in the 1990s. Today, NWMF boasts multiple stages, and Linda Wilson, Stage Producer, is particularly excited to bring on Linda Tillery,  twice named “Outstanding Female Vocalist” at the Bay Area Jazz Awards.

Both women are now 76. Wilson treasures a photo in which Tillery holds her grandson as a baby 25 years ago. Wilson tells GO, “She’s a great performer. She’s a real rock and she’s produced a lot of other women’s music. I just really want to honor her this year, because I know she’s had some [health] challenges and I think it’s just great that she can come be with us.”

Wilson strives to keep a balance with the talent offerings—younger, older, various backgrounds and genres—from rock and roll to folk, blues, jazz, and even a ukulele chorus, plus a poet and comedians, including the hilarious Lisa “Two’s Company, I’m a Crowd” Koch.

Workshops! Attendees in prior years have enjoyed everything from “Lesbian Vampires to Watch out For” to “Way Out There: Conversation with A Lesbian Rocket Scientist”  and “So You Want to Buy an RV.”  Many musicians offer intensives. NWMF’s Red Tent is a safe space for women to gather for relaxation, conversation, and meditation. They have a live auction and impressive film festival with a 2025 line-up that includes Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Esther Newton Made Me Gay. Another fun thing unique to NWMF—their own long-standing orchestra. The National Women’s Music Festival Orchestra Ensemble performs works composed by women, with Nan Washburn, also Music Director of the Michigan Philharmonic, wielding the baton.

NWMF has always had a reputation as a safe place for women to go, to hear music, and find like-minded others. If you can make it to the “Cheesehead” state in July, look for coalition celebrants, Lesbian Connection and Goldenrod, who’ll be setting up shop at NWMF this year, as always.

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In the face of adversity, community is the tonic. There’s never been a better time to make new friends and to connect with the anchors that have strengthened our vibrant and expansive community for half a century. GO Magazine warmly invites you to recharge and refresh in the havens built with the future in mind—and that future is you!