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Olivia on the Record: A Radical Experiment in Women's Music Paperback – October 20, 2020

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 55 ratings

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Foreword INDIES 2020 Silver Award Winner in LGBTQ+ Nonfiction

Independent Press Awards 2021 Winner in LGBTQ nonfiction 

Golden Crown Literary Awards 2021 Nonfiction Winner

The burgeoning lesbian and feminist movements of the '70s and '80s created an impetus to form more independent and equitable social and cultural institutions—bookstores, publishers, health clinics, and more—to support the unprecedented surge in women's arts of all kinds. Olivia Records was at the forefront of these models, not only recording and distributing women's music but also creating important new social spaces for previously isolated women and lesbians through concerts and festivals.

Ginny Z. Berson, one of Olivia's founding members and visionaries, kept copious records during those heady days—days also fraught with contradictions, conflicts, and economic pitfalls. With great honesty, Berson offers her personal take on what those times were like, revisiting the excitement and the hardships of creating a fair and equitable lesbian-feminist business model—one that had no precedent.

In a time when lesbians’ participation in mainstream culture and politics is often  taken for granted, we need to recognize the miraculousness of what Olivia achieved. A few years after Stonewall, Olivia not only created the first women’s record label, but in the face of pervasive bigotry and repression carved out a vibrant political space for lesbian freedom. —Barbara Smith, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective

The women’s music movement was a revolution for rights and dignity, carving out  a space where none existed before: for women to seize ownership of their own  narrative, for lesbians who had never been reflected in popular music, for women to write love songs to other women. A small collective of idealistic women with  absolutely no experience in the music business created a model that would change the landscape for all women, indeed, for all people. —Vicki Randle, musician

Ginny Berson’s important memoir of building Olivia Records into a beloved lesbian institution is a timely narrative from a founding organizer. Ginny walks us through the politics, radical self-discovery, aching romantic tension, and quirky community organizing that characterized an era. In these chapters, we gain a front row seat to the collective “processing” that produced and distributed lesbian records, and meet the first generation of fans to experience women’s music as lesbian liberation. —Bonnie J. Morris, PhD, author of Eden Built by Eves, The Disappearing L, and The Feminist Revolution

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ginny Z Berson is a long-time political activist driven by a longing for justice. She was a member of The Furies-- a radical lesbian feminist separatist collective in Washington, D.C. that lived and worked collectively to develop lesbian feminist political thought and philosophy. They produced a mostly monthly newspaper, The Furies, that was distributed nationally and had a significant impact on women’s groups all over the U.S. Ginny was a regular contributor and member of the editorial staff.

 After The Furies broke up, Ginny pulled together a group of women in D.C. to begin visioning and planning what would become Olivia Records, the national women’s record company. She and her partner, the musician Meg Christian, were the initial driving force getting Olivia off the ground. Ginny stayed at Olivia for seven plus years, and during that time the

 Olivia collective produced records by Meg, Cris Williamson, BeBe K’Roche, Linda Tillery, Teresa Trull, Mary Watkins, a poetry album by Pat Parker and Judy Grahn, and Lesbian Concentrate―a “lesbianthology” in response to a rising wave of homophobia. After leaving Olivia in 1980, Ginny worked for many years in community radio---at KPFA-FM, Pacifica Radio, and the
National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

She then spent 8 years as Director of Outreach for  World Trust Educational Services, an anti-racist educational organization that produces documentary films, curricula, workshops and trainings.

She also does racial equity work in her neighborhood as part of Neighbors for Racial Justice.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aunt Lute Books (October 20, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1951874013
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1951874018
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 55 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024
    Well written and engaging. I have a large collection of Olivia records that I purchased in the 70s and still love and listen to today and of course, went to multiple concerts in the day too and, this book, to get the inside view of the development of not only Olivia but also the rise of Women's Rights means a lot to me.
    All the struggles and successes and the journey there. Highly recommend!
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2020
    I loved Ginny Berson’s book for many reasons. First, Ginny is a good writer and the stories are well told and interesting; secondly, this is a book that exemplifies that the political is personal—she had a political vision that she co-created with other lesbian feminists which she lived out. There is so much great inside history of women’s music that is expressed in and around and through Olivia Records and this book. It’s poignant, funny and revelatory. Above all, the vision that Ginny and Meg and the rest of the collective had was right on: to teach lesbian feminism through the heart (via incredible music) as well as the mind. I fell in love with Meg’s music in a concert in Bowling Green Ohio in the early 80’s. I was 35, standing there with my husband and I knew. Thank you, Ginny. It was all worth it because there are thousands of women just like me. All that you did, all that you envisioned, all that you suffered has made an enormous difference in lesbians’ lives.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021
    The music of Olivia artists has been an integral part of my life since the ‘70s when I was a graduate student in Michigan. This book was an informative and enjoyable journey through the origins and process of the Olivia recording experience. While Olivia as a recording company may not have had the world changing impact that it envisioned, it did make enormous differences in many women’s lives ( including mine). A big thank you to Ginny Berson for sharing her experiences as a member of the Olivia collective.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2021
    Olivia was at the beginning of promoting lesbian causes and this book does an excellent job of detailing that history.
    It also spotlights those in the forefront of the organization and how it evolved despite set back as well an financial difficulties. If you want to know about the women who were such a big part of this organization, this is the book to read.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2023
    Great story of Olivia Records that helped spread the music that I was the background of my life in the late 70’s. Many fond memories of that part of my life because of the music Olivia helped to share with the world.
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021
    Olivia on the Record – Ginny Z Berson
    I have been waiting for a book on the history of Olivia Records for, oh, twenty years. The label began around 1973, but in 2000 I began my radio show, Queer Music Heritage, and I would go on to include a Lot of Women’s Music. But I was annoyed that their history was not readily available. Now it is, and much more than that. Ginny begins the saga back with the forming of the Furies collective, in 1971. I knew of that group, but never really understood their legacy, the politics around it and its end. So this was an important preface to the founding of Olivia Records.

    Ginny goes deep into the dynamics of the group, the music, the struggle to do things their way, as a collective, not just a business. It was a grand adventure, always with money problems, and distribution challenges, and the idiosyncrasies of dealing with women artists and business people from different backgrounds all over the country trying to forge their own ways, in different communities.

    Oh, there were lots of challenges, from the you cannot please everyone school, like for example their having a transgender engineer, and their rising to the occasion with an Anita Bryant protest album, “Lesbian Concentrate,” which I consider a landmark. And of course they had their super talents, Meg, Cris, Tret, Linda, Teresa, Deidre and Lucie. And that very notable poetry LP by Pat Parker and Judy Grahn; and comedy by Robin Tyler. Olivia had recordings being issued from 1974 through 1993, to include a second label, Second Wave, and the distribution of a number of other albums from other sources.

    They were lesbian-feminists braving a new world while keeping to their beliefs. To this picky historian I wish the book had in the back a complete discography, but you can find that on my website, in fanatic detail, at the Olivia section of my site Queer Music Heritage. And, as this book ends when Ginny left the collective, in 1987, I still wanted to hear the rest of the story.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
    What can I say? Delightful read of the backstory and underlying movement behind women’s music. I loved the book, I loved remembering the time period as it reflects the struggle and joy so many of us experience(d) looking for personal and cultural identity. Buy it, read it, learn our history.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2021
    Really enjoyed reading the book as I loved the artists and the music! It brought back a lot of memories of the time and scene then. It was unique and deserved to be written about. Thanks Ginny for writing it!