“Poet and activist Gelfand (Extreme) delivers an engrossing recollection of the protest scene in 1970s Berkeley, Calif. … This stirring account from the front lines of the feminist movement enchants.” — Publishers Weekly
In a Debut Memoir,
Celebrated Poet, Award-Winning Author, and
Women’s National Book Association President Emeritus
JOAN GELFAND
Offers a Personal Account of Poetry, Radical Feminism, Judaism, and
Sexual Fluidity During the 1970s Berkeley Revolution
In November 1972 as Ms. Magazine hit the newsstands with its inaugural issue, Joan Gelfand left the comforts of Forest Hills, NY, and summers in the Catskills for a trip to San Francisco. That vacation became a journey that lasted a lifetime, and a moment in history that is unparalleled.
In OUTSIDE VOICES: A Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution (January 28, 2024; Post Hill Press; ISBN: 979-8888450048; $28.99 Hardcover), Joan Gelfand, award-winning author and nationally acclaimed literary citizen, shares her story of awakening—artistically, sexually, and spiritually—during a radical time in a remarkable place. Writing with honesty and lyrical grace, Joan recounts a story of healing from devastating loss while honing her craft as a poet in the midst of cataclysmic social change in which the Beat Generation was born.
Finding a ‘room of her own’ in a quiet, wood-shingled house in Berkeley, she finds her tribe: like-minded feminists and artists. Says Joan, “Women are creating safe spaces where they can find their voices in art, books, music, recording, feminist theory, or just plain banging a hammer and competing in a world typically run by men.”
Bolstered by new friends Cloud, a poet and artist with a tinkling laugh, and Nancy, a working musician, Outside Voices gives a backstage view of artists and thinkers who went on to great things, including a young waitress named Suze (Orman), filmmaker Barbara Hammer, writers Judy Grahan, Gloria Andaluza, Pat Parker and musicians Mary Watkins, Linda Tillery and more. Hard on the heels of the Free Speech Movement, the Summer of Love, and the Beats’ disruption of culture and literature, Berkeley was a fertile proving ground.
OUTSIDE VOICES tells the coming-of-age story of a damaged teenager putting the pieces back together as she explores independence and self-definition while grappling with sexuality, Jewish identity, and the lingering trauma of her father’s death.
Among the stunning highs and lows, Joan recounts:
Her adventure in co-founding a women’s restaurant in a church dining hall. Fashioned as the “working woman’s Chez Panisse,” Loaves and Dishes serves simple café fare to an eclectic lunch crowd of students and fans. Her tribe is living the dream of socialism as working artists. Until it falls apart.
Her time living, touring (and almost getting arrested in Mexico) with an innovative band, the Berkeley Women’s Music Collective. Through her friendship with the band, she becomes a songwriter. Joan shares the thrill of hearing the song (for which she wrote the lyrics) played on the local jazz station.
Her profound awakening and healing during a week-long writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest. To become a better writer, the author Judy Grahn, owner of the Women’s Place bookstore and press, advises the young writer to face the pain of her past. Determined to break the chain of generational despair, Joan pushes herself to the far reaches of memory, gaining confidence in her calling as a writer.
The book reveals that Joan is on her way to morphing into a community organizer, and poetry editor in tandem with her dream of becoming a published author. It’s all good until her tribe presents an ultimatum: No men allowed. The women’s movement was fracturing and the Berkeley community, once open and free flowing was embracing separatism as the answer for women to move to the next level of liberation. For Joan, the Berkeley Revolution ended when she became her own person. She had outgrown the falling-down house and the “men vs. women” mentality. As the memoir reaches its denouement, Joan reflects: “Maybe there is more than one way to change my life, more than one way to change the culture, racism, sexism. Maybe, if I work hard enough, I could find words to inspire change, the way that I continue to be changed by books and words.”
A social experiment reminiscent of Paris in the ’20s, Prague, and Greenwich Village in the ’60s, “Outside Voices” recounts a time that laid the foundation for the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements. Offering an intimate backstage look at the women’s movement of the seventies, OUTSIDE VOICES is also a deeply personal and inspiring story of a woman and writer who found her way and continues to make a difference for women, for poets and writers, and in the world.
JOAN GELFAND is the author of three volumes of poetry, an award-winning chapbook of short fiction, and a novel, Extreme, which was a finalist in the International Book Awards. Her poem about Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the basis for a film, The Ferlinghetti School of Poetics, which was featured in over twenty international film festivals. Her writing has appeared in more than 150 literary magazines and journals, including Huffington Post, LA Review of Books, Levure Litteraire, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and the San Francisco Chronicle, which published her tribute to Ferlinghetti upon his death. A beloved teacher and mentor, Joan is President Emeritus of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) and a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her guide You Can Be a Winning Writer: The 4 C’s Approach to Author Success is an Amazon #1 bestseller. Joan holds a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Adam Hertz.
Joan Gelfand — Outside Voices
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Click HERE for Joan Gelfand's interview on Bay Sunday CBS 5
Click HERE for Joan Gelfand's interview on Mosaic CBS 5 in the Bay Area