Aradia, Susan Wiseheart Collection

“Aradia” was a womyn’s community that existed informally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the early 1970s and incorporated as a nonprofit educational organization in May 1977.   The Susan Wiseheart Collection consists of 1/2″ open reel tapes of performances sponsored by Aradia in the late 1970s and early 80s.  Susan Wiseheart was an active Aradian and she preserved the tapes, which include two Alix Dobkin concerts, two Aradian plays, “Patti Pot” and “Wizard of Odd,” as well as what appear to be  fragments of rehearsals and planning meetings.   The earliest Dobkin concert in the collection took place December 28, 1979, and is inventoried as ASW-002, ASW-005, ASW-008, and ASW-013 .  The second Dobkin concert in the collection took place May 1, 1982 , and was signed by Susan Burns. It is inventoried as items ASW-001, ASW- 009, ASW-011, and ASW-012.   “The Wizard of Odd” and   “Patti Pot” were presented as annual Halloween plays on October 27, 1979, October 30, 1980, respectively. In the featured video from the 1979 concert, Alix Dobkin talks about her friendship with sister musician Kay Gardner and her experiences singing in Germany during a recent European concert tour.  She sings in both English and Yiddish. That combination of heartfelt political and personal commentary with music is very characteristic of her concerts and one reason lesbian audiences cherished her performances.

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