7th May 2004
As your read this message I am somewhere in Scotland. I’m still reabsorbing… For some thoughts on the March For Women’s Lives, click here.
Believe me when I tell you that making this turnaround from Washington, DC back to Berkeley, CA and then on to Scotland for a month-long pilgrimage in a four-day period has been some serious gear-shifting. And.. I am deeply grateful for the opportunities that have put me here.
I want to share one such singular opportunity I had over the March weekend. Those of you who are familiar with my work over the last thirty years will appreciate this. I attended a Barbara Boxer fund-raiser which honored Kate Michelman of NARAL/Pro-Choice America, Gloria Feldt of Planned Parenthood and Ellen Malcolm of Emily’s List. Gloria Steinem was the “Special Guest” and Carole King was the “entertainment.” Gasp.
Gloria Steinem and Carole King. If someone were to ask me to identify the two most influential women in the constellation of influential women in my life – stretching over 57 years – without hesitation I would say: Gloria Steinem and Carole King.
I have shared many an event, conference, dinner and political meeting with Gloria Steinem since I first began to perform at feminist gatherings and I have been inspired and educated by every one of these experiences. In every one of my encounters with her, she has embodied and demonstrated the best impulses of feminist values and political organizing.
As I told Carole King in the note I gave her with my CD Avalon: “I am one of your ‘children.’ I am one of the women who never would have had the nerve to sing my own songs had you not recorded ‘Tapestry.’ I have had a 30-year career ride as a result of the wheels your music gave me. In that time, I have recorded 8 CDs but never anyone else’s music until my latest recording, Avalon. The first time I heard your song – “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” (over thirty years ago!) it moved right into my heart and has never left. I hope you will think my rendition of your beautiful song has done it justice.”
We were all standing – jammed in a small ballroom empty of chairs – when she stepped on stage, sat down and “claimed the piano.” She asked us if we would mind sitting on the rug-covered floor so she could see us and we could see her. Memories of the first concerts at the Women’s Building in Los Angeles, 1974 came flooding over me. There we were, 200 well-dressed women (most of a certain age) sitting on the floor happily singing along with Carole King as she sang “I feel the earth move under my feet…” What a joy!
And there – for all to see – as this genius singer-songwriter-activist swayed with such unabashed pleasure… was her left foot – beating time to her music, running energy to the music- just like I do. After all those early years when I tried to break myself of that habit… I was completely undone as I watched her abandon herself to her Muse.
Somewhere in the Boxer campaign office there is a stack of photographs from that VIP reception. In those photos you can find one of me standing between two giants – in a complete swoon of joy and gratitude. If I can track the image down, I’ll put it up on this page.
In Sisterhood, in Scotland!
