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The Nov./Dec. Issue Includes Articles On: Dessie Woods is Out of Prison!

News from the Sisters of Innerconnections The Fight Against More Prisons

Letters from Women Inside and much more.

Available at women's and progressive bookstores or from Women Free Women in Prison, PO Box 90, Bklyn, NY 11215. $1 each copy, $6 per yr. more if you can, less if you can't FREE TO PRISONERS AND PSYCHIATRIC INMATES

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Poets for "Fairness?

By Lorine Getz

A 'powerful evening of readings by Andrea Dworkin and Adrienne Rich was offered October 17 at Wheelock College Auditorium, Boston, to benefit the "Committee on Fairness". Fairness seeks to raise funds to defend five Clark University women sued in civil court for defamation of character by the head of ; the Anthropology Department there. The Clark University department chair, who remained unnamed during the evening's readings, is seeking $23,710,000 in damages from the women who previously brought charges of sexual harassment against him through the university's grievance procedures and the EEOC. The university, without consulting the women involved, dropped all charges against the chair. EEOC has been asked by the university to drop the women's charges, but has taken no action to date. The case is of concern to all women who seek protection from sexual harassment and from retaliation.

*

At the reading event, which drew a capacity crowd of about 500, a spokesperson for the 5 women gave an update on the case including a statement of their legal fees to date, which are well in excess of $50,000, and asked that persons on the program refrain from making further comments concerning the case 'in order to help establish an atmosphere conducive to settlement" as negotiations continue.

The readings themselves focused on women's experiences in seeking to gain power over their lives. Dworkin chose selections from her recently published work, Pornography: Men Possessing Women, as well as a few unpublished pieces. She began her reading with a work entitled "The Simple Story of a Lesbian Girlhood" which traced developing adolescent fantasy life through Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, a camp crush named Barry Greenberg, and finally girlfriends through and with whom those fantasies finally became enfleshed. The audience was captivated, sighing in sympathy, and often laughing heartily at the exactitude of image and marvelous turn of phrase expressing very familiar experiences.

Then Dworkin took a more serious turn. From Pornography, she read "Whores," a strident piece which focuses on the ideology of male superiority in our society. She spoke of the prevalent mind-set which sees rape and prostitution not as abuse of women, but as natural functions of the female, merely using the thing (woman) for its inherent purpose (sex). Dworkin ruthlessly pointed to both the right and the new left as abusers of women. She claimed that underlying each political stance was the same metaphysic-that women's will for sex is a will to be used. She insisted that the position of the left is more sinister because it is based on women's "freedom". Women are here understood to be intended for the democratic consumption of all men, rather than one

man.

After a break, Adrienne Rich assumed the podium to read widely from her new work A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far. Rich introduced her

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readings by saying that she wanted to celebrate these 5 "charged" women who have become models for all feminists by bonding across ethnic, economic and professional statuses (the Clark women include a tenured professor, a visiting professor, an exsecretary of the department and two students; two are women of color). Though Rich's poetry did not directly address the issue of sexual harassment, her poems centered on our personal and collective pasts as women and our differences as individuals. In "Integrity," the poem from which the title of her new collection is derived, Rich recognizes the critical function of "light," or inner wisdom. In the light, Rich comes to realize that she has nothing to go by but herself-herselves. These selves, anger and tenderness, form "the wild patience" which has taken her thus far. In "For Memory," the old words "trust" and "fidelity" are juxtaposed to the present experience of disloyalty and betrayal. Rich states: "I can't know what you know unless you tell me; there are gashes in our understandings of this world. We came together in a common fury of direction barely mentioning the difference". Focusing on the painful truth, that not all women are alike, Rich states that we differ, misunderstand, even hurt one another. Rich cites shared remembering as a method of moving into the future.

The impact of the experience of the evening gradually settled upon me. I was moved by the commitment and generosity of the two readers who gave of themselves not only in this benefit for 5 women victims, but who continue to give so generously in their art to articulate for us what is both highly personal and individual, and also universal and communal-the experience of isolation, brokenness, and occasional communion as we seek to reach out to sisters for aid in our struggles to gain power over our own lives.

Hassle-Free Dining

By Ann Bender

Where can a woman go out alone, or in the company of other women, for a weekend evening of quiet dining, conversation and entertainment—without being hassled, or hustled? For those with an ear for jazz, there is a refreshing, intimate dinner club called La Petite French Quarter in Maple Heights, definitely worth scheduling on your calendar.

For starters, there's no cover and no minimum! Upon entering, you'll find a congenial mixed crowd, a relaxed, quiet atmosphere, and friendly service. They provide a fairly decent wine list and a good range of mixed drinks, including some slightly exotic offerings. The creole specialty menu is moderately priced and mildly spiced. Seafood selections dominate the menu with vegetarian alternatives and a few meat dinners.

By 8:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, the jazz quartet Eclypse starts setting up. They are a serious, young group who play a versatile combination of traditional jazz (influenced by Coltrane undercurrents) and their own original works. To those of us who support jazz in fear of its becoming a lost art, the performance by Eclypse is worth supporting. While they are ragged in a few spots, when they come together it is definitely good jazz.

For a casual, relaxing, treat of an evening, stop at La Petite French Quarter (Thursday through Sunday) and enjoy! Address: 5246 Northfield Road, just south of 1-480, on the west side of the road. Phone: 581-5005. No reservations required, but once the secret is out it wouldn't hurt to make them.

Page 6/What She Wants/November, 1981