NOVEMBER 1976

The

By Lori Holmes

Cleveland radical/gay/feminist community will be treated this month to a pair of joint concerts by two well-known musicians, Holly Near and Meg Christian. The concerts promise to provide a unique opportunity for the audiences to be both thoroughly entertained and to receive a strong political message, as Holly and Meg have both been visible political artists for several years, Holly within the Left, and Meg within the feminist movement.

Holly Near grew up in a farming community, where her parents were involved in labor unions during the McCarthy era. She started performing when she was seven years old, continued developing musically while in college and by the late 1960's was in the Broadway cast of "Hair," as well as doing guest appearances on a number of television shows. Having learned the skills to utilize her talent, Holly decided in 1971 to put that talent to a constructive and responsible use; as she had been expanding the political consciousness around race and class issues to which she had been exposed as a child, Holly joined up with a group politically active artists, among them Jane Fonda, to tour internationally as the "Free the Army (FTA)" troupe. It was in part because of the women Holly met during that tour (and while on tour in North Vietnam in 1975) who were struggling for their own independence along with that of their communities, that Holly began developing an understanding of the oppression of women.

Part of Holly Near's politics is the understanding that music is a very powerful force for changing people's lives; looking around, she realized that music has been used for such diverse purposes as lulling children to sleep, selling commercial products and as a source of strength to unify oppressed peoples (for example, Black gospel music). In order to make her music more widely available, Holly started her own record company, Redwood Records, and to date has released three albums on the label. Her political growth can be readily followed through the three albums; the first one, "Hang in There," was addressed primarily to the Vietnamese struggle and the issues of the Left/ anti-war movement, yet included as well songs of growing sisterhood; for example, one song said that her long-time friendship

with another woman was too

important to be broken up over

HIGH GEAR

HOLLY NEAR-

MEG

CHRISTIAN ON THEIR

WAY TO CLEVELAND

worker."

Meg Christian and Holly Near in concert

The union of Holly and Meg Christian in concert is extremely exciting because Meg's political background is quite different from Holly Near's. When the two

performers first met, they were impressed with each other's musical skill and respected each other as principled political women, yet they had huge political differences.

their mutual interest in a man. Holly's second and third albums, "A Live Album" and "You Can Know All I Am," reflect the musical genius of herself and Meg Christian was the first her collaborator on many songs, Jeff Langley, as well as the guitar major to graduate from the University of North Carolina broad political perspective Holly brings to her music. On these at Chapel Hill, and after college moved to Washington, D.C. albums, as well as in concert, where her superb musical skills Holly Near dynamically confronts the issues of sexism, easily got her jobs performing in racism and imperialism, earning night clubs from 1969 to 1973. her preferred title of "cultural During that time, Meg got

increasingly involved in the women's movement, particularly around lesbian issues, and found it extremely frustrating to sing to straight audiences where she could sing very few songs relevant to women's lives or feminism. However, despite the sexism in the clubs, women from the Washington feminist community came to hear Meg perform, and so in 1973, believing that women would prefer to listen to music about their lives in an atmosphere and situation which they controlled, Meg abandoned the nightclubs to concentrate on making music for women.

For the last few years, Meg Christian has done many

national and regional tours, singing primarily for women's groups, and writing and performing music which portrays women honestly and realistically. Her music deals with many themes about women's lives; from the farcial nature of wedding ceremonies and the pain inflicted on women by patriarchal institutions to having a crush on your gym teacher and coming out to your mother. Meg is also a founder of Olivia Records, a collectively run national women's recording company, for which she recorded her first album, "I Know You Know" and will record her second in 1977.

Meg Christian and Holly Near

PAGE 17

have been working together musically for almost a year, having first performed together with several other women in a benefit concert for the Los Angeles Women's Building, and then on a California tour along with Margie Adam and Cris Williamson which reached almost 10,000 women (including prisoners at the California Institute for Women).

During that tour, Meg and Holly became close friends as they confronted each other with their personal politics, each wanting to incorporate her politics into their joint performances. With Meg challenging Holly on issues of feminism and lesbianism, and Holly criticizing Meg for not incorporating issues of class, race, and global focus into her music, each of the two women developed politically.

The combination of Meg Christian and Holly Near in concert is a moving and totally enjoyable experience. Their music, much of which they have arranged to sing together, generates a foot-stomping, singalong energy in their audiences, a glow and strength which stays with you for days... while at the same time making you realize that people are struggling for freedom everywhere; as prisoners in jails and mental institutions, as Native Americans and Third World people in a white supremacist society, as workers dominated by an elite upper class, as lesbians and homosexuals, and as women in a patriarchal culture. Their concerts are particularly relevant to the gay community, as both women are lesbians and sing about the joys by gays in a straight culture.

Holly Near and Meg Christian will be doing two concerts in Cleveland: on Friday, December 10 an open concert and a women-only concert on Saturday, December 11. The performers and their producers, Oven Productions and the CWRU Women's Center, mutually recognize the validity of women-only space to unify women and allow women to relax with each other in this new and vital context, so have chosen the two-concert format to reach the broadest possible audience. A concerted effort is being made to encourage a wide variety of people to attend the open concert, with free tickets having been distributed to mental health centers, Third World and Native American groups, welfare rights organizations and others to whom Holly and Meg address their music.

Both concerts are being held at the Allen Memorial Library auditorium on the CWRU campus at 8:30 p.m. with an admission price of $3.50. It is strongly advised that tickets be purchased in advance (especially for the open concert), as a large turnout is expected and for information about advance ticket outlets or to reserve free child care, interested persons may call or write Oven Productions: P.O. Box 18175 Cleveland Heights 44118, phone 371-1697.