Olivia on the Record

Literary Nonfiction. Women’s Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Music. The burgeoning lesbian and feminist movements of the ‘70s and '80s created an impetus to form more independent and equitable social and cultural institutions–bookstores, publishers, health clinics, and more–to support the unprecedented surge in women’s arts of all kinds. Olivia Records was at the forefront of these models, not only recording and distributing women’s music but also creating important new social spaces for previously isolated women and lesbians through concerts and festivals. Ginny Z Berson, one of Olivia’s founding members and visionaries, kept copious records during those heady days–days also fraught with contradictions, conflicts, and economic pitfalls. With great honesty, Berson offers her personal take on what those times were like, revisiting the excitement and the hardships of creating a fair and equitable lesbian-feminist business model–one that had no precedent.