Liza Cowan collection, c. 1970s

Collection Items

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  Our Cities, Our Lives - Wife Battery

  Episode of Our Lives, Our City. Side A is an interview with members of the Center for the Elimination of Violence in the Family (Yolonda Baker and Diane Jackson) and a former resident of the center (Laura), mostly about the center and the work they are doing. The Center for the Elimination of Violence in the Family opened on March 4, 1977 (according to Yolonda, it is the first domestic violence shelter in NYC). The Center offers shelter/residence, counseling, referrals to education programs, job-training, work opportunities at the shelter, and accompaniment to welfare, family court, and police appointments. Side B is for taking calls.

  Tags Diane Jackson, Domestic Violence, Yolonda Baker
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  Unstuck in Time - Magic

  Side A: Margot Adler discusses the various definitions of "occult" and "magic" as expressed by four groups in society: the uneducated, the educated, scholars, and practicitioners. Adler contends that the way these words are defined reflect social conditioning and shape the conversation around spiritual practice and occult study. She proposes a definition that is not mystical nor supernatural that she explores and expounds upon throughout the program. To this end, Adler relates an experience she had visiting and working within a small farming community of magic practitioners and how their understanding of magic as the "art of getting results" applied to their lives. One psychological element that Adler focuses upon is charisma and how the charisma of individuals or communities is itself a magical quality.
  
  Side B: There is a call in portion at the end of the program wherein Adler and callers talk about Rorschach and the Tarot, therapist role within witchcraft, New York magical and spiritual communities, and ends with a more heated discussion regarding the divisions between magic and science.

  Tags Margot Adler, Occult, Psychology, Religion, Spirituality
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  Modern Scream

  Side A opens with Viv Sutherland introducing Lily Tomlin’s comedy album Modern Scream on the WBAI Women’s Studies program. The bulk of the tape features Tomlin’s satirical sketches, where she voices multiple characters. Highlights include a bizarre monologue from a woman addicted to rubber, a mock celebrity interview parodying Hollywood shallowness, a chaotic sorority speech full of performative morality, and a child’s monologue touching on emotional contradictions. The humor is absurdist, character-driven, and rooted in media and gender satire.
  
  Side B continues with more sketches from Modern Scream, maintaining the format of comic vignettes performed by Tomlin. It features a flashback to Detroit high school life, a surreal phone company sketch, a spoof interview about playing a heterosexual woman, a parody detergent commercial that turns into a soap opera-style meltdown, and a long sermon from “Sister Boogie Woman” celebrating radical self-expression. The tape closes with Sutherland’s sign-off and a preview of upcoming feminist programming. Like Side A, it’s rich in satire but not thematically aligned with our themes.

  Tags Comedy, Lily Tomlin, Viv Sutherland
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  More Than Half the World - A Pretty Face is not Safe in this City

  Side A: Host discusses women's rights and justice in the United States. Show features various feminist musicians.

  Tags Feminism, Music, Rights
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  The Female Angst

  Side A:Women playing the guitar singing a jingle. She goes on to talk about the pain that comes with operating in a male centered society. In an interview, two women talk about women not being as confident in their ability of being without the "big father" figure present for reassurance. There's a conversation discussing how a woman sacrifices more, does more, feels more, which makes them gifted. They talk about women as nature, explaining how a woman's suffering forces people to experience life on a deeper level. There is talk about work as a form of salvation while finding moments of joy in the process.
  
  Side B:"Equating women to death, and men with life." Person being interviewed offers a new perspective on coexisting as both man and woman. She stresses personal identity over identification and speaks about how when a women acquires education she poses as a threat to men. She mentions how women giving boundless and immense love to men, when in actuality women are in search of themselves as an individual. Tape ends in music.
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  Common Ground - Women Have Always Worked

  (This is side B of tape) An interview with Alice Kessler-Harris about her book, "Women Have Always Worked," published by Feminist Press. Hessler redefines "work" and also emphasizes how historically women's labor was not salaried or compenstated financially.

  Tags Alice Kessler-Harris, domestic sphere, domesticity, Feminism, homemaking, industrial revolution, Labor, motherhood, Phyllis Kriegel, Workplace
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  ♀♀ (Women) in El Salvador

  (This is Side A of tape) Part one of a program on Latin-American women, features a recorded lecture by journalist Anne Nelson given at an International Women's League for Peace and Freedom meeting. Nelson discusses her trip to El Salvador, the paramilitary death squads, and the specific state violence done to Salvadoran women. Nelson laments how this is not being reported on or considered "news" by fellow American reporters and Washington.

  Tags Ann Nelson, El Salvador, geopolitics, Latin-American Women, Police, Sexual Assault, Violence
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  Women's Studies
  Robin Morgan Reads: The Network of the Imaginary Mother

  Robin Morgan reads her five part poem that is " a weird love poem" to her mother, husband, friends (sisters), children, and her self. Morgan describes it as a metaphysical search for transcendence. Mentioning the goddess, the poem situates womanhood to genitalia and the body.

  Tags Children, Existentialism, family, Feminism, motherhood, Patriarchy, Spirituality
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  Woman (W♀man): Sandra Elkin Speaks with Cris Williamson

  Woman' is a talk show featuring in-depth conversations exploring issues affecting the lives of women. This episode features a conversation with Cris Williamson, who has been a singer songwriter for the past 14 years. She currently records with Olivia Records, an all-womens recording company. Her latest release is the "Changer and the Changed."

  Tags Music, Social issues, Women
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  Know Your Body: Sexuality

  From a series of 8 lectures which comprised a course by and for women also entitled "Know Your Body." The course was given at the Women's Medical Center in New York City, where this lecture was recorded for WBAI in May and June, 1972, by Caryl Ratner and Bill Monaghan. Produced by Caryl Ratner. Contains frank, explicit discussion. Broadcast on WBAI first in June, 1972 and also in October 1972.

  Tags Body, Sexuality
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  Unstuck in Time

  Notes on back: "Return from Vacation"
  "Prospectus for 'Season'" "Feminism"
  "Synthesis of Politics + Spirituality"
  "Ms.Magazine September 1975 + Akwesasne Note"

  Tags Margot Adler, Move from Patriarchy, Spirituality, Violence/Rage
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  Everywoman Space - Tarot

  Tarot reader explains her practice and interpretation of tarot from a “subjective level.” Spirituality/tarot is positioned as a move from patriarchy. The tarot reader credits her practice of tarot to her upbringing around women, reading of feminist texts, also her mother is a witch.

  Tags Move from Patriarchy, Spirituality, Tarot, Violence/Rage
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  More Than Half the World - Abortion

  Host, Judy Pasternak, discusses abortion and the struggle for the legal right of women to have control over their bodies. In her reflection upon the legal battle surrounding this issue, Pasternak notes that the majority of the individuals making these decisions from a federal level down to its local implementation are male identifying. In her past experience and many other of the callers, the medical infrastructure and service providers were male which they felt impacted their care and the comportment of the medical team.

  Tags Abortion, Feminism, Judy Pasternak
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  1st East Coast Conference on Women & Porn

  Side B - 1st East Coast Conference on Women & Porn: “The following segment on the Velvet Sledgehammer features tapings from the 1st East Coast Conference on Women and Pornography.”
  

  Tags Pornography, Prisons
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  Women + Crime

  Side A: In this interview, Dr. Freda Adler discusses the rise in female criminal behavior as a consequence of broader social changes, particularly women’s increased participation in public and professional life. She explains that as women gain access to new roles, they also gain opportunities to engage in crimes once dominated by men. Traditional “feminine” crimes (such as prostitution and shoplifting) are being replaced by more assertive and violent acts like armed robbery and even assassination. Adler emphasizes that this shift doesn’t stem from new motivations but from changing circumstances, and she challenges the myth of inherent female passivity by documenting the evolving cultural landscape.
  
  Side B: This side explores how institutions—from law enforcement to the courts and prisons—have struggled to keep pace with changes in female behavior. Adler critiques the justice system’s gendered assumptions, showing how women have often received either harsher or overly lenient treatment based on outdated ideas. She also highlights discrimination in prison rehabilitation, the invisibility of women’s prison uprisings, and the psychological toll of role confusion (psychological and social uncertainty that many women face as gender roles shift rapidly) and cultural pressure. The tape closes with a call to treat women’s liberation and female criminality as separate issues, arguing for systemic reform rather than a return to traditional gender roles.

  Tags Labor, Move from Patriarchy, Violence/Rage
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  Everywoman Space - Violence Against Women

  Woman talking about the toxic beliefs that a woman's body belong to men. Discusses rape, and the poltics behind why people think woman were put on this earth as functional objects to be used by men. Reclamation in naming these harmful systems and acts. Woman proceeds to gives examples of common men violating the boundaries of women and young girls. Goes into discussing the statisitcs of how many rape incidents go unreported, and how many rapists go unconvicted even when reported. Woman then discusses how men bond over the violation of women. That takes precendent over racial bonding.

  Tags Move from Patriarchy
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  The Goddess and the Origins of Patriarchy

  The Lesbian Radio Show, hosted by Rose Jordan. Discussion about the ancient goddess culture and feminist spirituality with Merlin Stone, author of "When God Was a Woman" (1976) and Grace Chanel, who had recent article in feminist journal, Heresies (1978).

  Tags Move from Patriarchy, Spirituality, Violence
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  The Lesbian Show - Kwanza

  Recordings of a group discussion around the 7 principles of Kwanzaa, particularly in regards to community and faith, interspersed with singing of Kwanzaa songs.

  Tags Faith, Kwanzaa, Racism, Segregation
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  Sexual Harassment on the Job

  Side A is a radio program on WBAI in New York, hosted by Viv Sutherland, and addresses the serious issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. The show consists of two central interviews: Mary Garvin, a carpenter and member of a union, and Rachel, a legal secretary, who both tell their own stories of being harassed at the workplace. Mary Garvin, a member of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 1204, describes her own encounters with casual and malicious forms of harassment at work on building sites, such as discriminatory treatment as a minority worker. Rachel describes a hellish experience of attempted sexual attack by her employer, a private attorney, detailing being physically restrained and assaulted in his office. The program also features phone-ins from listeners discussing different issues surrounding sexual harassment, law, and potential responses to such an event––some advocating for violent responses. The discussion touches upon the issue of complexities of building harassment cases, shortcomings in current legal protection, and the need for systemic changes to assist the victims better and prevent workplace harassment. Side B continues with call-ins. It expands on themes from the first half but brings in more emphasis on legal, economic, and cultural barriers to justice. The program ends with a call for systemic change, grassroots activism, and women reclaiming their power in courtrooms, workplaces, and daily interactions.

  Tags Feminism, Sexual Harassment, Women

• Audio and Video Collections
  • Liza Cowan collection, c. 1970s
    • Assorted Audio Materials, c. 1970s
    • Feminist Radio Network, c. 1974-1978
    • Radio Free Women, 1972-1974
    • Tiny Davis Interview, 1988