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Olivia on the Record Paperback – October 20, 2020

by Ginny Z. Berson (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 54 ratings
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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.

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  1. Print length
    260 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Aunt Lute Books
  4. Publication date
    October 20, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1951874013
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1951874018
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ginny Z Berson is a longtime political activist driven by a longing for justice. She was a member of The Furies—a radical lesbian feminist separatist collective in Washington, DC. They produced a mostly monthly newspaper, The Furies, that was distributed nationally and had a significant impact on women's groups all over the US. After The Furies broke up, Ginny pulled together a group of women in DC to begin visioning and planning what would become Olivia Records, the national women's record company. She and her partner, the musician Meg Christian, were the initial driving force getting Olivia off the ground. After leaving Olivia in 1980, Ginny worked for many years in community radio—at KPFA-FM, Pacifica Radio, and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. She now works as Director of Outreach for World Trust Educational Services, an anti- racist educational organization. She also does racial equity work in her neighborhood as part of Neighbors for Racial Justice.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aunt Lute Books (October 20, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1951874013
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1951874018
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 54 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
54 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JD Doyle
5.0 out of 5 stars Been Waiting a Long Time For This Book
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
Olivia on the Record – Ginny Z Berson
I have been waiting for a book on the history of Olivia Records for, oh, twenty years. The label began around 1973, but in 2000 I began my radio show, Queer Music Heritage, and I would go on to include a Lot of Women’s Music. But I was annoyed that their history was not readily available. Now it is, and much more than that. Ginny begins the saga back with the forming of the Furies collective, in 1971. I knew of that group, but never really understood their legacy, the politics around it and its end. So this was an important preface to the founding of Olivia Records.

Ginny goes deep into the dynamics of the group, the music, the struggle to do things their way, as a collective, not just a business. It was a grand adventure, always with money problems, and distribution challenges, and the idiosyncrasies of dealing with women artists and business people from different backgrounds all over the country trying to forge their own ways, in different communities.

Oh, there were lots of challenges, from the you cannot please everyone school, like for example their having a transgender engineer, and their rising to the occasion with an Anita Bryant protest album, “Lesbian Concentrate,” which I consider a landmark. And of course they had their super talents, Meg, Cris, Tret, Linda, Teresa, Deidre and Lucie. And that very notable poetry LP by Pat Parker and Judy Grahn; and comedy by Robin Tyler. Olivia had recordings being issued from 1974 through 1993, to include a second label, Second Wave, and the distribution of a number of other albums from other sources.

They were lesbian-feminists braving a new world while keeping to their beliefs. To this picky historian I wish the book had in the back a complete discography, but you can find that on my website, in fanatic detail, at the Olivia section of my site Queer Music Heritage. And, as this book ends when Ginny left the collective, in 1987, I still wanted to hear the rest of the story.
6 people found this helpful
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Karen Blue
5.0 out of 5 stars Music Herstory
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2023
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Great story of Olivia Records that helped spread the music that I was the background of my life in the late 70’s. Many fond memories of that part of my life because of the music Olivia helped to share with the world.
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BAustin
5.0 out of 5 stars This is an important, wonderful, honest book
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2020
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I loved Ginny Berson’s book for many reasons. First, Ginny is a good writer and the stories are well told and interesting; secondly, this is a book that exemplifies that the political is personal—she had a political vision that she co-created with other lesbian feminists which she lived out. There is so much great inside history of women’s music that is expressed in and around and through Olivia Records and this book. It’s poignant, funny and revelatory. Above all, the vision that Ginny and Meg and the rest of the collective had was right on: to teach lesbian feminism through the heart (via incredible music) as well as the mind. I fell in love with Meg’s music in a concert in Bowling Green Ohio in the early 80’s. I was 35, standing there with my husband and I knew. Thank you, Ginny. It was all worth it because there are thousands of women just like me. All that you did, all that you envisioned, all that you suffered has made an enormous difference in lesbians’ lives.
3 people found this helpful
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Bonnie De Clark
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history of the organzation
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2021
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Olivia was at the beginning of promoting lesbian causes and this book does an excellent job of detailing that history.
It also spotlights those in the forefront of the organization and how it evolved despite set back as well an financial difficulties. If you want to know about the women who were such a big part of this organization, this is the book to read.
One person found this helpful
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SJ Potter
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you for the memories and the music
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021
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The music of Olivia artists has been an integral part of my life since the ‘70s when I was a graduate student in Michigan. This book was an informative and enjoyable journey through the origins and process of the Olivia recording experience. While Olivia as a recording company may not have had the world changing impact that it envisioned, it did make enormous differences in many women’s lives ( including mine). A big thank you to Ginny Berson for sharing her experiences as a member of the Olivia collective.
One person found this helpful
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simone a
5.0 out of 5 stars Ginny Berson has created a brilliant book, a memoir/history about 1970's women's community
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2021
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This is the book I wanted to write, about my years in the late 1960's and 1970's women and lesbian community; about my work in a political 'business,' a feminist bookstore in Los Angeles. Ginny has been able to get to the heart of what drove us to be activists, to not only want to change the world, to 'smash the patriarchy, but to be sure that we could, that the revolution was so obvious, it could not fail. Once you start reading it, you will not be able to stop, you will want it to go on and on.
Simone Wallace, co-owner, co-founder Sisterhood Bookstore 1972-1998
4 people found this helpful
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Julie Blair
5.0 out of 5 stars An experiment in feminine power and idealism.
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2021
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I've been listening to women's music for forty years or more. Olivia records was my staple and I still have most of those old discs. It was lovely to read the back story of so many of those who helped me, and very many others.
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DRHANSHU
5.0 out of 5 stars Precious history
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
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What can I say? Delightful read of the backstory and underlying movement behind women’s music. I loved the book, I loved remembering the time period as it reflects the struggle and joy so many of us experience(d) looking for personal and cultural identity. Buy it, read it, learn our history.
One person found this helpful
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