Note:
If you found this page directly through a web search, please start
your
journey at the main Olivia Discography page,
or the related radio show
Pat
Parker & Judy Grahn
[Pat
Parker, 1944- 1989]
The
only poetry album on Olivia.
Click
for Pat Parker Bio
Click
for Olivia video slide show
Pat Parker, 1989, by Robert Giard
Listen
to Pat Parker (Side One, 27:34), or Listen
to Judy Grahn (Side Two, 28:02)
Bonus:
At the Rally prior to the March on Washington, in October 1979,
Pat Parker gave a famous reading, 2:46
Where
Will You Be When They Come
This
recording courtesy of John Frame
Extra
Bonus:
Where
Will You Be? - Nedra Johnson
from the 1998 CD "Testify"
inspired by Pat Parker & Audre Lorde (shown below right)
www.NedraJohnson.com
FOR
THE STRAIGHT FOLKS WHO DON'T MIND GAYS BUT WISH THEY WEREN'T SO BLATANT
by
Pat Parker
Below,
VERY rare video of Parker reciting this poem
VIDEO
You
know, some people got a lot of nerve.
Sometimes
I don't believe the things I see and hear.
Have
you met the woman who's shocked by two women
kissing and, in the same breath, tells you she is pregnant?
But
gays, shouldn't be so blatant.
Or
this straight couple sits next to you in a movie and you
can't hear the dialogue because of the sound effects?
But
gays shouldn't be so blatant.
And
the woman in your office who spends an entire lunch
hour talking about her new bikini drawers and how much
her husband likes them?
But
gays shouldn't be so blatant.
Or
the "hip" chick in your class rattling like a mile a minute,
while you're trying to get stoned in the john, about the
camping trip she took with her musician boyfriend?
But
gays shouldn't be so blatant.
You
go into a public bathroom and all over the walls there's "John
loves Mary", "Janice digs Richard", "Pepe loves
Delores", etc., etc.
But
gays shouldn't be so blatant.
Or
your go to an amusement park and there's a tunnel of
love with pictures of straights painted on the front and
grinning couples are coming in and out?
But
gays shouldn't be so blatant.
Fact
is, blatant heterosexuals are all over the place.
Supermarkets,
movies, on your job, in church, in books,
on television every day and night, every place--even in gay bars --
and they want gay men and woman to go and hide in the closet.
So to you straight folks I say, "Sure, I'll go if you go too.
But, I'm polite so, after you."
A
HISTORY OF LESBIANISM
by
Judy Grahn
How
they came into the world,
the women-loving-women
came in three by three
and four by four
the women-loving-women
came in ten by ten
and ten by ten again
until there were more
than you could count
they
took care of each other
the best they knew how
and of each other's children
if they had any.
How
they lived in the world,
the women-loving-women
learned as much as they were allowed
and walked and wore their clothes
the way they liked
whenever they could. They did whatever
they knew to be happy or free
and worked and worked and worked.
The women-loved-women
in America were called dykes
and some liked it
and some did not.
they
made love to each other
the best they knew how
and for the best reasons
How
they went out of the world,
the women-loving-women
went out one by one
having withstood greater and lesser
trials, and much hatred
from other people, they went out
one by one, each having tried
in her own way to overthrow
the rule of men over women,
they tried it one by one
and hundred by hundred,
until each came in her own way
to the end of her life
and died.
The
subject of lesbianism
is very ordinary; it's the question
of male domination that makes everybody
angry.
