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Dear Holly:
My friend Joanne and I saw you perform last night in Philly--we were the youngest ones there (Jo told you she grew up listening to you), to whom you stopped and spoke as we gushed our appreciation for your sanity in these war-hungry times. I wanted to tell you how important it is to me, personally, that you addressed race and racism in our country. I am married to a French West African, and we have a beautiful little 15-month old boy. Although I was raised by atheist Unitarian flaming liberals (who listened to Holly Near, no less) who denounce racism and have attended social justice events their whole lives, I didn't know how hard it is to be black (or not white in general) in this country and world. After 7 years together, I have felt pain from racism that I didn't know existed; you know, the typical stories of my husband being followed by cops here in Philly; or being watched by cops as he locks up his bike in our yuppie neighborhood (they are convinced he, a professional dressed in his business clothes, doesn't live here and is stealing it), etc.; or just the simple being called the n-word because he is with a beautiful white woman. As an interracial couple, we do well, except for occasional incidents driving through western PA or Indiana (hate-country) to Chicago. I wish you could walk in my shoes for a day--that everyone could--because the understanding that comes from living with "it" is so profound. We will have to teach our son, Xavier, how to drive while black, how to acquiesce safely to authority, etc. While as a white woman I can stand up to authority, my husband and Xavier must fear it because they are not white. It is heart-breaking. I was so glad you have gotten it, and are sharing it with people. With all the cultural and racial elements of my family, I was so impressed to hear you utter many ideas that my fmaily lives by. I feel proud that my love and family is a symbol of my beliefs and of the better nature in all of us, and I felt at home in your show last night as I connected with that nature.
So, thanks again--
Rachel Roberts, Philadelphia

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Holly. I am so glad to see your website pages on art and activism. My heart is racing. It is so important and appropriate that you highlight in this manner the inexorable connection between your art and your devotion to justice. I know you have touched many with your music, including me and my spouse, and our children. But I have seen in myself and others the propensity to experience some healing or energizing forces in response to your music, only to allow it to remain individualized or non-political. It is wonderful that you help us to accept the full challenge of what you are singing about.

I have to tell you that the other day, when the radio was on and my nearly 8 year old son heard the words "...is scheduled to be executed..." in reference to Timothy McVeigh, he burst out sobbing and asked me, "They're going to kill someone? How can they do that?" while clinging to me. I was holding my little, gentle angry person. It took me 5 minutes to calm him down, all the while letting him know that his feelings were warranted.

I can show him many resources supporting our family's opposition to the death penalty, but seeing your Art and Activism comments and hearing me read the relevant song lyrics, when he's heard these songs out of the CD player or from my lips, will have enormous healing and empowerment for him and my other children. And for their parents.

Thank you, thank you for this. It will give us strength.

In Peace,

name withheld for posting

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26 May 2001

Holly,
You can imagine my surprise to be browsing in Tower Records today and to find your new CD [Simply Love] prominently displayed in the folk/bluegrass section!!

I immediately put it in my CD player and listened to it to/from a trip up to Santa Rosa. It is wonderful.

When I got home I read the booklet and it brought many fond memories of my days back in West Virginia. It was your concert in October 1982 (Adrienne, Carrie, and Susan Freudlich) and it was the first concert production that my friends and I had ever done.

It was such a wonderful experience that over the next 18 months we brought Sweet Honey, Alive, Robin Flower Band and others to the WVU campus. Also, we started a women's radio show on the WVU campus radio station. I was one of the weekly producers.

In any case, I want to order more of these CDs and send to my friends back there - it would be a great way to celebrate all that we did those many years ago and the lasting impact it had on each of us.

Coincidentally, a month ago one of my dear friends from Nashville (formerly of WV) was here with her 16 year old daughter. Her daughter is a new lesbian and she wanted to check out Mills College. We spent much time telling her about our days of bringing women artists to WV and the radio show we had (I as producer, her mom as DJ). Her daughter asked lots of questions and was very interested in hearing some of the music. This CD would be a great gift to her - I think she will find it inspiring.

Thanks for your many years of being out there and speaking for all of us. I know my life has been changed by your music and for that I will be forever greateful.

Take care,
Carrie Koeturius

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.....You probably hear this a lot, but I just have to tell you . . . . . . your music has been part of the development of my life view. As a young high school history teacher in the early 60's I listened (almost became a groupie) to Peter, Paul and Mary singing "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin' in the Wind". From that time forward I have searched for music w/ social consciousness lyrics. then In the mid-70's a friend played the "Live Album" and I knew at the first playing of "It Could Have Been Me" that I would use the song in my university courses (I was at Boise State University at that time), and in fact have done so for the past 25 years. As you know much better than I, music is a universal language, and I believe good music speaks to some of us in ways that the mere printed or spoken word cannot. Moreover, some music transcends time . . . . . "It Could Have Been Me" speaks to me of our never-ending obligation to be engaged, to be involved in our social and political processes, and to work toward restructuring the social and political order for the better. And the need for our citizens to be engaged is ever more critical.

For what it is worth, your gift, as demonstrated in "It Could Have Been Me", spoke to both my mind and my heart in a particular and profound way. I might add that some of my students from over the years have kept in touch w/ me and it is unceasingly amazing to me that the music I played remains w/ them. One of my students, a teacher in Kearney for nearly 10 years, has a copy of the "Live Album" and whenever we meet he says, "Freedom, freedom, freedom!" from the refrain in ICHBM, b/c the music speaks to both of us and connects us. I thank you for that. Ed
[Lyrics to It Could Have Been Me can be found on the Art and Activism page.]

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Dearest Holly,
I received your new CD for Valentine's Day. I was so excited, and listened to it all the way to work. Work, that is why I am writing. I am a hospice nurse. I just read your piece on death and dying. [See] I have changed my thoughts about death, dying and bereavement significantly since I have been doing this work. Death, in a great deal of lives, is a blessing. The stories of people's deaths are as varied and as individual as the person who died. I have stopped praying to one God, but have learned to pray to many Gods; the Gods of the believers and the Gods of the unbelievers that have crossed my path. I have seen a soul go into the song of a bird outside a window. I have seen death raise its arms to the Jesus always longed for. I have seen death surrounded by incense and the low drone of the Buddhists lying around the person in a circle. I have seen tears of wailing, joy of pain ended, and gratitude for having known and loved the one who died. Culturally, there are vast differences. But Holly, no prescription makes a difference. The ritual may be different, but the song is the same: love, hope, gratitude and wonder.

Bless you Holly. Bless you for all the joy you have brought to me throughout the years. Bless you for continuing in a world that frequently refuses to listen.

Ruth A. Catalogna

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Dear Holly, Yesterday I splurged some Christmas money on your new cd "Simply Love" and am listening to it right now. It is truly wonderful music. I am writing this on a whim that is prepetrated by my frustration as a woman activist in the field of agriculture.

I have been an organic farmer in Iowa with my husband, Larry Harris, since 1976. I have been a political activist since the late 60's and continue to do activism work that combines farming with women's issues. In spite of the fact that women world round farm the land and provide food for people, women go unrecognized in our own country. In the United States women own over 40% of rentable farmland, but men still make the decisions on land use. Thus we witness daily pollution of the air, water and soil. We witness the setting up of animal factories where animals are confined indoors from birth to death in cramped quarters and fed horrendous amounts of anitbiotics in order to counteract the diseases spread in such systems.

There is so much to say and I don't want to bore you with details, but I do want to make you aware of some wonderful things that are happening in spite of the mentality of "man over nature." Knowing you, I am probably not telling you things you don't already know. In my 25 years of farming I have watched the emergence of organic agriculture into the mainstream. In the last 5 years I have noticed in particular that many young women who are graduating from universities with degrees in environmental studies and such are actually wanting to be farmers! What a joy! There are problems with this in that many of these women have no idea how to go about actually setting up a farm, finding capital and accessing land. It is my dream to set up our farm as a resource learning center where women can learn the skills needed to farm.

I have also noticed that there seems to be a large number of lesbians that are caring for livestock and the land. This takes courage, strength and fortitude, especially in rural areas. These women are helping to lead us into a new agriculture where people actually care about the land and the animals. Women are leading the way for community supported agriculture (CSA) and feeding people in local food systems.

Besides being a farmer, mentor and activist, I coordinate a women's network called Women, Food and Agriculture Network. This network is composed not only of farmers but activist academics, rural and urban women I do this mostly on a volunteer basis although right now I am getting quarter time pay because we received some grant money this past year. We put out a newsletter four times a year.(To subscribe to the newsletter, contact us at <wfan@nishna.net> or Tides Center Project, 59624 Chicago Road, Atlantic, Iowa 50022)

Please keep creating your inspirational and compassionate music so that women like myself can continue to do the work we were born to do.

Peace and Health in the New Year,

Denise

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Dear Holly,

I recently saw your performance at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and
purchased your CD of standards for my father. He was recently diagnosed
with Alzheimer's. Well, he loves the CD--plays it at least once nearly
every day, and sings along. The first time he put it on, he took me for a
spin around the living room floor. Dancing to your music with my dad that
night will always be one of my treasured memories.

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Read all about your new CD (of old songs) in a New York magazine and it got
such a rave review that I went to buy it. Best buy I have ever made. Thank
you for reviving those oldies but goodies......made me feel young again.

Glanced at your concert schedule and I certainly hope that you'll be working
your way to the east coast .....lots of luck and love to you.

Peace
Lin

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Dear Holly,
Tonight I saw you perform with Cris Williamson at the Keswick Theater. It
was so wonderful to see you again. I began listening to you when I was
fourteen, I remember buying records of you, Cris and Meg on my lunch break
from the Girl Scouts!! I had to hide the records under my desk so nobody
knew about them. Believe me the job didn't last too long since I couldn't
stay in the closet with the music that became infused into my soul. You each
gave me hope for a future and helped me while I fell in and out of love as a
teenager. I now have a 15 year old son that has been raised on your music.
I really do believe that we as lesbian/feminists are raising a different kind
of man. He is gentle and respectful of the girls at school which I can't say
the same of his friends. Thank you for helping me achieve that goal.
Keep up the wonderful work, I hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,

Laurie Welch

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Dear Holly,

Thanks so much for the renewed focus on children. I work for a non-profit doing construction management in economically distressed areas of Philly and occasionally i write short observations of what I see there. Recently I wrote:

In the suburbs, kids learn to follow the yellow brick road, or at least the information super highway. Yesterday in North Philly, I saw some kids following the blood on the sidewalk.....It started at Norris and Franklin and went three blocks. In the grime of the inner city we lost track of it there....There's something very profound about that something very telling. Having worked in the most depressed areas of Philly for over five years, even I will never get what it means to be raised in such a hard rough environment like that, what it does to a growing child, or the parents raising them......

You seem to get, better than many, the underlying pulse of what the struggle is like for so many. And I would bet that very few in the crowd at the Keswick Theater really gave much thought to schools vs. prisons.......(I know that crowd-I'm one of them).At least now, when people ask me what I do for a living, they will have some context when I describe where I work and why it's important....

Thanks again,

Terri McNamara

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Dear Holly Near,

Glad to see that you have a web site. I didn't have a clue that the people that sung the best music in my life were still out there. I don't even know the new women singing these days. After you and Meg and Chris touched my life, when I was coming out in Chicago around 1980, the new women after that could never get to me as deeply. I still have some old LP's of yours and M and C, but am waiting to some day afford to buy a turn table. I can't play any of the old tapes I used to listen to..... I wore those out long ago.

Thank you so much for your spirit. I know that you gave so much of yourself in your music. And thank you for the old concerts. I'll never forget the one time at Michigan. You went on stage risking you life during a storm. I was so afraid you were going to get struck by the lightening. Instead, it was like the lightening became your friend and accompanists and only struck with a controlled accenting to your singing of "Fire in the Rain". I have never seen anything like it.

I'd love to see you in concert again. I live in Madison Wi now, and have a disability that makes it hard to get to Chicago. Maybe you and Chris Williamson would consider coming to Madison sometime soon. Our community is so big I know it would be a sell out. If not, I'll find a way to get to Chicago when I'm feeling better.

(PS Tell Chris I still love her too.)

Thank you
Bonnie McIntyre

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September 12, 2000

Dear Holly-

So, this woman invites me over for dinner- we're friends from work. I get there and find lasagna in the oven and laughter in the house. As I sit down for dinner, Gail lights the candles, turns on the stereo, turns off the lights, and leads me into my first taste of vegetarian lasagna and the hikin'-boot mother music of Holly Near.

That was 1973. I still love vegetarian lasagna, candlelight, and the music of Holly Near. Sadly Gail slipped away into the bisexual fog which has been my life--- I always found individuals to be more attractive than genders and never assumed sexual intent when there were so many other reasons to be spending time together. (Aside: I will never know if the candlelight was to keep the lasagna recipe a secret as long as possible, as Gail said at the end of the meal, or if it was a safe test drive of my feelings for her. Unfortunately in 1973 my own lights hadn't come on yet.)

Over the past 25+ years I have shared some of my life with Redwood Records in the form of fan mail and thank you notes. My 80-year-oldmother has become a fan of yours too, and loves your humor as I do. She was astounded Saturday night when I stopped by her house unannounced and told her I had come from a concert 5 miles up the road At Ragged Mountain, Danbury NH. She was surprised there was a concert so close by,and asked what group was playing. I told her, "You'll never believe it-Holly Near," and she beamed. I told her your story about people's various "gastro-intestinal" reactions to sexualities other than their own, and she said, "Well I hope THAT gets turned into a song."

Even though your thoughts and music have been intertwined with my entire adult life, and you have walked with me through more private passages than even I can believe, I was frozen with shyness when I saw you at the Goldenrod.com booth Saturday afternoon. I felt like a schoolgirl, because all I wanted to do was say thanks again, but I couldn't say what for. Thanks for clearing the path. Thanks for writing "Sit with me for awhile" and then doing it with me, over and over. Thanks for accompanying me in and out of medical emergencies and traumas to the heart. Thank you for welcoming many of us to the progressive world of "something about the women in my life," "imagine my surprise," and "crushed." Thank you for urging us all to be strong politically but gentle privately.

I woke up this morning humming "D-E-F-B" uh-huh "C-D-E-A" uh-huh and I sure hope that is going to be on an album ( whoops, I meant "CD") soon.If I get stuck on just the perky phrase "I want to kill, uh-huh" it's going to be a long winter.

Thanks again. The Breathe In- Breathe Out song was a wonderful way to introduce your passion /humor/conviction/humility to those at the concert who are not familiar with your many faces. If a lyric sheet is available before the recording comes out, I would be thrilled to start memorizing my most recent sister song.

Gratefully,

BH
Of NH, WI, MN, NM and back home again in NH

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Dear Holly,

"...I came to your concert...with my two younger children. I was reminiscing with my friends about how much life has changed between times you've been here to sing. I remember hearing you when I was young and single and feeling so affirmed when you sang 'Something about the Women.'

Then, six years ago when you came, I was pregnant with a third child and the lesbian generation Xers I work with didn't get that song, thought it was trite and I had to explain to them how much time had changed since "I was their age."

I went to your last concert a widow with an adolescent, 11 year old and 5 year old. I never would have thought my life could change so much and my dreams so altered. My husband was diagnosed 3 years ago with Lou Gehrig disease and I not only lost my lover and partner, but was consumed until his death with being a mother and care giver. I was surrounded by a loving community then and now.

But other things in life have changed, even progress you might say. When you sang "we are a land of many colors," my 11 year old daughter sitting in my lap said "no crap!", as if it were the most obvious thing, why would anyone have to sing about it. Then, as we were driving home, I played some of your 80s music which had songs about loss of friends to AIDS. I told my daughter that's what the songs were about and she said "people die from AIDS?" What a shift, for her frame of reference to think of people living with, rather than dying from AIDS.

Keep on singing,
NAME WITHHELD

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