Wanderground is a project in formation.
Currently, we focus primarily on archiving and sharing books, journals, and other materials from Lesbian and feminist independent presses, especially those from the early Women in Print movement (1965-2000). Wanderground supports learning from our past so Lesbians will continue to envision and create life-affirming and equitable communities.
A little background…
As early as the 1960s, Lesbians began to more openly express their feelings and life experiences in poetry, stories, and thought. The Women in Print Movement (1970s-1990s) emerged as Lesbian-focused writers, publishers, and bookstores positively shaped and affirmed Lesbian thought and writing. Despite adversity, those vibrant spaces and voices encouraged Lesbians, to discover and affirm their own identities, claim their own strength and power, and gain support and a sense of well-being. Those publications had a profound effect on Lesbians struggling to come out. As Lesbians came to an awareness of themselves as Lesbians, they found each other and formed alliances and communities.
Mev Miller, the instigator of this project, has collected hundreds of those national publications (and other Lesbian cultural artifacts) from that heyday (1970-90’s) and wants to connect with other Rhode Island lesbians who may have collected similar materials.
“Meaningful communication is the meeting of two vessels, equally vulnerable, equally receptive, and equally desirous of learning. In the listening is all the real speaking.”
– The Wanderground, Sally Miller Gearhart, p. 115
Wanderground 