WOMYN’S LAND: FOR A LIMITED TIME Your friendly neighborhood Gay Place is of the lesbian vintage that does not have much direct experience with womyn’s land, proper. Our clearest memories – other than the small plot that we occupy at BookWoman on those special nights when Susan whips out an egg shaker and goes to town accompanying whatever nice lady is playing acoustic guitar that evening – involve the Lone Star Women’s Music Festival at which our band played a few years in a row in the mid-Nineties. Lone Star was an entire weekend across an entire campground (The Lazy L & L on twisty, winding River Road in New Braunfels) populated with every type of dyke imaginable, featuring every type of dyke band imaginable. Nirvana for those of us for whom “lesbian space” was limited to a bar, bookstore, or the 35 or so square feet of our beds. “Man on the land!” was purportedly announced anytime the dudes would come onto the grounds to empty out the Porta-Potties. At least I think I remember it that way. So, for us, Leah DeVun has created a sort of wonderland. The artist’s current Women & Their Work gallery exhibit, “Our Hands on Each Other,” picks up where music festivals leave off and explores the phenomena of intentional living communities carved out by women. Again, nirvana, for neophytes such as myself, but perhaps a different experience altogether for women for whom such space is very real. DeVun has created a photo series (or, more aptly, “re-created” photos) based on these communities and actually taken on womyn’s land. The show is only up through Thursday, July 15, and we heartily encourage you to go check it out. Though, if you are a woman and you are bringing your boyfriend, brother, or dad, could you please scream, “Man on the land!” upon your arrival? (See Thursday.)
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This article appears in July 9 • 2010.