Gay Today: Entertainment

Camp Sister Spirit Hosts
the Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival

By Jack Nichols

Camp Sister Spirit founders Brenda and Wanda will host the 12th Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival during Easter weekend

Camp Sister Spirit, a feminist folk school, climbed proudly onto Mississippi's map in the mid-1990's, born in the midst of controversies that brought it national attention and the issuance of a protective mantle proffered by Attorney General Janet Reno.

Since then this innovative Camp has matured into one of the country's most popular getaway centers for lesbians seeking respite from city jitters and looking for the enthusiastic companionship of womyn who have a taste for rustic pleasures, comradeship and philosophical communion.

On Easter weekend, Camp Sister Spirit will play host to a Millennium celebration, inviting its many regular attendees and their friends to the 12th Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival. This friendly southeastern Mississippi locale promises four days of "empowerment, entertainment, and encouragement."

Sonia Rutstein of Disappear Fear, Sandy Rapp, Lee Hoffman, Shelley Graff and Lisa Cohen are some of the top-notch entertainers already on the Festival's marquee.

Artists and Craftswimmin will exhibit and sell their creations, while attendees themselves, with a flair for theatrics, will take part in a Thursday Night Worker's Talent Show, a Sunday Night Camp Fire Sing-a-long and Children's Activities (boys age 8 and under welcome.)

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The Festival's Workshops, its Day & Night Stage, and a Craft Market will be augmented by 'Great Southern Meals' (that means plates filled with vegetables and meat although vegetarian meals will also be provided). Though the Camp offers limited cabin spaces (reservations should be made in advance) there's also a tent for recreational vehicles.

Admission costs will range between $95 and $225--a sliding scale, based on income. There are four no no's, however: no illegal drugs, no alcohol, no sado-masochistic activity and no pets. Camp Sister Spirit advertises itself as a 'Clean & Sober Non-Violent Space'.

Since the mid-90s, Camp Sister Spirit—a holistic enterprise-- has kept its dream alive, that of providing a place where womyn, men and children can learn to put "genuine social change" within everyone's reach. This means challenging old-fashioned political viewpoints with new concepts of personal behavior, learning what it means to have egalitarian relationships and to question the inequalities engendered by antiquated patriarchal values.

Lesbian folk singer Sandy Rapp will play the Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival

Personal attitudes and behaviors lie at the core of any genuine political changes. The 12th Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival continues its tradition: engaging women in productive dialogues about those ways in which they can change their personal lives for the better. In open discussions, the learners, in the manner of folk schools, become the teachers.

The Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival—in the Camp's spirit—sees itself as "an organic mechanism for initiating a process of social evolution." Attendees will focus on what is called "situation-specific social justice" and putting "genuine social change within the reach of every member of the community."

Brenda and Wanda, two longtime lovers, the extraordinary idealists who founded Camp Sister Spirit, have successfully allayed the concerns of their Mississippi neighbors and regard their site as a safe haven for women who are seeking respite and longing to create a better world. "Our neighbors know they can come to us not just for food or a warm coat," they say, "but for advocacy and for referrals to services."

Attend the 12th Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival:
Email: sisterspir@aol.com
Telephone: 601.344.1411
Mail: GCWF
P.O. Box 12-W
Ovett Mississippi 39464-0012
USA