Outside Voices: A Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution
Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon and Schuster
"A vivid portrait of 1970s Berkeley and San Francisco, Outside Voices charts a young woman's ascent in a world as thrilling as it was volatile. A true gem of a memoir."
Jasmin Darznik, New York Times-bestselling author of The Bohemians
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Publication Date:
January 16, 2024
Publication Date January 16, 2024
Berkeley, 1972: a hotbed of creativity where painters, filmmakers, musicians, and writers inspire a young poet.
Second-wave feminism, inspired by Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Betty Friedan is swelling into a tsunami. Women are joining together to change power dynamics in politics, the home, and the workplace.
On election day, Joan Gelfand casts her vote for George McGovern and boards a plane from New York to California. With one introduction to a woman musician, Joan’s journey to become a writer is born. Embraced by a thriving women’s community of artists, filmmakers, musicians, poets, and writers, Joan is encouraged to find her voice.
Mentored by paradigm-changing writers, Joan finds the courage to face her darkest fears through poetry and art, mining the trauma she experienced after losing her father and questioning her Jewish identity. Reminiscent of Paris in the twenties, Greenwich Village in the sixties, and Berlin in the eighties, Berkeley in the seventies was the “it” city of America.
Outside Voices reports the ups and downs of finding one’s way as an artist, living with a women’s band, forging an independent Jewish identity, founding a women’s restaurant, and becoming a published writer and songwriter while exploring the limits of sexuality and spirituality. The story includes road trips to music festivals in the woods, beaches in Mexico, concerts in Southern California, and a retreat in the Pacific Northwest.
A triumphant story of determination and will, Outside Voices is a backstage look at the women’s movement that sets the stage for decades of change. This book is a firsthand look at how the power of community emboldened innovation, social change, and self-discovery.
about joan
Joan Gelfand’s reviews, stories, essays and poetry have appeared in over 150 national and international literary journals and magazines including the the Los Angeles Review of Books, The San Francisco Chronicle, PANK! The Huffington Post, Rattle, Levure Litterarie, Voice and Verse, Sycamore Review, Prairie Schooner and The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry.
"Outside Voices is a mesmerizing, lyrical account of the heady days of the women’s movement in Berkeley in the 1970s. Joan Gelfand, newly arrived from New York and still reeling from the untimely death of her father, draws strength and inspiration from the community of artists, musicians, and activists who embrace her - and finds her voice as a poet through their support."
Frances Dinklespiel, author, Tangled Vines and Towers of Gold
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EXTREME
A NOVEL BY JOAN GELFAND
Silicon Valley. High-Stakes. Serious Gamers.
Romantic Tension. It’s All in a Day’s Work.
EXTREME offers a glimpse inside the world of tech startups and its players in a page turner that’s sharp, quick, entertaining, and hard-hitting—a perfect combination for the perfect Summer 2020 beach read!