[Article by Jaylan Salah]

Independent, strong and creative, Alta Gerrey of Berkeley, Californa is a true traveler in the Art Sahara. In the 1960s she started Shameless Hussy Press, the first feminist press ever created in the United States. Such a courageous step was not easy. Especially since women writers faced many struggles then, and were seen as ‘shameless’ for seeking to promote their work.

“Certain topics were not considered serious when I was young,” Gerrey says, “being a homemaker, for instance.  Others were considered shocking, such as lesbianism.  Now women can write – and publish – just about anything!”

Shameless Hussy published over 40 books in the twenty years Alta operated it, from 1969 to 1989. Most authors they accepted were women, including Ntozake Shange and Jennifer Jaffe, and they published a variety of genres, including collections of poetry and a few children’s books. And, they were located for a time in the small suburban East Bay town of San Lorenzo – where Gerrey says she felt safer from people who did not appreciate what she was doing.

Gerrey said she started the press because she and other women writers she knew were finding that mainstream publishing houses wouldn’t accept their work. To her, that was how much of the women’s equality movement got started in the United States – simply through women getting together with their friends and sharing things they noticed about their lives.

Jaylan Salah is a freelance writer and Synchronized Chaos contributor from Alexandria, Egypt. You may reach Salah at vigilante171@yahoo.com.

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Flower

A flower will die without sunlight
Delivering it’s warming ray.
A flower will die without the rain,
To wash over every day.

We tend flowers and tend them well
Therefore, they bloom with all their might.
We give them time, and space for rain,
And that ever needed light.

However, if the rains are slow to come,
Or the sun refuses to shine,
The flowers will die, but do not feel it.
They will be back in time.

However, we have another flower,
To which we must attend.
This flower is given for us to grow.
To feed, to love, to friend.

J’Rie B. Elliott is a poetess and ongoing contributor of Synchronized Chaos. To contact her, send an email to dixiepoet@gmail.com.

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[Reviewed by Brooke Cooley]

The Rhyme of the Ag-ed Mariness compiles all the poems written by Lynn Lonidier (1937-1993) between her last book and her death.  Lonidier’s humor, tenacity, and wit weave throughout her words as she experiments with Spanglais – a unique style of writing that incorporates local-Mission Spanish into her original poems that profess a woman-centered quest through the eyes of this streetwise woman visionary.

Lonidier was an unambiguous lesbian and feminist, consistently dedicated to the underprivileged, especially the children of San Francisco’s Mission district during the 1960s.  Her compassion, energy, and tenderness shines through her often angry and painfully real literary images as she explores her truths through the pages of this compilation.

The vision and creation that Lonidier depicts through the pages of this collection of bilingual poems tells a story through the eyes of an activist, teacher, artist, and mentor.  The expression of her experiences through her poetry offered me plenty of opportunities to crave and search for the wisdom and understanding that she also wanted to know and  was able to identify with many of the feelings that she described.  I was especially interested by the way feelings of San Francisco and all the flavor it has to offer were felt throughout the pages and that familiarity bled through, page after page.

Inspiring, heartfelt, and passionate, The Rhyme of the Ag-ed Mariness brought insight into not only the life of a woman who wrote her own script, but encouraged me to continue asking what I wanted to see on the pages of my own life.  She clearly exemplified courage and strength in both her written works as well as her life, taking on challenges that enriched both her life as well as generations to come.

Brooke Cooley may be reached at soupsforthesoul@gmail.com.

HOWLING

I went howling to the Moon
And I hoped to outrun it
Before the days turn into nights
And she’s left with quite a

FRIGHT

Of Sing, Sing, Sing
And Etta James
And Charles Mingus
And Miles Davis
And Sir Duke
Who juke out those fountains of
Notes
That saw sway saw away
Out of that golden flashing bay.

And I see
Her
In the moonlight
Blocking
The way for me
But not for
Me
But against
Me.

And I guess she was
Dressed for quick
Double time
At the Hide-Away slime.
To chill with the yellow cats
Scratching their chairs
And lapping their beer
And having funny thoughts so queer
Until you think you’re gonna pass
Out
From the stuff.

But her dress was Green
And I was in Black
And she was bathed in
The spotlight of the Moon
And I was drenched with
Howling sweat.

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Please send any questions or feedback to Eric Sadler at etsadler@yahoo.com.

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[Article by Cynthia Lamanna]

I recently engaged in a refreshing and candid phone interview with artist Anne Eunice, who currently resides in San Francisco. I was drawn in by this winsome, light yet sincere young woman, intrigued by her simple, poignant answers to some specific and open ended questions regarding her art, and the creation thereof.

Without a lot of fan-fare and drawn out explanations or reflections, she was humble, yet assured and matter of fact.

When asked how long she had been creating art, she answered “all my life.” She implied that over the last six months, she has taken more of an active interest. Currently part of a weekly art group, Eunice views drawing as a catalyst for inner healing. “When you make art, you can see that there’s still good, still love, still some happiness inside yourself.”

When asked how her art has evolved, she spoke up without pause. “I think it’s still evolving.” As the succinct answers and conversation weaved and flowed, with a sense of order and purpose, I was processing an image of an unpretentious sort who might be far too modest in her own appraisal of her gifts. Yet she seemed far less concerned with the grandiose, and final product, and more aware of the beauty of the journey, in the process, and expressed with an earnestness and conviction how she would like to continue her education in art, improve upon and develop herself as an artist.

What came across too was the fresh fascination of creating, emulating or re-creating beauty, and an enduring child-like wonder. I had not yet viewed her art at the time of the phone interview, and was curious, using my trusted imagination in place of other senses, to envision and/or capture in part, an essence, as it were. I invited her at her own pace to express herself, give a birds’ eye view, and somehow convey a prominent or primary message as well as visual, in telling a story about her art.

Cynthia Lamanna lives in the East San Francisco Bay Area, and is a regular contributor to Synchronized Chaos Magazine. You may reach her at cynthialamanna@yahoo.com.

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[Reviewed by Bruce Roberts]

Having acted in local theater before, I know it’s rare when a performance goes off without a single hitch. That’s why I was so impressed with the Chanticleers’ flawless performance of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Chanticleers have been performing community theater in Castro Valley, California for 62 years. Tony Award-winning Lend Me a Tenor debuted on Broadway 22 years ago. That they finally got together is a wonderful treat for the audience.

This is a high energy comedy. Two side-by-side rooms provide a double set for parallel action. Within those two rooms are six doors, which of course present multiple possibilities for entrances and exits that keep this comedy of errors, and errors, and more errors, fast-paced, lively, and hysterical, a tribute to the directing of Sue Ellen Nelsen.

This cast had not a weak link anywhere. Everyone was on cue and over-the-top. With parallel sets, there was no wasted stage time for anyone either. If the focus was on one room, the actors next door would still be moving, mugging, gesturing. The audience had to watch every part of the stage to catch all the character nuances of this rich performance.

In this play, Max-well-played by Jeffrey Morrill–is an assistant, apparently not the leading man. Well-cast as the diametric opposite of an Italian opera superstar, Max expands the breadth of his role impressively as the play proceeds. To start, he is a toady, panicky, his stressed-out voice squawking into falsetto at every downturn of events. As the play moves on though, he reveals a marvelous operatic voice, plus great knowledge of the opera in question, Otello, and the stage presence to pull off an amazing charade. This allows the subsequent confusion that carries the second act, with him growing into leading man stature, and getting the girl at the end.

In short, if you’re ever in Castro Valley, California, check out Chanticleers Community Theater-small, intimate, unpretentious– and see what excellent show they’re running then. If you’re ever in need of a belly-laugh, find a theater playing Lend Me A Tenor. You won’t be disappointed either way.

Bruce Roberts is a poet and ongoing contributor to Synchronized Chaos Magazine. Roberts may be reached by at brobe60491@sbcglobal.net.