Lost and Found at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

A week ago I alighted within the rural countryside of Hart, Michigan to attend my first Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. There, I promptly found my inner lesbian sister-spirit, and lost the following items: my wallet, my hand-woven goddess stick, and—on the last night—my “All who wander are not lost” girlfriend, who’s since been returned.

Anyone up for a game of “Where’s Carla?”

The MWMF was born in 1976 in the heyday of lesbian separatism, a reality born from the dream of an empowering womyn-only, womyn-built space packed with folk music, all-day consciousness-raising workshops, and tofu nutloaf for thousands. Today, not much has changed, making it one of few places in existence where we can actually experience (and in the case of the lentil stew, nearly taste) a part of our lesbian herstory.

Not much is lost on the land (which is how lesbians refer to the 650 acres that house the festival). When my “wallet” fell out of my “pants,” a sister (which is how lesbians refer to each other on the land) picked it up and visited surrounding campsites until she found a friend of mine who could return it to me. Isn’t sisterhood powerful?

There’s always time for a gay parade!

Not all of my sisters were as lucky as I. Or as quick to leave personal belongings on mulched pathways that would be compassionately trampled by hundreds of Tevas, Birkenstocks, and patent leather stiletto boots in a matter of days. In fact, the festival’s Lost & Found safe space tells a different story altogether, one in which numerous lesbian-feminist heirlooms were lost to the moonlit skies and absent-minded disposition that comes from living in a dream-world where neither shirts nor shoes are required for service.

Official MWMF Lost & Found Inventory, 2009

Cedar n’ Sage dog brush
Hemp afghan, for cool nights
A dusty copy of A Woman’s Guide to Animal-Whispering
Hand-blown glass bong (with “Our Bodies, Ourselves” inlay etching)
One mystical feather, one pot of gold
Satchels
Hers-and-hers rainbow muumuus with “dancing goddess” batik pattern
One sealed box of latex gloves
One empty box of latex gloves
A fleeting vision of dolphin equality
At least fifteen appropriations of Native American culture
Four unique “Pstyle” models
1,235 leathermans
A quiver of arrows
Melissa Ferrick

Portrait of the artist as a young goddess

Don’t worry, my sisters. Your secrets are sacred with me.

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