Welcome to the Baltimore estro-sphere

Off Our Backs, Apr 1998 by Butterbaugh, Laura

Welcome to the Baltimore Estro-Sphere

"This isn't a women's center, it's a city!" one woman blurted out. A chuckle passed through the room. Outside, the night was a violent rainstorm. But inside, the room was an energetic brainstorm as over 30 women participated in a community forum to discuss the "Baltimore Women's Center Project," a proposal for a women's center and bookstore in Baltimore, Maryland.

The forum, held on February 24, 1998, was organized by Chauna Brocht, Mary Hall, Polly Heninger, and Jennifer Wheeler (all of Baltimore) to gather ideas, input, and support for the Project. The concept of a women's center quickly captured the imaginations of the diverse group of women seated around the room.

Forum participants were asked to list felt needs the center could meet for the Baltimore women's community. After the organizers mentioned a bookstore and coffeehouse as possible needs, ideas flew as quickly as the facilitator could write them down. Within a few minutes, half a dozen easel pages were taped up around the room, listing several dozen different functions the center could serve.

Soon the center was a self-contained estro-sphere, where Baltimore women could carry out every aspect of their lives. "Have we moved into the `dreams' part of the discussion?" asked one woman when someone suggested a heated swimming pool. "How are we going to pay for all this?" wondered another.

This was exactly this sort of conversation that the forum organizers hoped to elicit.

"I think people had good ideas," commented Polly Heninger. "We had some new ideas, which we were definitely looking for. people were interested. I liked the whole [city] block idea, so there's room for a gym, a good size office space, a bookstore, a space where other businesses can work out of -- a women's growth center."

The forum gave the Baltimore women's community the opportunity to participate in projecting a vision for the center.

"Even though there has been a relatively small group of people doing the ground work, we wanted this to be truly a project of the Baltimore women's community. Now we can go forward with more people participating, and we know we're going in the direction that the women's community wants to go," explained Jennifer Wheeler.

"[The forum] was good because it brought together an interesting group of people with different perspectives. We had some old-time activists, we had some young college students whose activism has been primarily at school. We had this great woman who must have been 70 years old. There were some women who were very separatist and we had straight women. It was neat to get that disparate group of people in the room to talk, and to see that there were commonalities."

Need for Women-Only Space

The most significant commonality was the need for participants to have women-only space in their lives.

"I keep hearing women say that they want a space for women to go," said Jennifer. "They want the opportunity to get together in the kind of environment where there aren't the sorts of pressures and concerns that there are when men are around."

"After being at Michigan, I want that feeling in the rest of my life somehow," added Polly. "There's something about that that I need, in public space. There's women's houses I can go to and potlucks, but to have it be in public space is really important. It means it's more accessible to everybody. You don't have to know somebody to go, you can just show up."

Historically, there has been a history of women's and lesbian community centers and bookstores in Baltimore since the 1970's. The last bookstore, 31(st) Street Books, closed its doors in 1995 and has been greatly missed.

"[The idea for a new bookstore] started when the last one died. The next moment, there was the question, `What do we do now?'" asked forum participant Teri Carter.

"It might also be a way to keep the spirit of Katie Mahony alive, since she's not with us in body any more," Polly continued. Katie Mahony was murdered two years ago at her workplace, a Starbuck's coffee shop in Washington, D.C. Mahony had been a long-time Baltimore women's rights activist and Lesbian Avenger.

Form and Function

After brainstorming the types of needs the center could meet, the forum moved to more practical, tangible issues which will have to be considered as the Project is constituted. Many aspects of opening a new venture and working within a community were identified as areas of concern; in response, committees were initiated and tasked with researching possible solutions.

Structure

Since the Project is in the beginning stages, there is not yet any formal organization. The need for bylaws, officers, and accountable decision-making structures was discussed. Some suggested the group explore ways to function without "the same old patriarchal rigamarole," such as by using consensus. Others questioned the viability and legality of running a business based on consensus. One woman suggested that the Bookstore Project interview and visit women's centers and bookstores around the country, both current and former, so that the center won't "fall into the same cycle of failure that has gone on" with other bookstores. Forming a healthy group structure will be key, affirmed another woman. "As exciting as this project is, it's also very tricky, because we're bringing together women who are very different -- in sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, economics, etc. I want us to be on top of that from the very beginning to make sure it's inclusive."