Ruth Dworin is a feminist, women's activist, sound engineer, music producer and concert organizer based in
Toronto, Canada. She is the owner of music production company Womynly Way Productions, an important contributor to the
women's music scene in Toronto during the 1980s.
Dworin was introduced to feminism from a women's workshop at the
Philadelphia Folk Festival. She moved to Canada in the 1970s, settling in Toronto. Dworin was an important part of the women's festival scene in the United States, sitting on the board of directors of the Association of Women's Music and Culture.
She was actively involved in the women's cultural scene in Toronto in the 1980s and 1990s and was involved in the publication of ''The Other Woman'' and ''Broadside: A Feminist Newspaper''. She viewed her involvement in music production as a political act, reflecting: "
king culture is a way of shaping how people perceive the world and it's a powerful and relatively painless
ctivity"
Music production and concert organizing
Ruth Dworin founded music production company Womanly Way Productions in 1980. She organized concerts in Toronto and southern Ontario featuring women performers. She established an open door policy for her concerts, advertising in both queer and mainstream media. This occasionally led to controversy within the lesbian and feminist communities.
In addition to music production, the company also offered workshops on sound and light editing.
In an interview, Dworin noted:
...when I put on a concert, I'm trying to do two things. One is to provide the meeting place, the sustenance, the emotional support for the lesbian-feminist community. I know I ''need'' that! I wasn't getting enough of it in Toronto. But the other thing I'm trying to do is outreach – to attract the broader audience, to make some of the people politically aware.
In the 1980s, Dworin's company organized multiple one-day festival events featuring women. Some notable performers included
Holly Near,
Meg Christian
Meg Christian (born 1946 in Lynchburg, Virginia) is an American folk singer associated with the women's music movement.
Early life and career
Christian was born in Tennessee in 1946 and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. She has spoken about bei ...
,
Alix Dobkin
Alix Cecil Dobkin (August 16, 1940 – May 19, 2021) was an American folk singer-songwriter, memoirist, and lesbian feminist activist. In 1979, she was the first American lesbian feminist musician to do a European concert tour.
Early life
Dobki ...
,
Lucie Blue Tremblay,
Lillian Allen,
Cris Williamson and
Heather Bishop.
She focused on making events accessible to differently-abled people, including the hearing-impaired, and those who use wheelchairs, as well as providing childcare at all events.
Some festivals she produced included:
* Spectrum: A Festival of Music, Theatre, Dance, Skillbuilding and Strategizing (1985);
* Jointing Hands: A Deaf and Hearing Theatre and Music Festival (1987);
*WACCO (Women Across Canada Culturally Organizing) Tour (1987); and
* Colourburst: Multicultural Women in the Arts Festival (1987).
Womynly Way Productions also put on joint events, including:
* Spirit of Turtle Island: Native Women's Festival, co-produced with Dakota-Ojibway Productions (1985) and
* Rainbow Women's Festival, co-produced with Multicultural Womyn in Concert (1984).
Some records related to Womynly Way Productions were collected by the University of Ottawa as part of the Canadian Women's Movement Archives.
Collecting
Dworin, along with Kathy Lewis and Lucia Kimber founded the Women's Music Archives in the fall of 1978. The group's aim was "to collect and preserve, for herstorical listening and research purposes, all types of materials related to women's music."
This material was eventually deposited with the
Sophia Smith Collection in 2004.
Dworin was also an avid collector of
lesbian pulp fiction novels. This collection was featured in the 1991 documentary ''
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives''. In 2005 she donated her collection to
York University Archives & Special Collections, along with her personal papers which contain recordings of the
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
Interviews
* Womynly Way: An Introduction with Ruth Dworin. ''
Fuse
Fuse or FUSE may refer to:
Devices
* Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current
** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles
* Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protect ...
'', volume 8, issue 3.
* "Upfront: What keeps Ruth Dworin Producing concerts? Edna Baker Finds Out. Music, Money, Politics and Lipstick", ''
The Body Politic'', January–February 1983, issue 90, p. 37–38.
Publications
* Ruth Dworin, "My Horror Story", ''The Other Woman'', vol. 4 no. 1 (December – January 1976) 12–13.
* Ruth Dworin, "Separatism: Strategy or Solution?", ''LOOT Newsletter'', (May 1979) 4.
* Ruth Dworin, "Bad Relations", ''
The Body Politic'', (April 1982) 4.
References
Resources
Ruth Dworin Collection Exhibit by Renee Jackson. Clara Thomas Archive & Special Collections, York University
Listing of Ruth Dworin Collection of lesbian pulp fiction, comic books and zines Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, York University
Feminist Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dworin, Ruth
Women's music
20th-century Canadian women musicians
Canadian feminists
Activists from Toronto
Canadian women activists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Canadian lesbian musicians
Feminist musicians
20th-century Canadian LGBT people