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In the past, the writers Rich, Mary Daly, Jill Johnston, Kate Millet, Audre Lorde, Margaret Atwoof, Esther Broner, Rita Mae Brown, and others have appeared at the Building for readings, lectures, workshops, and connections with the women's community in Los Angeles.

Presently, a National Endowment for the Arts grant has made possible another Writers Series, scheduled for the fall. It will feature Ntzake Shange, whose play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow [[strikethrough]] was [[/strikethrough]] is Enuf, sold out on our tour in the United States last year; and Susan Griffin, a feminist philosopher and author of Woman in Nature, among other books.

Shange and Griffin will speak one Friday night each, give an informal lecture the next morning, then meet with a small group of women whose manuscripts would have been selected previously by the writers themselves. The series will also offer a choice of two out of four workshops each weekend, appropriate to the audience expected for each writer. These workshops will be taught by local writers and poets, and will involve dramatic writing, collaborative writing, journal writing, lesbian writing from a historical perspective, how to market a manuscript, and other topics, still being negotiated.

One of the goals of this fall Writers Series, and of past writers events, is to publicize the Building as a resource for women writers, and as a place for writers to professionalize and educate themselves. One opportunity for women writers at the Building is extension courses out of the Feminist Studio Workshop. Classes on How to Give a Reading, Writing and Revising Poetry, Feeling to Form in Writing, and others, have been offered in the past by experienced, local writers and poets such as Eloise Klein-Healy and Nan Hunt. Also, monthly open mike readings at the Building provide a chance for women to meet each other, participate in group critiquing, and break out of their isolation as writers. 

In fact, drawing women writers out of that isolation, with extension courses, open readings, and special guest speakers, is a real goal of the Writers Program at the Building. Once contact is made, and choices are realized, growth is inevitable. 

Lynn McDee
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