Exceptional Women of the Counterculture at MCA Denver: An evening of alternative girl talk

In the video documentary Flashing on the Sixties, by Lisa Law (, whose photographs are on view through February at the Byers-Evans House Museum), it's noted that even in the early alternative hippie world of communes and cohabitation, women still did the traditional "woman's work" -- they cooked and watched...

By Susan Froyd

January 10, 2012

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In the video documentary Flashing on the Sixties, by Lisa Law (, whose photographs are on view through February at the Byers-Evans House Museum), it's noted that even in the early alternative hippie world of communes and cohabitation, women still did the traditional "woman's work" -- they cooked and watched after the children, while the men did the hard labor and drove the wildly painted buses.

But the feminist movement of the '70s grew, in some part, out of that innocent Adam-and-Eve world that romped through the '60s, and it changed women's lives. Just how that happened will be one component of the discussion at 6:30 p.m. tonight when the MCA Denver hosts the lecture "Exceptional Women of the Counterculture."

Presented in conjunction with the museum's current exhibit, West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-77, the talk will veer from life at Libre, the Huerfano County commune in southeastern Colorado, to the trials and tribulations of the Denver-based feminist newspaper Big Mama Rag, courtesy of panelists Linda Fleming, Roberta Price, Mary Ann Flood and Jacqueline St. Joan, who've all lived the life in one way or another. Prepare for an engrossing and inspiring trip; admission is $5 to $10 (students with current ID admitted for $1). Visit the museum's website for details and reservations.

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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