Alix Dobkin

When Alix Dobkin graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962, she headed right for New York City's Greenwich Village, where she initiated a career for herself as a folk singer. In the early '70s, having discovered women in her life, she released Lavendar Jane Loves Women (1973). A positive role model for its clear feminist lyrics and for its unwavering pro-lesbian stance, it set an early standard with its independence of production (her own Women's Wax Works label), as well as for its collective spirit.

Since that time, Dobkin has been the most visible and vocal lesbian feminist in the community. Unlike some other performers, Dobkin has shared the process of her life with her audience; unlike most other performers, she has been personally available to non-performers after gigs; on site, at festivals; as a lesbian and feminist resource doing workshops (on the sexism and misogyny of commercial album art, for example). Like few other performers, she publicly claimed her own identity as a Jewish lesbian, and brought music from her culture into her shows.

Twenty years and five albums later, she has, with Ladyslipper Music, released a 30-song cassette and CD, Love and Politics, tracing her career and highlighting many of the songs, from Living with Lesbians and XXAlix to These Women Never Been Better and Yahoo Australia — which have established her as a foremother of contemporary lesbian culture. The FBI named Dobkin a "troublemaker; " to her peers, she is "Head Lesbian."