Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Alix Dobkin, a feminist singer who celebrated lesbian life through her music, has died at the age 80, her family announced.
Dobkin died at her home on Wednesday after experiencing a brain aneurysm and stroke, according to herCaring Bridge page.
“Alix came home last Saturday night, and was resting comfortably with great care from a hospice team, as well as from family and friends,” the family wrote. “She faded out with the grace and strength she showed all through her amazing life.”
Cowan took a now famous photo of Dobkin in 1975 wearing a shirt with the phrase, “The Future Is Female,” written on its front. The expression has reemerged in recent years, especiallyduring Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaignin 2016 and demonstrations for women’s rights.
“Alix was one of the first to celebrate us in music,” lesbian history scholar Lillian Faderman told theWashington Post. “It was no longer the love that dared not share its name. She shouted it for us.”
“She created this music that was a real celebration of how any woman could become a lesbian, and how it was a wonderful thing to be,” Faderman continued.
Dobkin published a memoir in 2009 calledMy Red Blood, a title that alluded to her parents being members of the Communist Party.
During her career, Dobkin socialized with other musicians such as Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan, thePostreported.
Before coming out as lesbian, Dobkin had a daughter with the manager of the Gaslight Cafe, a popular New York coffeehouse, and took a break to raise her. That’s when she heard Cowan, then a radio host, interview a feminist author who discussed the feminism movement.
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The conversation eventually led Dobkin to explore the subject further, and eventually come out about her sexuality and devote her energy to becoming a musician.
“At one point,” Cowan told thePost, “she just had this kind of insight, this visual image that she was singing and looking out into the audience and it was all women’s faces. And she realized that was what she needed to do: Sing for women. It opened up a whole realm of possibility.”
source: people.com
