MAXINE FELDMAN

(December 26, 1944 – August 17, 2007)

Maxine Feldman was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 26, 1944. She was out as a lesbian before the Stonewall revolution hit in June of 1969 – back when it was extremely dangerous (especially for butch lesbians like Feldman) and lesbians were often ostracized.

Feldman left New York for Boston to attend Emerson College. She was a natural born comedian who composed and performed music. Feldman states that she was thrown off the Boston Coffeehouse circuit in 1963, “for being queer and bringing around the wrong people.” She ran the Oasis Coffeehouse on Boylston Street in Boston in the 1980s. The Oasis featured lesbian performers and was a safe place for lesbians to socialize.

Maxine Feldman is probably best known for recording the first openly lesbian 45 rpm record, “Angry Atthhis” (which was produced by Robin Tyler) in 1972. She composed the song in May of 1969, one month before the Stonewall riots. Feldman stated in an interview in 2002: "Before Stonewall we had mafia run bars where you were a fourth or fifth class person. It was the only place for dykes to meet; we didn’t have festivals or bookstores. At these bars, if you were in butch drag you could be arrested; you had to wear three ‘female’ items by law. And be prepared for the bar raids. I didn’t like the way it made me feel – like we were useless and sick. I felt we were worth a lot more. Stonewall proved I was not alone. It was time for our protests. Angry Atthis, of course, is a play on words. I was ‘angry at this’ lesbian oppression. My brainy girl side wanted to call my piece Sappho’s Song, but then I read that Atthis was the name of one of Sappho’s lovers. And Atthis began to appear to me as a better statement of all I felt. The song just spewed out of me.”

Feldman performed at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in the 1970’s; her song “Amazon” is an annual theme song at the festival.

Maxine Feldman moved from Boston to Albuquerque in 1999 for health reasons. While in New Mexico she was involved in rescuing and caring for greyhounds that had been used as racing dogs. She lived in Albuquerque with her partner of four years, Helen Thornton, and died of natural causes on August 17, 2007.