New Words Bookstore Clippings from Gay Community News
Title
New Words Bookstore Clippings from Gay Community News
Date
1974
Description
Scanned clippings from Gay Community News, 1974, about New Words Bookstore.
New Words opened in April 1974 at 419 Washington Street in Somerville and then moved to 186 Hampshire Street in Cambridge in 1976.
Founded by Rita Arditti, Gilda Bruckman, Mary Lowry, and Jean MacRae, they chose the store’s name from a passage by Mary Daly: “Women are hearing ourselves and each other for the first time, and out of that creative hearing emerge new words.”
Noted speakers included Alison Bechdel, Kate Clinton, Lillian Faderman, Leslie Feinberg, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and others, including the women of Kitchen Table Press and the Combahee River Collective among other lesbian and feminist presses.
After the bookstore closed in 2002, the organization transitioned into the non-profit Center for New Words. In 2010, the Center for New Words channeled all of its resources to support Women, Action, & the Media, an online network of feminist journalists, authors, and activists.
New Words opened in April 1974 at 419 Washington Street in Somerville and then moved to 186 Hampshire Street in Cambridge in 1976.
Founded by Rita Arditti, Gilda Bruckman, Mary Lowry, and Jean MacRae, they chose the store’s name from a passage by Mary Daly: “Women are hearing ourselves and each other for the first time, and out of that creative hearing emerge new words.”
Noted speakers included Alison Bechdel, Kate Clinton, Lillian Faderman, Leslie Feinberg, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and others, including the women of Kitchen Table Press and the Combahee River Collective among other lesbian and feminist presses.
After the bookstore closed in 2002, the organization transitioned into the non-profit Center for New Words. In 2010, the Center for New Words channeled all of its resources to support Women, Action, & the Media, an online network of feminist journalists, authors, and activists.
Rights
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Is Part Of
#QueerArchivesAtHome, http://www.historyproject.org/project/QAAH
Citation
“New Words Bookstore Clippings from Gay Community News,” The History Project | Documenting LGBTQ Boston, accessed May 19, 2025, https://historyproject.omeka.net/items/show/872.
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