Lisa Vogel 1980s

In 1976, at the age of 19, Lisa Vogel applied her working class roots to her newfound passion for women’s community and founded the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.

Under Lisa’s leadership as the Festival producer for its entire run, Michigan evolved from a rustic three-day primitive camping event into a week-long state-of-the-arts music and cultural festival that gathered women from every state and province and dozens of countries throughout the globe.

Michigan was much more than a music festival.  It was an actual living town infused by feminist values, created entirely by women’s ingenuity, labor and skill, and vividly overflowing with the spirit of Amazon pride.  Everything was done by women – from the building of the stages to plumbing and electricity.  The doctors, sound and lighting technicians, childcare, cooking, shuttles – all women.

Michigan was a living experiment in feminist culture, a petri dish for radical politics, and an oasis of time away from the patriarchy.  It was wrapped together with the most dynamic celebration of women’s culture possible, featuring over 100 artists each Festival.

Lisa Vogel 2021

Today, Lisa’s work continues to touch and connect the lives of the tens of thousands of women who called Michigan home, as well as for women who never made it to the Land but still saw the Festival as a beacon of feminist possibility.

Lisa’s book, We Can Live Like This…A Memoir of a Culture will be released by Billie Books in 2024.  The stories and images illuminate the legacy of the womyn and culture of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, ensuring that it is remembered for the phenomenally radical, innovative, soulful community that it was.

Photos from Irene Young’s retrospective book, Something About the Women