sister spit northampton archive

This page has information about past events including photos, artist bios, and more information about Sister Spit Northampton. To find what you want, just scroll on down. [We're sorry it's a mess. It's a work in progress.]

"Minds are like parachutes, they only function when open."

We here at Sister Spit believe that the healthiest way to live is with an open mind, and that one of the best ways to open your mind, is to listen to the voices of people who are other-than-you in some way. We believe in variety, diversity, compassion. Toward that goal, we mix up our lineups as much as possible.

Sister Spit Northampton Volume 2 brought to the stage:

a straight woman, some queer women, some lesbians and a dude; a woman in her fifties, a woman in her forties, a woman in her thirties, and some women even younger than that; an African-American; a Haitian-American; a couple of white girls and some Canadians; a divorcee, a recovering addict, a Christian, and a metaphysician or two; a vegetarian, some vegans, an MFA candidate, a college dropout; a painter, some poets, a writer, some singers and a Grammy-award nominated songwriter; some activists, some survivors, a fiddler, a playwright, women from the north, a woman from the south, and a woman who comes from New Jersey.

The first Sister Spit Northampton was a huge success!

Bitch and Naomi perform the raffle ritual at SSN #1.

Thank you to: Evelyn Harris, Michelle Tea, Sara Seinberg, Arjuna Greist, Bitch and Animal, Food For Thought Books, Kevin, Don, all the volunteers and the more than 135 people who came out June 30, 2003 to support independent, feminist art in Northampton!

Photos from the premiere are in the Gallery.

Sister Spit Northampton Volume 2: Full Throttle

On September 8th, 2003, Ember Swift, Mary Ann Farley and some other very special guests rocked the house at Harry's Night Spot and helped to make the second installment of Sister Spit Northampton a beautiful success.

Photos from the event are in the Gallery.

Ember Swift, Sister Spit Volume 2

The First Event:

Sister Spit Northampton made its debut on June 30th, 2003 at Harry's on Pleasant Street in Northampton, MA. The show was 21+, $5, 8-11 p.m. Michelle Tea headlined, with special guests Sara Seinberg, Arjuna Greist, Evelyn Harris and others. It was a night of great fun, great words and great music, and Larry Parnass of the Daily Hampshire Gazette wrote a very insightful piece about it. Attendance was phenomenal. We were hoping for 60 people--that would have been a home run--and 135 showed up!

Click here to visit the Sister Spit Northampton Photo Gallery.

Sister Spit Northampton would like to thank these businesses for supporting our events:

Food For Thought Books in Amherst

Heather E. Ayers, LMT in Northampton 413.585.0345 for an appointment

Sylvester's Restaurant in Northampton

Andrea Burns Photography, Easthampton

Desdemona Digital, Northampton and Rhode Island

Living Art Tattoo Studio, Northampton

Jenna Evans Tarot and Psychic Readings, Easthampton

Harry's Night Spot, Northampton

Arjuna Greist, Northampton Singer/Songwriter/Poet

Who are these Sisters? These women performed at the first event.

Michelle Tea is the co-founder of the original Sister Spit, which began as a weekly and free girls-only open mic event in San Francisco. After an exhausting two-year stint and one SF Bay Guardian Best of the Bay award, Sister Spit hit the road for three national tours and a whole bunch of smaller, regional excursions, bringing performers such as Eileen Myles, Beth Lisick, Nomy Lamm and Marci Blackman across the USA. She is the author of three books--The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America, Valencia and The Chelsea Whistle. She's won a Cable Car Award for her critical writings, and an award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation for promising female writers at the start of their careers. She has also received an SF Bay Guardian Goldie award for Literature, and a Lamda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. Her rants pop up in places such as On Our Backs, Girlfriends, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and The Stranger. She continues to tour the U.S. and curate literary events in San Francisco.

Sara Seinberg is a writer, performer, and visual artist.
A veteran of San Francisco's spoken word commotion, Seinberg has performed on a variety of stages including the legendary Red Dora's Bearded Lady, New York's PS 122, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and the ICA in Boston. After touring the US as part of the ground-breaking and infamous Sister Spit's Rambling Roadshow for a coupla years, getting published in numberous anthologies and being featured on the "Greatest Spits" CD (Mr. Lady Records) she settled down to concentrate on the visuals for a moment. Her photographs have been spotted in Ms. Magazine, The Village Voice, TimeOUT New York, The Rocket, CD covers, various books including Michelle Tea's Valencia, and on the corkboards of lovely dykes and other nice people throughout our nation. Seinberg's work has been seen in the international lezzie show, Hot Pink at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgendered Historical Society (2002), the National Queer Arts Festival (2001), juried group shows in San Francisco and Boston (1998-2003), and a recent two artist photography show in Jamaica Plain with artist Patti Hudson. Her work is also part of private collections in Boulder, San Francisco, New York, Providence, Boston, Atlanta, Portland, Northampton, Los Angeles, New Haven, Hudson, Provincetown, Olympia, Anchorage, Miami, Oakland, and Goa, India. She has a dog called Gus who is a Taurus and has perfect eyeliner.

Arjuna Greist is a singer-songwriter, poet and spoken word artist who lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts. She recently released her second CD, Odd Numbers. arjuna writes about love, sex, loss, the joys of the open road, addiction, people over profit, liberation from the status quo, feminist ecoporn, ethically slutty travel, the internet, and your mom. She has played at festivals, coffee shops and colleges
all over North America, sharing the stage with the likes of Pamela Means, Edie Carey, Gooselove, Ember Swift & Lyndell Montgomery, Erin Smith Band, Meg Hutchinson, Chris Pureka, Laura Love, Aisha Ayers, Tribe 8, Shelly Doty, and other fine folks. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll discover a whole new reason to recycle.

Evelyn Harris is a founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble with deep musical roots in the sacred music of the African American church - spirituals, hymns, traditional gospel.She currently lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts. (Lucky us!) She will be gracing the Sister Spit Northampton stage to pay tribute to poet June Jordan, who passed away last year, but whose memory we honor with events like ours.

[Photo by Desdemona Burgin]

Naomi Graychase is a freelance writer, poet and advocate for independent art who lives and works mostly in Northampton, MA. She is a Contributing Writer at Girlfriends magazine, and her work has appeared in The New York Times and on National Public Radio, among other places. She is co-founder and hostess of Sister Spit Northampton.

What is Sister Spit Northampton?

Our Motto: Got something to say? Spit it out!

Our Unofficial Motto: No mean ladies.

Our Mission Statement: Sister Spit Northampton (SSN) is a collaborative effort initiated by female artists in order to bring about change, enlightenment and joy by creating a safe, positive place where independent feminist singers, poets and other artists can perform or present their art. We are part of a grassroots, do-it-yourself movement which encourages women with something to say to stand up, open wide, and spit it out.

Sister Spit Northampton is committed to promoting feminist, independent art of all kinds. We believe in diversity, opportunity and fair pay for all artists. We are queer-friendly, and we offer our stage to any independent, feminist performer who was, is, or lives as a woman.

Sister Spit Northampton was inspired by the original Sister Spit, which was invented in the mid 1990s in San Francisco by Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson. SSN is born with their blessing. You can find out more about what Sini and the original Sister Spit are up to at www.sisterspit.com.

February 28th, 2003
Co-founders: Antara, Naomi Graychase

Got more questions? Read the FAQ.

Michelle Tea, novelist and founder of the original San Francisco Sister Spit, performs at the Sister Spit Northampton premiere.