Chrysalis (magazine)

Cover of Volume 1, 1977

Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture was a feminist publication produced from 1977 to 1980.[1][2] The self-published magazine was founded by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie at the Woman's Building in downtown Los Angeles. Chrysalis grew from Grimstad and Rennie's editorial work on the self-help resource books, The New Woman's Survival Catalog and The New Woman's Survival Sourcebook. Chrysalis distinguished itself from other feminist publications through an organic integration of politics, literature, cultural studies, and art. The magazine was produced through a collective process that grew out of the feminist practice of consciousness-raising. Unusually broad in scope, Chrysalis did not substitute breadth for quality. The authors, poets, essayists, and researchers contributing to the magazine reveal a veritable who's who of towering intellects of the feminist movement: black lesbian activist Audre Lorde; the magazine's poetry editor, Robin Morgan, who later served as editor of Ms. from 1990-1993: award winning poet Adrienne Rich; novelist Marge Piercy; artist Judy Chicago; science fiction writer Joanna Russ; art critic Lucy Lippard, plus Mary Daly, Dolores Hayden, Andrea Dworkin, Marilyn Hacker, Arlene Raven, and Elizabeth Janeway.[3] Over a three-year span, the all volunteer staff produced ten issues before they were forced to disband in 1981 due to financial difficulties.

  1. ^ Allen, Gwen (2011). Artists Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. p. 249.
  2. ^ "Feminist art magazines or women artists magazines and newsletters". KT Press. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  3. ^ Endres, Kathleen (1996). Women's Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues. Greenwood. p. 59. ISBN 0313286329.