Meeting Report

Based on her performance at the 2004 Freethought Day celebrations, we knew Roberta was going to be a real delight. She didn't disappoint us.

Because the Fahs Room was taken over by the UUSS Board of Trustees, we met in the UUSS Members' Lounge, at the back of the main auditorium. As it turned out, it was a much better location for her solo performance.

Roberta provided copies of her poems and the lyrics of her songs, allowing her audience to follow her performance more closely. Several were from her current CD, woman mother earth sky; several were not, including miss america (written, like all her works, in the style of e. e. cummings, with no capitals and almost no punctuation). The song, miss america, opens with the line "i want to be miss america." It soon becomes obvious, though, that such a goal is not particularly desirable:

cuz this beauty that i have was given to me i didn't have to purchase it no i got it for free

Not surprisingly, the closing lines start with "i don't want to be miss America." (The capital A may or may not be deliberate.)

Roberta is an ardent feminist, a position about which miss america leaves little doubt. In fact, it's clear from most of her songs and poems that she's a progressive in all possible respects. If she were to tell us that she's a Humanist, it would come as no surprise.

Report prepared by Bill Potts

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2005 Meetings