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MN Reads: "Making Waves: Grassroots Feminism in Duluth and Superior" by Beth Bartlett

The wave of grassroots feminist organizing that built beginning in the late '70s had its origin in some unlikely places.

Women who immigrated to America from Finland - some of whom came alone - had had the right to vote since 1906, and they got right to work organizing and publishing a feminist newspaper.

The Anishinaabe had a long woman-centric tradition until the advent of the boarding schools, where women were honored in the society.

And then there's the lake and the wilderness. "It draws certain kinds of people," says author Beth Bartlett.  "It's restorative."

Even KUMD had a part in the upswell of women's voices in the Northland.

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
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