About this ebook
What was it like to be in the midst of the counterculture movement as a white teen girl with a critical eye? Out of Sight! is Barbara Sanford Rahder’s memoir, a coming-of-age story set in the iconic time and place of 1960s San Francisco. At sixteen, Barbara moved into her sister’s one-bedroom apartment in Haight-Ashbury and was quickly drawn into hippie life: dancing in the street, smoking pot, striking to expose racism in college, marching with thousands to protest the Vietnam war, joining a commune, living on a precarious houseboat. But there was a shadow side as well—sexism, racism, abuse, incarceration, and police brutality. Many of the changes of the era came with an underbelly of power, privilege, and violence that was hidden from view or forgotten.
Out of Sight! weaves one young woman’s experience during a transformative time with unflinching observations on gender, race, and power. Sad, funny, painful, and always very real, Barbara’s story brings a new, critical perspective to the hippie era. And throughout it all ripples an undercurrent of disturbing family tensions. Things that are hidden “out of sight” are not easily confronted, but secrets have a way of surfacing.
Out of Sight! weaves one young woman’s experience during a transformative time with unflinching observations on gender, race, and power. Sad, funny, painful, and always very real, Barbara’s story brings a new, critical perspective to the hippie era. And throughout it all ripples an undercurrent of disturbing family tensions. Things that are hidden “out of sight” are not easily confronted, but secrets have a way of surfacing.
About the author
Barbara Rahder, PhD, is professor emerita and former dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. She has over sixty scholarly, professional, and activist publications, most focused on issues of equity and access to housing and community services for women at risk of abuse. She is a former member of Canada’s National Network on Environment and Women’s Health, National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Women and Environments Education and Development Foundation, and Women Plan Toronto, and a current member of Planners Network—the [International] Organization of Progressive Planning.
A Firefly Creative Writing course introduced her to non-academic writing, and from the first day, she was hooked. As Barbara wrote, she realized how much of her research and activism has been motivated by her early experiences. As a survivor of abuse who has undergone many years of intense therapy, she hopes her ability to heal may inspire others to seek help.
Barbara lives with her two cats, Maggie and Pierre, in Toronto, where she enjoys painting, sculpting, gardening, and baking. Her favorite thing, of course, is playing with her toddler granddaughter Heron.
barbararahder.wordpress.com
rahder@yorku.ca
A Firefly Creative Writing course introduced her to non-academic writing, and from the first day, she was hooked. As Barbara wrote, she realized how much of her research and activism has been motivated by her early experiences. As a survivor of abuse who has undergone many years of intense therapy, she hopes her ability to heal may inspire others to seek help.
Barbara lives with her two cats, Maggie and Pierre, in Toronto, where she enjoys painting, sculpting, gardening, and baking. Her favorite thing, of course, is playing with her toddler granddaughter Heron.
barbararahder.wordpress.com
rahder@yorku.ca
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