Oliveros was born in Houston, Texas to a family where both her mother and grandmother taught piano. Though she learned to play various instruments during her high school years, the accordion was her primary instrument. Oliveros played in a polka band as a teen and studied the instrument at the University of Houston from 1949 to 1952 when she left the school. Moving west, she studied composition at the University of San Francisco, from which she graduated with B.A. in 1957. Soon after that, Oliveros began experimenting with elements of electronic music.

In the early 1960s, Oliveros served as one of the earliest members and eventually a co-director of the San Francisco Tape Music Center at its original location and when it moved to Mills College in 1966. During the next year, she joined the Music Department at U.C. San Diego as a lecturer, eventually winning tenure despite a bias against both women composers and electronic music, staying in that position until her resignation in 1981. In 1985, Oliveros moved to the east coast, establishing the Center for Deep Listening (originally called the Pauline Oliveros Foundation and then the Deep Listening Institute) in Kingston, New York. The Center later moved to Troy, NY where, starting in 2001, Oliveros became a distinguished research professor of music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She died in 2016.

Pauline Oliveros was a prolific composer, musician, and collaborator, creating a substantial discography over a period of over six decades. Important works include the partially improvised in performance To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation (1970), Sonic Meditations (1971) which was originally conceived as guides for a women’s group, and the soundtrack for a production of Shakespear’s Lear called Crone Music (1989), among many others. Oliveros came out as a lesbian around the release of Sonic Meditations, and her work furthering the causes of women musicians and LBGTQ+ rights was frequently intertwined with her pioneering creative endeavors.

Films
Sisters With Transistors: Electronic Music’s Unsung Heroines (DVD)

Music
The Roots of the Movement (Freegal)
Deep Listening (Freegal)

Resource Links
“Deep Listening To Pauline Oliveros Across The Internet” in The Brooklyn Rail
“Retrospectives: Pauline Oliveros by IONE” in BOMB
“Listening as Activism: The ‘Sonic Meditations’ of Pauline Oliveros” in The New Yorker
“An interview with Pauline Oliveros” at American Public Media
“Pauline Oliveros: Deep Listening, composing, just intonation” in TapeOp

Rustin organized and led several protests in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s including the 1963 March on Washington D.C. for Jobs and Freedom. He was a close advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of the most effective organizers of the civil rights movement due to his techniques of nonviolent resistance. Rustin was extremely active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and helped create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Born March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania to Florence Rustin and Archie Hopkins, Rustin was raised by his maternal grandparents who were wealthy caterers. After graduating from West Chester High School, he studied intermittently at Wilberforce University, Cheyney State Teachers College, and City College of New York. While a student at City College Rustin joined the Young Communist League (YCL) and was drawn to what he believed was their commitment to racial justice. However, in 1941 he left the YCL when the Communist Party shifted their emphasis away from civil rights activity and Rustin co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Also in 1941 was the first time he presented the idea of a march on Washington D.C.

In 1948 Rustin attended a world pacifist conference in India as part of his deepening commitment to nonviolent protest in connection with his work with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Some years later he traveled to Africa where he worked with West African independence movements. Despite his success with FOR, he was asked to resign and was publicly outed.

Criticism and subsequent discrimination over his sexuality led Rustin to have a more background role in the Civil Rights Movement. His intention was for his sexuality to never overshadow or unravel any of the progress the movement made. Although he encountered issues with other black activists, Rustin remained engaged in the struggle for justice. He was active in international activism as well as advocating for gay rights. Rustin served on several humanitarian missions to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Haiti during the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, he became a part of the LGBTQ+ movement and an advocate for AIDS education. Rustin worked to bring the AIDS crisis to the attention of the NAACP. Posthumously he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Bayard Rustin died on August 24, 1987, four days before the 24^th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Books
Bayard Rustin : behind the scenes of the civil rights movement  J 92 R9715
No easy answers : Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights movement J 92 R9715
A song for the unsung : Bayard Rustin, the man behind the 1963 March on Washington J 92 RUSTIN WEATHERFORD
Trouble maker for justice : the story of Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington YA 92 RUSTIN HOUTMAN
Bayard Rustin : troubles I’ve seen : a biography  92 R9715
Lost prophet : the life and times of Bayard Rustin 92 R9715
Bayard Rustin : a legacy of protest and politics 92 RUSTIN BAYARD

Resource Links
Bayard Rustin (aflcio.org)
Bayard Rustin (nps.gov)
Who Designed the March on Washington? (pbs.org)
Bayard Rustin (nmaahc.si.edu)
Rustin Bayard (King Institute, Stanford)

Feinberg was born in Kansas City and grew up in Buffalo. She had a difficult childhood and left her family home as a teenager supporting herself by working various temp jobs since discrimination related to her gender identity/expression made it challenging to maintain long-term employment. In the 1970s, Feinberg worked as an organizer and journalist, supporting a variety of causes advocating for the rights of workers, BIPOC people, and political prisoners, to name a few. Notably, between 2004 and 2008, she contributed a 120-part series connecting LGBTQ history and gender politics to the Workers World newspaper titled “Lavendar & Red”

In addition to her journalistic work, Feinberg was the author of two non-fiction books, the award-winning Transgender Warriors: Making History From Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman (1996) and Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue (1999) both focusing on transgender rights and history. Aside from the groundbreaking Stone Butch Blues, Feinberg also wrote the novel Drag King Dreams (2006).

Books
Stone Butch Blues
Transgender Warriors: Making History From Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman
Rebent Sinner by Ivan Coyote
LGBTQ+ Icons: A Celebration of Historical LGBTQ+ Icons in the Arts by David Lee Csicsko and Owen Keehnen

Resource Links
“Leslie Feinberg, Writer and Transgender Activist, Dies at 65” at The New York Times
“Remembering Leslie Feinberg” at Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)
“The State of AIDS (Interview with Kate Bornstein and Leslie Feinberg)” from In the Life: Episode 602 (1996) on YouTube
“Why Is It So Hard To Find Leslie Feinberg’s ‘Stone Butch Blues’?” at New York Public Library
“Leslie Feinberg and the Power of Queer Jewish Memory” at Jewish Women’s Archive

Dr. Roughgarden earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972. She went on to become a distinguished professor at Stanford University, where her research initially centered on various ecological topics, including island biogeography and the evolution of species. It was there that she published her influential textbook, Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction (1979).

In the early 2000s, Dr. Roughgarden’s research focused on a critical re-evaluation of traditional sexual selection theory. In her seminal book, Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (2004), she challenged the narrative of fixed male and female roles, arguing for a more inclusive understanding of biological diversity in sex, gender, and sexuality across the animal kingdom. She introduced the concept of “social selection,” proposing that social dynamics and cooperation play a larger role in the evolution of mating and gender expressions than previously acknowledged.

Beyond her scientific contributions, Dr. Roughgarden is a vocal advocate for transgender rights and inclusivity in science. As a transgender woman, her personal journey has informed her scientific perspectives, and she has actively worked to foster a more welcoming scientific community. Her work continues to inspire scientists and laypeople alike to rethink preconceived notions about biology, gender, and society.

Books
Evolution’s rainbow : diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people by Joan Roughgarden
The genial gene : deconstructing Darwinian selfishness by Joan Roughgarden

Resource Links
Joan Roughgarden interview at The OUTWORDS Archive
“Q&A with Joan Roughgarden on the Problems with the Theory of Sexual Selection” at MIT Press website
“SCIENTIST AT WORK: Joan Roughgarden; A Theorist With Personal Experience Of the Divide Between the Sexes” at The New York Times