Gwen Avery

<p>A staple of the Bay Area lesbian community, GWEN AVERY was known for her powerful stage presence and rollicking performances that blended blues, soul, and rock and roll. Arriving in San Francisco in 1969, she encountered a predominantly white gay and lesbian scene, but eventually found a network of support with other Black lesbian performers like Pat Parker and Linda Tillery. She was featured on the 1975 album <em>Any Woman’s Blues</em>, a recording of live performance at a women’s prison, and released the popular single “Sugar Mama” in 1977, on the protest album Lesbian Concentrate, a “lesbianthology” of music and poetry produced in response to Anita Bryant’s national anti-gay campaign. Avery joined Parker, Tillery, and Mary Watkins for the Varied Voices of Black Women tour in 1978. In the May/June 1990 issue of <em>Aché</em>, a journal for Black lesbians, Avery recognized the importance of efforts like <em>Aché</em> that brought Black women together: “You’re putting out something that we can hold on to until we can reach each other.” Later in the interview, she shared a dream to see “ten thousand Black lesbians gathered together.” Avery died at age 71 in 2014. Her life is the subject of a short documentary directed by playwright and activist Terry Baum called Jukebox Baby.</p> <p>The letterforms in this font are based on a flyer advertising a concert Gwen Avery played in Tucson, Arizona, that was hosted by WomenWoven, a woman-run production company. Gaps in the alphabet were filled by emulating existing forms as needed. Spacer glyphs are included for manual kerning. This was completed in 2025 and is the twelfth font in A Queer Year of Love Letters.</p>