Acting Like Women

At twenty-one years old, Midwestern minister’s daughter Cheri Gaulke joined the pioneering feminist art scene at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. Now she’s chronicling her time as one of the groundbreaking performance artists of the 1970s and 1980s that made it their home. By blending interviews with Lily Tomlin, Suzanne Lacy, Barbara T. Smith, and others with little-seen archival footage, Gaulke adds context to this transformative moment in art history, revealing that the often-ephemeral art practices of these revolutionary women created not just change, but a lasting impact.