Abby Abinanti (California’s first Native American female lawyer)
“Miss Boo invited me into her world, made sure that people she knew, people in various movements of the 1970s, most for the first time ever, sought to include in the ‘family’ a young Native girl who had never really been seen by others as an asset. She supported my efforts as an individual and defended me when people would try to ‘other’ me. Thank you forever, my friend. As you journey to the Ancestors, know I shall always appreciate you and pray for your journey to be peaceful and loving.”
Margie Adam (singer, songwriter, pianist, and activist who co-founded Pleiades Records with Price)
“As it became clear to Boo that Women’s Music could be an organizing tool for feminist activism, our work together became more complicated in fascinating ways. Aesthetic choices had political content, supporting women’s communities while reaching out to women tethered to mainstream culture. Take Pleiades Records’ first recording, Margie Adam. Songwriter. After Boo visited several record stores, we chose a cover photo that fit in with the current in-store ‘display’ style: head-shot photos. That photo also conveyed that the music was friendly even if we called it ‘Women’s Music.’ The double cover made room for sixteen photos surrounded by lyrics: musicians (including my mother!), the graphic designer, engineer, photographer, and producers … all women, intensely engaged with the music and each other. Here was a graphic display of sisterhood.”
Lynn Breedlove (musician, writer, and performer; founder of the nonprofit Homobiles)
“First time I saw Boo, she was backlit, gliding downstage to say good-bye to a crowd of ten thousand. I asked someone, ‘Who’s that?’ Years later she told me it was her idea to invite our scrappy punk band because the festival needed shaking up. Sini Anderson had the two of us co-host an intergenerational conversation at the Brava. I badgered Boo into letting me work at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club. She said nope, but finally caved. Thus started philosophical discussions that revealed our common drive to connect people through performance. We held a spoken word event with Sisterspit and mainstream writers. Besides being able to get a fainting couch and a grand piano onstage, most impressive was how she opened her mind to new ideas and got vastly different performers to play together, crossing lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, age, and style to create a more powerful community. She liked to quote Rita Mae Brown’s Sappho’s Reply, ‘An army of lovers cannot fail,’ always pushing to expand her own ideas of queer forces to create an unstoppable one. Her memorial promises to be the production of a lifetime.”
Leslie Ann Jones (multiple Grammy Award-winning recording engineer)
“It is difficult to separate all the ways Boo and I interacted over the years: lawyer, friend, concert producer, best pal, dinner hostess, fellow traveler, confidant. I was never in the ‘feminist circle’ or early lesbian activist groups, so when I read all that she accomplished I am amazed. But her fearlessness, her tenacity, her love of music, family, her chosen family, and just putting all the right people together for whatever was needed was ever present in her life. Whether it was Calabria, Lucca, Venice, or the Northern Lights, her sense of just being there and enjoying life was a through line. I treasure our time together and all the joy and light she brought to my life.”
Retts Scauzillo (stage manager and digital creator)
“In the mid 1980s I received a call from Boo at my home on Long Island. I was nervous to take the call. It was a few months before Michigan. She called to tell me Tibbs, the current day stage manager, was moving to the Night Stage. My mind was racing ahead: Is she going to ask me to be the stage manager? I’d been working on the day stage crew for two years, but had little stage-managing experience. But, no, she called to tell me she hired Mary M. also a crew member. She explained Mary wanted to make sure I would be there to support her. My answer was: of course. But, Boo, did you know I was a stage manager? (I think I stage managed one show in New York City.) Boo seemed surprised, but said she would keep that in mind. Well, that year was called the Shigella Year, as many workers got sick. And, yes, Mary the new stage manager of the day stage was sick and could not work. So, who had to take over? Yes, yours truly. The next year, Boo called and offered me the position. She took a chance on me and I’d say it worked out well for both of us. Boo, I know you are producing a big show wherever you are. Say hello to Alix for me.”
Martha Steinhagen (author and outdoor adventurer)
“Boo Price was often at her happiest in the depths of the ocean—logging more than 1500 dives throughout her lifetime. She spent over forty years encouraging scores of women to become divers and join her on trips she organized: first in the Caribbean, and then throughout the Indo-Pacific, where she led both land- and boat-based trips in Indonesia, Tahiti, Fiji, the Maldives, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. She was always eager to show other women the joys and excitement of being able to ‘fly’ underwater and to interact with creatures ranging in size from half-inch sea horses to 30-foot whale sharks and everything in between. Boo leaves a legacy of confident, adventurous women divers who mourn her loss and carry memories of her surrounded by swooping giant manta rays or floating out over thousand-foot drop-offs into the deep blue. We will always be looking for her across the bubble trail.”
Robin Tyler (comic, activist, and producer)
“Two ‘miracles’ happened at the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas. ‘Sexual Preference” was included in the platform. And the second miracle was that I met Boo Price. Boo was producing the ‘lesbian’ music show, and Jean O’Leary, one of the conference co-organizers, asked Boo if she could squeeze me (a comic) in (the show, not personally). We did not become lovers until two weeks later, when she flew to Los Angeles to be with me. And I would fly to Oakland to be with Boo. Back and forth, back and forth. Months later, Boo told me she had to go to Michigan. ‘Who goes to Michigan?’ I asked. ‘Thousands of lesbians,’ was her reply. So, the following August I boarded a plane headed toward Michigan. Once I got on ‘the land,’ two lesbians volunteered to put up my tents. (Yes, tents. One for sleeping, or not, and one filled with canned meat and champagne.) I guess the women (excuse me, womyn) were compassionate when they saw a grown dyke sitting in the dirt crying. Boo asked her co-producer if I could emcee or perform on the Main Stage. She answered, ‘Music and comedy do not go together.’ Obviously, she had never seen Martin & Lewis. By Saturday, I was on the Main Stage doing jokes about tofu. ‘I hate tofu. I did not give up men to eat tofu! It slithers down your throat!’ And a politically incorrect joke: ‘I wanted to transition to a man, but I did not know how to take 20 points off of my IQ!’ Apparently, lesbians had a sense of humor, as long as the joke wasn’t on them. I returned to California and started The West Coast Women’s Music & Comedy Festival and then to White (you better believe it) County, Georgia, to start the Southern one. I can’t remember how long we were lovers or what happened (to be honest, it will be in the book that is being written about my life, and why should I give it away for free?). Boo was a butch magnet. Like the other lovers in her life, once we recovered, we managed to survive while still loving her. Boo was ‘The Mother of Women’s Music,’ an icon in the movement. There will never be another Boo.”
Sharon J. Washington (member of the performing duo the Washington Sisters with her twin Sändra)
“Some of you know that Boo moved to an assisted living community in 2021 due to progressing dementia. In many ways, living at Carlton was a familiar place: She and my mom sat at the same dining table, where I would join them a few times a week, and there were frequent live music performances. Almost daily she would place some of her favorite family photos in public spaces, including on the mantel in the main living room. It’s no surprise that she remained a producer: supervising the decorating of the main Christmas tree, and the set-up of music performances. It was a blessing to witness the quintessential Boo, even as the dementia advanced. On two occasions, she called me from the Carlton with an urgent question: ‘Where are you?’ I could tell from her no-nonsense tone that something was up. ‘The band is here, the lead singer is sick, and I’m going to need you to sit in.’ Still producing.”
Barbara ‘Boo’ Price, in her own words, reflected on the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club for the San Francisco Bay Times in 2015, upon the club’s closing: https://bit.ly/4hKM0sx
In Memoriam
Published on August 27, 2026
Recent Comments