Alice Molloy

1936 - 2022

Alice Molloy
Lesbian Fighting Irish
of Oakland.
Alice Molloy, died February 2, 2022, at the age of 86, after raising a glass for the last time in honor of the Irish fishermen of Castletownbere who stood down the Russian Navy.
As a founder of I.C.I., A Woman's Place Bookstore in 1971, located at the intersection of College and Broadway, Alice was dedicated to building an informed lesbian feminist anarchist community and a world free of the constraints of patriarchy.
In her book, In Other Words, Notes on the Politics and Morale of Survival, published in 1973 by the Women's Press Collective, always ahead of her time, she wrote, "This left brained dominance has created the monstrous system and technology that is using up and destroying the planet." She was a sharp critic of male/female roles of dominance and submission but as we were transforming the Lesbian community from an outlaw culture to a political and cultural force to be reckoned with, she believed "We should not stop playing roles. We should play them all!"
She gave us in collaboration with Carol Wilson, Natalie Lando and the many dedicated women who contributed blood, sweat and tears, a place in the world. It was truly a "Woman's Place", a meeting place, an information center providing books, pamphlets, newspapers, resources by, for and about women, lesbians, the movements for visibility and empowerment, peace and justice.
Alice believed that knowledge and trusted intuition were at the core of all meaningful action. Her candor and biting humor dangled, like her cigarette, on the edge of irreverence and impropriety, her moral compass set, like her chin, with unswerving determination toward our collective, radical transformation and social misdirection. She was a lesbian outlaw, and proud.
Confronting issues yet to be named involving lesbians, mothers who had lost rights to their children, women assaulted at work or at home, women seeking medical attention or trying to kick drugs, teenagers who had escaped abusive families, women forced out of the military, women writers and artist, A Woman's Place was a hub for an activist west coast community.
Alice was born in the Bronx, attended Cathedral High School. She followed Diane Di Prima to the West Coast and Audre Lorde followed, becoming a frequent activist in our midst. The three had bonded in NYC as housemates, and as political, sexual and literary renegades, each on her own terms, and remained friends for life.
In Audre Lorde's words, "We all shared a war against the tyrannies of silence."
The richness of this camaraderie touched us all, first as Gay Women's Liberation and then as bookstore and Press Collectives activists, living, some 14 women, in the house in Oakland where Alice remained until her death.
Alice died of complications of the heart and is survived by her beloved family members, her soul mates, Elizabeth Grindon, Wendy Cadden, Willyce Kim, Judy Grahn, and her cat Gracie. Her wishes? "Shoot me like an Irish soldier", and a contribution to Stacy Abrams' Fair Fight.