Our Stories | Womencrafts Provincetown

Fay Jacobs

Back in the late 1970s (or was it 1980?) I was still firmly in the closet. On a trip to Cape Cod, a very aware straight friend took me to Provincetown, hoping I’d see all the women together and feel comfy enough to start coming out.

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Diana Spencer

I think I first met Jane on my virgin trip to Ptown, probably sometime in 1996 or ’97. My (then) partner told me “You’ll love this place” and boy, was she right! I walked in and was greeted by Jane’s beaming smile – “Welcome home, girls!!”

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Ryan Ambuter

I didn’t start thinking critically about gender until college. There, I was introduced bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Leslie Feinberg, and Judith Butler. I started to unpack and unlearn, to disrupt and expand my worldviews. I began to...

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Gleta Gaddis

When I shopped for the very first time at “Womencrafts” Carol and Jo had just become new owners of “Womencrafts” I believe it was 1978. I started buying “Jane Iris” jewerlry at that time as well as pottery, books, tape of Womyn music.

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Reverand Kate Wilkinson posing in a frame that says "This is what a feminist looks like"

Reverend Kate Wilkinson

What I love about Womencrafts is that it is more than a bookstore or a gift store… it’s also a community center, a space for building community and working for justice. I really enjoy the book club discussions, post-card protest writing...

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Anna Meade

Before I lived in Provincetown, I was a regular visitor. Every time I came to Ptown I would always stop in at Womencrafts and buy a new book to read at the beach. I loved the Stoner McTavish mysteries and Kate Delafield series. I loved...

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Janine Evers

Having come of age and come out as a lesbian in the late 70’s and 80’s, lesbian feminist bookstores were plentiful, and they were essential gathering places for me and my peers to get our music and literature, and to be with our tribe...

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Amanda Town Welch

I have been frequenting Womencrafts for over four years. My wife works with Michelle (the owner)’s mom, and every time we go in it always seems like a small family reunion. There’s always something new that catches my eye.

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Billy Clem

Featured here, is Billy Clem, a professor from the suburbs of Chicago. He wandered into the shop four years ago while taking a Fine Arts Work Center poetry seminar. He bought obscure lesbian plays and had me in stitches about student loans.

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Emily Bergmann

The first time I visited was with my three best friends from college a few days after we graduated in the summer of 2016. I felt nervous about leaving the unapologetically feminist and queer space I’d created with them but coming to...

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Linda Quinn

I first visited your shop with my daughter when she was about 8. I wanted her to learn to be a smart, strong, independent woman who could make her own choices in life. We still visit at least twice a year from CT...

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Christen Alannah

When I was a teenager my friends and I would come up to Brewster every summer. One day each year we drove up to Ptown to hang out for the day. They were never exclusive of the community, but not quite inclusive either- reluctantly...

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Black and white photo of Womencrafts Provincetown in the 1980s

The Womencrafts Scrapbook

Every family has its own scrapbook and photo album, and the Womencrafts family is no exception. Pour yourself a tea, settle in, and take a walk through our past with us.

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