After 50 years of bold work, Holly Near is still one of the most consistent and well-informed
voices for change. Her work is loving, challenging, funny, thought provoking, and remains
rooted in the global community. As an outspoken singer and ambassador for peace, Holly brings
a unique integration of world consciousness and self-evaluation, always growing and sharing
experience humbly and boldly.
Holly discovered her unique and recognizable voice at an early age, learning to sign along with
recordings of some of the world’s great singers. After graduating high school, Holly attended
UCLA but her academic journey ended after just a few months when she was spotted by agents
and drawn into the world of film and television. She did guest spots on TV shows like The
Partridge Family, Room 222, All in the Family, and played supporting roles in films like John
Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz and George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse-Five. She moved to
New York and performed for a short run in Hair on Broadway but soon turned to singing full
time, as a soloist as well as sharing the stage with her sisters Laurel and Timothy. Throughout
her career she has enjoyed collaborations with such artists as Mercedes Sosa, Ronnie Gilbert,
Inti Illimani, Emma’s Revolution, and her long-time songwriting partner, the late Jeff Langley.
In her early twenties, Near traveled with the Free The Army Show and the Indochina Peace
Campaign; an experience that enabled her to learn about the function and consequences of the
military industrial complex. While on the FTA tour in 1971 Holly was first introduced to the
concept of global feminism. By 1974 she was crossing paths and sharing songs with the wave of
new lesbian feminist performers such as Meg Christian, Cris Williamson, Linda Tillery, Mary
Watkins, and Alive! Near dove into the feminist movement, trying to understand the depth of
sexism and homophobia by turning those lessons into song.
Holly is known for the anthemic quality of some of her songs. As a songwriter she takes up the
challenge of turning big concepts into small, personal stories. In response to the slaughter of
the students at Kent State, she wrote It Could Have Been Me. And following the assassinations
of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco, she penned Singing For
Our Lives, which has become an anthem for the LGBTQ community and appears in the Unitarian
Church hymnal. The chilling disappearance of people in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship
brought forth Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida to commemorate the women who had “been
disappeared.”
In 2019, Near began a website project called Because of a Song, an online historic archive that
documents some of the influential artists that rose from the feminist lesbian music scene in
Oakland, California. The site can be viewed at www.becauseofasong.com.
A recipient of dozens of awards from organizations such as the ACLU and the National
Organization of Women, Holly was one of Ms Magazine’s Women of the Year recipients and has
been nominated for Grammys as well as the Legends of Women’s Music Award.