Juanita Coulson started filking in the 1950’s, and remains an active and valued member of the filk community. When filk consisted of a few friends in a hotel room, she was always one of the few. Over the years she has been a performer, composer, publisher, promoter, listener, and active supporter. She is widely loved as an inspiration and a friend, for encouraging others, and for ensuring that they have a chance to be heard. Many people are in filk today because Juanita invited them into the circle, educated them about filk and filk room etiquette, and set an example with her own high standards.
The dynamic range of Juanita’s voice has attained legendary status among filkers. It can be soft and gentle or deafen sound engineers. Her victory over a steamboat whistle at Rivercon has been immortalized in at least two filk songs. Hers is one of the distinctive voices of filk fandom.
Juanita is notable for the songs she brought into filk, such as “Amphioxus” and “Richter Scale”. She also introduced the poetry of Martha Keller to fandom by setting it to music and performing it at filks. She has released several tapes including one of her Keller material, titled “Rifles And Rhymes”.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Juanita Coulson is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame, this Twentieth day of April, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Six.