Cynthia Uleman was born on January 20, 1945 and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania listening to rock music. As a student at the University of Wisconsin, she became interested in bluegrass and folk music. After three years in Washington state, she moved to the Washington, D.C. area with her family, and in 1971 settled in the Takoma Park neighborhood, in Maryland. She began patronizing D.C. area record stores including Joe’s Record Paradise, Vinyl Ink, and Phantasmagoria. She also listened to WMUC, a college radio station at the University of Maryland, particularly enjoying the weekly Tom Lyle Show, which featured punk bands, and advertised punk concerts in the D.C. area. Uleman attended concerts all over the region, where she began collecting zines and related materials. Between 1984 and 1987, Uleman and Michael Voo Doo (a pen name) began exchanging mail art, including particular subjects of American culture: cows, clowns, cowboys, and rodeos. Uleman and Michael Voo Doo never met, and she eventually lost contact with him after he moved from northern Virginia, to Florida.
In 2019 Uleman was residing in Takoma Park, Maryland.