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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1984)
I N S I G H T An "on the road" report by Kristen and Janna How often does Portland get first hand news from East Coast or National lesbian/ gay events? Not often enough! This is an “ on the road” report of Lesbian/ Gay pride in NYC, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and the National Women’s Studies Convention, all attended by the Portland- based flute/guitar duo, Musica Femina, during our recent National Tour. We hope it will be of interest to Portland readers. As fate would have it our concert tour brought us to NYC on Lesbian and Gay Pride Weekend, June 22 through 24. On Friday afternoon we went to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which is housed in the Manhattan apartment of is founders, Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel. Included in this collection are hundreds of books, both fact and fiction, dealing with lesbianism specifically, or written by Lesbian authors — out or n o t Also included in the collection are journals, news papers, files of clippings and photographs, posters, tapes and records as well as special collections (personal memoirs, first drafts, author’s notes, etc.) All of these things help to docum ent our Lesbian lives for generations to come. Among the archival materials that we personally inspected were the files of music and musicians, and journals such as “the Ladder” and an even earlier one called “Vice Versa” which came out in the late ’40s. We also saw photographs of Eleanor Roose velt, Lorena Hickok and their circle of women friends. These photographs were acquired by the Lesbian Herstory Archives from the Roosevelt Library only after they promised not to allow the photos to leave the building of the archives nor to be duplicated. Censor ship is ever pesent in our search for our Les bian past Seeing how hard the “ straight” world works to erase our presence from any histori cal account we become more aware of the need for assembling our own archives. Why should any researcher have to wonder after our deaths if we were gay or not? If Portland ever had a Women's Theatre Company? Or if there was a Gay Men’s Chorus? After viewing this particular library and meeting the found ers, we strongly recommend that all of Port land's lesbian performing groups, organiza tions, writers, and publishers, as well as indi vidual artists and photographers, send doc umentation of our work, our struggles, and our achievements to: Lesbian Herstory Archives, P.O. Box 1258, New York, NY 10116. The following other lesbian and gay archive projects would also like materials. Write for more information. 1. International Gay History Archives, PO Box 2, Village Station, NY, NY 10014. 2. Lesbian Heritage Group, c /o Pacific Wo m en’s Resource, 4253 Roosevelt S t, NE, Seattle. WA 98105. 3. National Gay Archives, PO Box 38100, Los Angeles, CA 90038. 4. West Coast Lesbian Collections, PO Box 23753, Oakland, CA 94623. The NYC Lesbian and Gay Pride March began at Columbus Circle, went over to 5th Ave., down 5th Ave., to Waverly through Greenwich Village and ended up at Cristopher S t for a rally. The news media later reported that 100,000 gays and lesbians marched in the parade. At least 100,000 more who “ looked gay” to us were watching from the sidelines, and we all know how accurately the media reports our numbers anyway. It was Just Out. September 28-October 26 huge! Every gay group imaginable was repre sented and even some that we couldn't im agine, such as the Association of Gay Police and Gay Southern Baptists. The parade was led by a man who had been one of the original participants in the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Anyone young enough not to know about this incident in our Gay history is advised to read the following immediately: Dennis Altman, Hom osexual O ppression and Liberation (New York: Avon Books, 1971), Don Teal, The Gay M ilitants (New York: Stein and Day, 1971), or Barbara Love and Sidney A bbott Sappho Was a R ight-O n Woman, (New York: Stein and Day, 1971). We were very interested to hear and see the many Lesbian and Gay Marching Bands that participated in the parade. Among them were the Big Apple Band (NYC), with 35 members, Baltimore's Charm City Band, with 20 mem bers and Washington D.C.’s band with 25 members. We felt proud of our own Portland band with its core group of 15-20 members. In NYC there is also a kazoo band, who march and blow to taped disco music, and a march ing banjo ensemble. The parade took an hour and one-half to watch. We marched for a while and then took a subway up to the Village to meet the parade and take pictures. The weather held beauti fully until the rally, and then a downpour oc curred. This, and the fact that we had to take the subway all the way to Pelham Bay Park before dark, forced us to leave before the rally got underway. Rally speakers included Joan Nestle, from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Larry Bagneris, from the Houston Gay Politi cal Caucus, Bett Powell from the Astreaea Foundation, which is a multi-racial, m ulti ethnic social change organization which raises and distributes monies in support of women’s projects, and David Rothenburg from the New York State Human Rights Ad visory Council. The Emcee was Harvey Fier- stein, who recently won Tony awards for best actor, and best play for his Broadway hit. Torch Song Trilogy. Entertainment included comedienne Judy Sloan, as “ Sophie” — the Jewish Grandmother. The day after Lesbian/Gay Pride Kristan and I drove to New Jersey for the National Women’s Studies Convention held at Douglass College (Rutgers). The con ference actually started on Sunday, but we didn’t want to miss the NYC march, so we arrived late. Between 2000 and 2500 women from all over the U.S. attended the NWSA convention. There were morning and after noon presentations covering a full spectrum of scholarship on women. The evenings pro vided a variety of entertainment options — concerts, theatre, films, dancers, and cocktail receptions. It is certainly frustrating to have to choose between 4 or 5 simultaneous events, all of which sound fascinating. On one parti cular day there were workshops organized by the Autonomous Institute — a loose associa tion of special interest groups including Third World Women, Lesbians, and others on the “ radical fringe.” We wished that we had had our conference programs to study a week in advance. With so much going on we only found out later that we had missed some excellent presentations. Among the presentations we did attend were: “ Our Lesbian Herstory,” which included two separate slide shows by lesbians each re-examining her own mother's lesbian rela tionships through photo documentation of her mother and her female friends. On Tues day m orning we had to practice for our own concert, but in the afternoon we went to a presentation of the Autonomous Institute en titled, “ Passing, Assimilation, Identity and Community.” The session was packed with lesbians wanting to know more about each other’s experience trying to “ pass” as white, as non-im m igrant as middle class, or as heterosexual. Speaking were Jewish, Cuban, Vietnamese, and Black lesbians. It was a real opportunity to hear from lesbians of many cultures and experiences, and it made me realize again how much we still have to learn about each other. Wednesday m orning Janna and 150 other women including at least 30 ex-nuns, attended a panel called, "Lesbian Nuns: Breaking the Silence.” K was announced that there will soon be published (by Naiad Press, we think) an anthology of writings by lesbian nuns. Kristan’s Wednesday selection was a panel in “ International Feminism in Latin America.” An Argentine woman spoke about Eva Peron and current women’s organiza tions in her country, and a norteamericana reported on the Second Latin American Fem inist Gathering she attended in Lima, Peru, last year. The organizers had expected 300 participants, but over 700 showed up! Wednesday afternoon Musica Femina pre sented our own concert/informance, “ Women Composers: Then and Now.” (Port landers will have a chance to hear this pro gram at our Artquake concert Watch for the Artquake schedule for the weekend of Sep tember 21-23.) On the last morning Naiad Press offered a sample of authors they have published. Lee Lynch read from her lesbian anthology of short stories, O ld Dyke Tales ; Amber Hol- libaugh read from a forthcom ing book about Butch/Fem m e; and Tee Corinne presented a new slide show of famous lesbians in history, with emphasis on artists and writers. Also exhibited were posters from Tee's new book, Women Who Loved Women, which is being distributed by Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th S t, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Look for all these publications at A Woman’s Place Bookstore soon. Barbara Grier, former editor of “The Ladder,” now of Naiad Press, was very excited to announce Naiad’s participation in a new gay book club — The Century Book Club, which is expected to reach thousands of closeted gays across the country. By pur chasing books through the Century Book Club we can support the gay presses and thus help with publication of more works by lesbian and gay writers. Watch for Century’s advertising blitz this fall. National Women’s Studies certainly was not the stuffy academic affair we thought it m ight be! Portland women are lucky that next year’s convention will be held at the University of Washington in Seattle (June 19-23,1985). Even if you aren’t drawn to meetings, the NWSA convention will have lots to offer you. It’s a great opportunity to get a broader per spective than any one com m unity can give us. It’s also a chance to showcase projects and research by Pacific Northwest area wo men. It is bound to be an event you won’t want to miss. Papers or presentations may be subm itted to: Sydney Kaplan, Director, Women’s Studies Program GN-45, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 1984. PHOENIX RISING GROUP PROGRAM An eight-week group program designed for personal growth and to meet new people Participants are in tw o groups. One is a growth group a place to talk about personal issues, get support and do some problem-solving. The other is an activity group, activities are designed to help people learn more about themselves and how they relate to others. Each group is one-and-a-half hours, with a half-hour social break between the two, on Tuesday nights from 6 30 to 10 00 p m. All participants and group leaders are gay The program is dedicated to lesbian women and gay men working together N e x t g ro u p b e g in s T u e sd a y , O c t o b e r 9 , 1984, To re g iste r c a ll 2 23 -82 99 .
