In Amerika they Call Us Dykes: Lesbian Lives in the 1970s

The 1970s was a period of intense excitement, change, activism, and activity for lesbians. As lesbian feminism redefined what qualified as a "political issue" and challenged every assumption about gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and any other social category, lesbians of all kinds created cultural, social, political, economic, and regional organizations and networks.

Lesbians created businesses; lesbians made and marketed music; lesbians played on softball teams; lesbians engaged in struggles for racial, social, and economic justice; lesbians made films; lesbians created womyn's land. Inspired by the massive social changes that were taking place, lesbians made new worlds for themselves and others.

In recognition of this momentous decade, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) will be holding a weekend long event/conference/ festival of lesbian history, culture, arts, scholarship, discussion, and performance from Friday, October 8 to Sunday, October 10th. The event will call upon experience, memory, and scholarship to represent as fully as possible the broad and wide experience of lesbians during the 1970s.

Check out the Official Website for In Amerika They Call Us Dykes: www.70slesbians.org

Conference Schedule

Friday, October 8th

8:30-9:15

Registration Coffee and Breakfast Elebash Recital Hall Lobby

9:15-10:45

Welcoming Remarks PLENARY I: What Did We Think We Were Doing? A Conversation between Charlotte Bunch and Michelle Parkerson Moderator: Blanche Wiesen Cook Elebash Recital Hall

11:00-12:30

Session 1

Women’s Communities and Women’s Land Panel Discussion Room 8301 Lin Daniels, “Pagoda: Temple of Love and the Pagoda Community.” Angela Jimenez, “Picturing Women’s Land.” Shoshana Rothaizer, “Living on Women’s Land: A Photographic History.” Katherine Schweighofer, “Lesbian lands: Resisting or Reinforcing Rural Stereotypes?”

Lesbianism 101: Envisioning Lesbian Studies in the 1970s Workshop Discussion Room 8304 Led and moderated by Susan Freeman First Born: Adult Children of Lesbian Mothers in the 1970s Panel discussion Room 8400 Participants TBA Moderator: Terry Boggis

Jewish Lesbian Lives in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room 8402 Evelyn Torton Beck, “Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology – Tracing Its Origins in 1970s Consciousness Raising, Identity Formation, and Political Organizing.” Zohar Weiman-Kelman, “Out Dating: 1970s Jewish Lesbians and the Yiddish Women They Loved.” Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz

Lesbians, Sex Work, and Lesbian Sex Workers in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room 9203 Priscilla Alexander Wendy Chapkis Mindy Chateauvert Moderator: Anne Gray Fischer Women’s Theater in the 1970’s Panel Discussion Room 9205 Moderator: Jill Dolan Muriel Miguel Sue Perlgut Sondra Segal Roberta Sklar

The 1970s and the Lesbian Archive Panel Discussion Room 9205 Ann Giagni, Board Chair of June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: “Preservation v Access: Negotiating with a State Institution” Kathleen McHugh, CSW Director, Professor of English and Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA: “Experience, Artifact, and the Lesbian Archive” Julie Childers, CSW Assistant Director, Project Manager: “1970s Lesbian Histoey through the Mazer Archive” Sharon E. Farb, Associate University Librarian, UCLA Librarian: “Putting Lesbian into the Los Angeles Collecting Initiative”

Lesbian Representation in Our Bodies, Ourselves All day performance piece Room 9206 Joanne Mitchell

12:30-2:00

LUNCH

2:00-3:30

Session II

Transnationalizing 1970s Lesbian Feminism Panel Discussion Room 8301 Paola Bacchetta, “DYKETACTICS! Lesbian Feminist Organizing in Philadelphia.” Yukiko Hanawa, “Pan-Asian and Asian American Feminisms in the 1970s.” Christina Hanhardt, "'Count the Contradictions': U.S. Lesbian Feminist Uses of Maoist Thought in the Late 1970s." Jocelyn Olcott, “Mexican Lesbian Feminists and the 1975 International Women’s Year Conference” Ara Wilson, “Transnational Trends in 1970s Lesbian Feminism”

Women’s Music and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival Panel Discussion Room 8304 Ann Cvetkovich, “Return to Womyn’s Land: Archiving the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” Fae Goodman, “Worker Community and Changing Expressions of Lesbian Romance” Angela Jimenez, “Photographing the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” Bonnie Morris, “The Material Legacy of Michigan”

The Radical Roots of Radicalesbians Panel Discussion Room 8400 Flavia Rando Ellen Shumsky Fran Winant

Are Lesbians Going Extinct? Panel Discussion Room 8402 Elana Dykewomon, “Says Who?” Elliott Femynye batTzedek, “Judy Grahn’s ‘A Woman Is Talking to Death’” Carolyn Gage, “The Inconvenient Truth about Teena Brandon” Dolores Klaich, “No Longer Burning” Susana Sturgis, “And Will Rise? Notes on Lesbian Extinction” Lise Weil, “My Search for Pure Lust." Moderator: Lise Weil

Lesbian Sexualities in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room 9204 Yael Mishali, “Lesbian Sex in the 1970s: The Exclusion of Power Relations” Alex Warner, “Strange Bedfellows: Lesbian Feminism and Sadomasochism”

On the Streets, Between the Sheets: Varieties of Lesbian Politics Panel Discussion Room 9205 Mikaya Heart, “From Political Actions to Personal Empowerment” Robin K Payne, “‘Real Love, Real Solidarity, Real Primacy’: The Theories and Realities of Political Lesbianism and Women Loving Women” Joann Coppi, “‘Labor of Love’: Lesbian Separatism and Liberalism in the Case of the Lesbian Herstory Archives”

Lesbian representation in Our Bodies/Ourselves All Day Event Room 9206 Joanne Mitchell

Latin American Lesbians: Place, Politics and Poetry Panel Discussion Room 9207 Jacqueline Jiménez -Polanco Bronx Community College, CUNY “Atrapadas between the post-civil war/ U.S. occupation & the neo-authoritarian Balaguer's regime: Did Dominican Lesbians have a life in the 1970s?” Anahi Russo Garrido Rutgers University “The Politics of Solidarity in Early Lesbian Networks in Mexico City” Consuelo Martinez Reyes University of Pennsylvania “'Who are the Invisible Ones?' Publishing Lesbian Poetry in Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Seventies"” Moderator: Melissa Gasparotto Rutgers University

3:45-5:15 \

Session III Lesbian Spiritualities Panel Discussion Room 8301 Heather D. Artemis Billie Luisi-Potts

Aging and Lesbian Identities Consciousness raising workshop Room 8304 Margaret Cruikshank Sandy Warshaw

Canadian Lesbian Lives in the 1970s Panel Discussion/Video Screening Room 8400 Line Chamberland and Nicole Lacelle, “The emergence of lesbian-feminist spaces in Montreal, 1970-1976.” Diane Heffernan, “Memoire de Notre Histoire I/Memories of Lesbian Herstory in Quebec.”

Black Lesbian Herstory in the 70s: from South Africa to Amerika Archival Presentation Room 8402 Shawnta Smith, Lesbian Herstory Archives Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Mobile Homecoming Project Bronwynne Pereira, Gay and Lesbian Archives (GALA) South Africa

Lesbian Space Without Lesbians Panel Discussion Room 9204 Lauren Gutterman, “‘A Discreet Relationship’: Non-Feminist Married Women’s Same-Sex Affairs” Kathryn Kent, “Singing Cris Williamson Songs Around the Campfire: Girl Scout Camp as Lesbian Separatist Space.”

1970s Lesbians in the Academy: Making Space in the Institution, in the Community, in Writing Panel Discussion Room 9204 Lillian Faderman Tucker Pamella Farley Esther Newton Achebe Powell Gayle Rubin

Fierce Sistahs! The Activism, Art & Community of Bay Area Lesbians of Color in the 1970s Archival Presentation Room 9205 Lenn Keller

Lesbian representation in Our Bodies/Ourselves All Day Event Room 9206 Joanne Mitchell

7:30-9:30

A CELEBRATION OF LESBIAN POETS

Proshansky Auditorium Cheryl Clarke Jan Clausen Alexis Pauline Gumbs Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz Joan Larkin Elizabeth Lorde Rollins Luz Umpierre Chocolate Waters Fran Winant

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9TH

11:00am-12:30pm

PLENARY II: Defining the Boundaries of Lesbian Identity Lisa Duggan Joan Gibbs Gayle Rubin Urvashi Vaid

12:30pm-2pm

Session IV

Lesbian Publishers and Readers in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room C198 Julie R. Enszer, “I’m Not A Hole/I’m A Whole Mountain: Triangular Materialities in Lesbian-Feminist Print Culture, 1969-1973” Elana Dykewomon, “Riverfinger Women: Reflections on Publishing in the 1970s.” Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Survive Long Enough: A Grassroots Genealogy of Kitchen Table Press.” Mimi Iimuro Van Ausdall, “A Survey of Lesbian Readers: On the Relationship Between 1970s Lesbian Literature, Identity, and Activism.” Women’s Bookstores and Lesbian Community

Panel Discussion Room C201 Eleanor Olds Batchelder Kristen Hogan Sue Perlgut

Retheorizing Lesbian Politics and/in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room C202 Greta LaFleur, “The Imagined, Historical Present: Emily Roysdon’s David Wojnarowicz Project” Velina Manolova, “Sexual Class Politics in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues” Kaitlin Noss, “Remembering Our Bodies, Reimagining Ourselves: Deep Lez as Anti-Racist Trans-inclusive Methodology”

Building Lesbian Institutions Panel Discussion Room C204 Joanne Steele, Majority Report and Majority News Distributors Sue Hyde, Red Tomatoe Billie Luisi-Potts, Sojourner

Lesbian (Law + Mother + Lawyering) The Washington DC Feminist Law Panel Discussion Room C205 Nan Hunter Elizabeth Lytle Nancy Polikoff Linda Tillery

Workshop Room 9204 2:15-3:30 Session V Not Just Background Music to the Women’s Movement Workshop Room C198 Alix Dobkin sassy b. gonn: Searching for Black Lesbian Elders

Panel Discussion Room C201 Tiona McClodden Lisa C. Moore

Lesbian Feminism and the Third Wave Panel Discussion Room C202 Vicki Eaklor, "Backlash and Survival: Lesbian Feminism, the Third Wave, and Queer Theory." Brian Herrera, "Imagine Their Surprise: The Enduring Influence of Lesbian Feminism within Gay Male Cultural Politics in the 1980s and 1990s"

Lesbian Art: Creating and Organizing Panel Discussion Room C203 Kayleigh C. Perkov, “Feminist Standpoint Theory and the Lesbian Art Project” Marg McHugh, “Canvas Comment: 70s Lesbian Australian Badges and United States Poetry”

Lesbian Life in the City Too Busy To Hate: 1970s Lesbian Feminism in Atlanta Oral History Presentation Room C204 Lorraine Fontana Sally Gabb Vicki Gabriner

Lesbian Feminist Publications Panel Discussion Room C205 Fran Winant Agatha Beins Sean Heather McGraw Moderator: Sarah Swedberg

3:45-5:15

Session VI Lesbian Creativity in the 1970s Roundtable Discussion Room C202 Evelyn Torton Beck Myriam Fougère Andrea Freud Lowenstein Verena Stefan

Lesbian Spaces and Places Panel Discussion Room C203 Evelyn Blackwood, "Living the 70s: The Practice of Being Lesbian." Stephanie Rytilahti, “Women’s Spaces and Lesbian Community in Madison, WI.” Rebecca Dolinsky, “The Story of the Gay Women’s Open House, Washington DC” Karen DeAngelis, “The Girls of Summer.”

Disability and Embodiment Panel Discussion Room C204 Greta Rensenbrink, “Constructing a Lesbian Body: Lesbian Body Politics in Three Feminist Movements” Melissa Carroll, “Super-bodiedness: Galloway’s Misfit-ed Hearing in Mean Little Deaf Queer”

Lesbian Journals in the 1970s Panel Discussion Room C205 Liza Cowan, “DYKE Magazine” Renee DeLong, “Re-Viewing Azalea: A Magazine for Third World Lesbians, 1977-1983” Su Friedrich, “Remembering Heresies” Lesbian Connection collective, “Connecting Lesbians through Lesbian Connection”

7:30-10:00pm

DANCE AND CELEBRATION Rosenthal Pavilion Kimmel Student Center New York University 60 Washington Square South

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10TH

11:00am-1:00pm

Brunch Hosted by the LGBT Community Services Center, 208 W. 13th Street

PLENARY III: Lesbian Musicians in Conversation Alix Dobkin Linda Tillery

Screenings and Performances All screenings and performances will take place in the Segal Theatre, on the ground floor of the CUNY Graduate Center.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 8th

1:00pm-2:00pm

Shock of Gray Productions, Smoke and Mirrors A performance that traces the journeys of five women as they revisit the images and experiences of mainstream culture and queer subcultures that shaped their identities.

2:00pm-3:00pm

Crow Cohen, Small Town Revolution Crow Cohen reads from her recently-published memoir, Small Town Revolution, about coming out as a lesbian in the 1970s in Burlington, VT.

3:00pm-4:00pm

Crackpot Crones, Lesbians on the Loose! Selections from Dos Lesbos: A Play For, By, and About Perverts The Crackpot Crones (Terry Baum and Carolyn Myers) will mix selections from the famed lesbian ensemble, Lilith, and their play Dos Lesbos, with stories of their travels and travails through lesbian life in the 1970s.

4:00pm-5:00pm

Susan Chernilo, The Liberation Diaries Susan Chernilo reads from her novel-in-process, The Liberation Diaries, which follows six women living on lesbian land in the 1970s.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9TH

12:00pm-1:30pm

Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson, dir. A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde Made up of interviews with the many people Audre Lorde influenced, this Sundance-nominated documentary is the definitive portrait of a lesbian icon.

1:30pm-3:00pm

Tami Gold, dir. Passionate Politics: The Life and Work of Charlotte Bunch. A Joy Warshow Film. Passionate Politics is a new one-hour documentary that brings Charlotte’s story to life, from idealistic young civil rights activist to lesbian separatist to internationally-recognized leader of a campaign to put women’s rights, front and center, on the global human rights agenda. Director Tami Gold will lead a Q&A after the screening.

3:00pm-4:00pm

Sue Perlgut, one of the founders of New York’s first feminist theater collective, It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre, will screen a short piece from her documentary Leading “Ladies:” The life and Times of It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre. The documentary is about the troupe and its influence on feminist and queer performance. This will be followed by an interview by renowned theater historian Sara Warner.

4:00pm-5:00pm

Sharon Thompson, " Dykes, Hammers, Dogs, Dogs & More Dogs ": Lesbian Home Movies, c. 1970s

Description: Two rare & bewitching 1970s lesbian home movie selections from the archives of LHMP, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and documenting lesbian home movies. By Tree Roth and Caren McCourtney, the selections capture the exuberant side of late 70s lesbian feminism -- the sheer fun of being dykes together as thousands upon thousands of women came out and commenced clowning, kissing, skiing, dog-loving, mothering, politicking, fixing roofs, playing volleyball, and other radical activities. Filmmaker Caren McCourtney will be present.

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