Beyond the Rainbow: Archiving Our History

Featuring special guest Joan Nestle of Lesbian Herstory Archives

Location: This virtual event will take place on Zoom.

Date: Friday, April 26, 2024 at 4 pm Pacific / 7 pm Eastern

Panel Description:

Lesbian archives are vital repositories of history, culture, and community. In this panel discussion, representatives from some of the largest lesbian archives in the USA will explore the importance of archiving lesbian narratives, the challenges and successes of their work, and the impact of their collections on promoting visibility and understanding of LGBTQ+ women’s and nonbinary people's experiences. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive exploration of the importance of archives in preserving, celebrating, and advancing our visibility and diversity while also spotlighting some of the largest and most important lesbian collections in the USA. This event is part of The Curve Foundation's "Beyond the Rainbow" speaker series.

Learn more about The Curve Foundation's exciting line-up of events for Lesbian Visibility Week 2024!

Featuring Panelists:

Joan Nestle, Founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY

Angela Brinskele, June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, CA

Erin Bell, Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives, Chicago, IL

Amanda Cervantes, visual artist, curator, writer, Chicago, IL

Olivia, Special Collections Coordinator, Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY

Panelists:

Joan Nestle, Author of "A Restricted Country' and "A Fragile Union" and editor of "Persistent Desire: A Fem-Butch Reader" and the new "A Sturdy Yes of a People," co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. At 83, give thanks for the wonder and strength of our grassroots archival dreamings. And all who keep them green.

Erin Bell, MLIS, is an information science professional with over 6 years of service in the field. After many years of volunteering, she is the Operations Director at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. Erin is dedicated to accessible library service and is passionate about archival preservation. She is a co-creator of the Gerber/Hart’s podcast Unboxing Queer History.

Amanda Cervantes is a Chicago-based queer visual artist, curator, and writer. They center their artistic practice on exploring queer temporalities, family histories, and personal archives. By archiving their family's ephemera, they build narratives that delve into familial mythologies, masculinity, and the discovery of queer threads within their own lineage. Their collaborative endeavors include projects with Chicago Art Department, Threewalls, and The Overlook Place. Currently, they work within the Digital Media Design department at Harold Washington College.

Angela Brinskele is a professional photographer, who studied Photography at Fullerton College, Cal State Fullerton and UCLA Extension. She has worked in many photography fields including event photography and aerial photography from a helicopter. She has also documented the LGBTQ+ community for over 35 years. Angela has been with The June Mazer Lesbian Archives for seventeen years and the Director of Communications at the Mazer for more than a decade.

Olivia (she/her) is one of the Special Collections Coordinators at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. As an archivist, she often thinks about creative ways to highlight marginalized voices in both mainstream and community archives. She manifests her desires to uncover archival silences with additive descriptive efforts, targeted collection development strategies, and her own personal project “On Selfhood: Young Lesbians Within the Margins” which is an oral history and collecting project of multiply marginalized Young Lesbians with an exhibit currently open at the LGBT Center in the West Village. Her personal research includes Disability justice, Crip theory, Queer studies, Black studies, and Lesbian studies. Outside of archives, Olivia loves powerlifting, the color pink, cozy gaming on her Nintendo Switch, reading romance novels, and John Wick! reach her at @lesbianoralhistory

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About the Archives:

Gerber/Hart is a LGBTQ+ library and archives located in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. Founded in 1981, Gerber/Hart is one of the largest repositories of LGBTQ+ content in the world. Gerber/Hart focuses on collecting, preserving, and making accessible the LGBTQ history and culture of Chicago and the Midwest. Learn more at gerberhart.org or by following @gerberhart on Instagram and Facebook. And for a deep dive into some of the amazing collections at Gerber/Hart, listen to their 2022 podcast Unboxing Queer History!

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives is a grassroots archive dedicated to collecting, protecting, and conserving lesbian and feminist women's history. The Archives is one of the largest archives in the world dedicated to collecting, protecting, and preserving lesbian and feminist history and culture. They are located in West Hollywood, CA.

About Beyond the Rainbow:

Beyond The RainbowBeyond the Rainbow, a project of The Curve Foundation, is a groundbreaking conversation series that seeks to create an intersectional, multi-generational space touching on gender, queerness, race, ability, and activism of yesterday and today. Beyond the Rainbow seeks to challenge the possibilities and limits of queer representation as a path toward liberation.

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Photo ©Phyllis Christoper

phyllischristopher.com

Check out Phyllis' book, Dark Room: San Francisco Sex and Protest, 1988-2003.