Showcase - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change

Interview by telephone by Rose Norman on April 12, 2013 Rose Norman: What made you a social justice activist? Mandy Carter talked about getting turned on by an American Friends Service Committee speaker in high school. What was your “aha” moment? Joan Garner: I grew up in Washington, D.C., during the 1950s and 1960s, the height of the civil rights movement. I was in the eleventh grade when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. That event was the aha for me. That very weekend, I was attending the annual conference of my high school sorority. Girls from several surrounding states were meeting in Washington, D.C., the weekend of April 4, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Dr. King was assassinated, and a curfew was put on the city. We couldn’t leave the hotel. We were about 150 African American girls, and the rest of the hotel was completely white, except for some of the maids and other service staff. We were petrified about the assassination and the curfew; and we didn’t know what was happening. We could look out of our hotel window and see U Street starting to burn. Our sponsors decided …

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Posted on December 15, 2023 Posted in Social and Political Groups Tagged with advocacy, African American lesbian woman, Atlanta, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, civil rights movement, Creating Change conference, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, first Black mayor of Atlanta, Fund for Southern Communities, Funding Exchange Network, Human Rights Campaign, Jewell Gomez, Joan Garner, lesbian and gay movement, lesbian feminists, Mab Segrest, Mandy Carter, Mayor Maynard Jackson, North Carolina, out Black radical dykes, Pam McMichael, Simone de Beauvoir, Sinister Wisdom, social justice, SONG, South Carolina Georgia, Southerners on New Ground, Suzanne Pharr, Washington DC, Washington Hilton Hotel, women’s movement

The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community by the Sea–Interview with the Book’s Author, Rose Norman

The Pagoda was a lesbian residential community and cultural center on the beach near St. Augustine, Florida, from 1977 to 1999. Rose Norman interviewed founders, residents, and guests for the story of how it came to be and how it lasted so long.

Posted on December 6, 2023 Posted in Lesbian Land Groups, Lesbian-Owned Enterprises, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social and Political Groups, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services, Spirituality and Religion Tagged with Alapine, alcoholism, Changing the Hymns to Hers, controversial issues, cultural center, Deeply Held Beliefs, Dykewriters, Elethia, Emily Greene, Flash Silvermoon, Gaia’s Guide, Gainesville Florida, Goddess church, healing place, Heresies, incorporated feminist church, intentional communities, Landykes of the South, Lavender, Lee Lanning, lesbian battering, lesbian community, Lesbian Connection, lesbian culture and community movements, Lesbian Home Movie Project, Lesbian Land, Lesbianima Rising, Martha Strozier, mental health counselors, Merril Mushroom, Morgana, Nett Hart, no boy children allowed, on the beach, Pagoda cottages, Pagoda story for Landykes of the South, Pagoda supporter, Rainbow Williams, Ree’s Seashore Cottages, Rena Carney, Rose Norman, sadomasochism, Second Sunays, separatism, shared mortgage, Sharon Thompson, Shorty Res, Sinister Wisdom, Southern Lesbian Activist Herstory Project, St Augustine Florida, Sugarloaf, SW104, tax-exempt, temple of Love, The Backstage Bar, The Mother Church in Florida, the Pagoda, The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community By The Sea, theatre at the Pagoda, Toni Head, University of Florida archive, vegetarian, Wiccan feminist spirituality, women’s music circuit, women’s studies, Womonwrites, WordWeavers

Lissa LeGrand and Magnolia Productions: Building Lesbian Community Through Music and the Arts in Birmingham, Alabama

My environmental activist side has never gone away. It’s just that for a number of years, feminist activism took precedence. I feel as if I’m coming home now, coming back these last fifteen years or so, to farming, studying, research, and growing things.

Posted on December 5, 2023 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Social and Political Groups Tagged with 9th Annual Southeastern Conference of Lesbians and Gay Men April 1984, AIDS, Alabama NOW, All Things Considered, Apple Bookstore, ASL Interpreter, Birmingham Alabama, Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama Women’s Studies, Carol Griffin, Casselberry & Dupree, City Editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald, Cris Williams, Dan Gainey, Debbie Diehl, Deidre McCalla, Diane Lindsey, Fabulous Dyketones, Harry Wingfield, Holly Near, Hulsey Hall at University of Alabama in Birmingham, Jan Riley, Janet Snyder, Josie Grable, Joy Godsey, June Holloway, June Millington, Kathy Johnson, Kay and Bootsie, Kay Crutcher, Kay Virago, Lodestar, Louise Kessel, Magnolia Jams, Magnolia Mama, Magnolia Productions, Magnolia Women’s Music Collective/Magnolia Productions, Marathon, March on Washington for Lesbian Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993, Marty Billingsley, Meg Christian, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Mindy Norton, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Nancy Beatty, Nashville Tennessee, Orchid Productions, Parliament House, Polly Kratt, pure feminist ethic, Regina Cates, Robin Flower, Second Sundays, Sherry Atkinson, Tags: Lissa LeGrand, TD Russell, The Janes, Third Thursday, Tret Fure, Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee, WBHM FM Public Radio, Willie Tyson

Laurel Ferejohn: Building Lesbian Community

Laurel Ferejohn at Table Rock Writers Workshop in 2018

A believer in the power of community-oriented periodicals, Laurel Ferejohn helped create the The Newsletter, a vital, lesbian underground publication.