WEBVTT

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(board scratching)

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- There\'s so much that
you obviously experience

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as the partner of someone who\'s dying.

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(solemn music)

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Thinking about how and
what to do with her stuff.

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You know, her things.

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And it\'s incredible what you realize

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that starts to take on tremendous meaning.

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You know, you look at
a T-shirt that she wore

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and all of a sudden it\'s like, The T-shirt

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and how could I even fold this up

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and put this somewhere else.

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This belongs in her drawer.

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Ellie passed away after a very long

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and very courageous battle with lymphoma,

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which is a cancer.

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She was the most, sort
of bright, gregarious,

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kind of the shining light in any room.

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And she was 36 when she died.

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The first six months after Ellie died

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I was kind of in this hole.

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And also kind of in training myself

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in the apartment that we shared.

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I don\'t think there\'s a
day that the light switches

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where you go, \"I\'m ready.\"

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I just needed to find a solution

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and it dawned on me, in what I felt like

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was literally, probably
just Ellie being like

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\"I got an idea,\" you know?

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It was just this kind of
like perfect realization

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that the Archive exists.

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(upbeat music)

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You guys be honest with me here.

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- Is it T-shirts?

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- These are T-shirts.

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- We have a T-shirt collection.

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- You do?
- Yeah.

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- That\'s fricking awesome.

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- We have like 1,000 T-shirts.

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- This became her iconic T-shirt

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so when she passed away,
all of her friends got them.

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Everyone, we did a float
for her last Pride.

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- Oh.
- So everyone wore them.

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So I have not only ones
that I could give you

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but if anybody, it\'s a really cool thing.

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It\'s like, if anybody\'s familiar

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with this like totally
homophobic statement

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\"love the sinner, hate the sin.\"

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It\'s got everything struck
through except for the love part

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which was totally Ellie\'s
mission in life, was love.

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(wheels scraping)
(peaceful music)

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It\'s gonna be okay.

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Her stuff is gonna be okay.

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This memory of her lives in so many people

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and in so many people\'s hearts.

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And I know that her
spirit is very much alive.

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But for this now to extend to people

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who never even met her.

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You know, that is so
beautiful and such a gift.

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(car zooming)

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- Flavia, who was not
able to be here tonight,

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suggested 44 Years of Resistance.

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Because we\'ve been
around for 44 years, so.

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I thought that was a nice
one, but I have Magic Marker,

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different colors, and
we can make a few signs.

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- [Member] For this
Brooklyn Pride Dance Party

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but there\'s also a free one
at the (indistinct speaking).

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- [Attendee] Oh that\'s really good.

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- There is not one history

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just like there is not one community.

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And even though I often say

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community rather than communities

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and history rather than histories

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I really do believe

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it\'s only in the
individual stories together

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that we have lesbian history.

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(crowd clamoring)

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- Look at this.
(woman chuckling)

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- Happy Pride.
- Happy Pride.

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- I\'m very aware
(band music)

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that nothing is solid.

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It\'s not a given that we\'re safe.

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♪ Oh when the dykes ♪

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♪ Go marching in ♪

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♪ Go marching in ♪

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♪ Oh when the dykes go marching in ♪

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♪ Oh I want to be in that number ♪

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♪ When the dykes go marching in ♪

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- This archive came out
of a political movement.

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We are still in a political movement.

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(drum music)

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♪ When the dykes go marching in ♪

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♪ When the dykes go marching in ♪

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- I had been an activist in Civil Rights.

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I\'ve been an activist in
the anti-nuclear movement.

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But I hadn\'t figured out how to take that

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and translate it into my own personal

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lesbian and gay life experience.

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It was still quite new to me.

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(crowd clamoring)

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- I came out in \'63.

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It was hell.

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But I went to the bars

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and I was there when they were raided.

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I went to an Oakland bar,
when the lights went on,

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you stopped dancing and
you all went to the seats.

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And the cops came in.

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And they would just slam the
nightsticks on your table

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and say, \"What the fuck
you doin\' here,\" you know?

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And, \"We\'re drinking, sir.

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\"We\'re just sitting here
drinking, talking to each other.\"

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\"Well, I don\'t think
that\'s what you\'re doing.\"

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And it would go on from there.

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And sometimes he would haul people out,

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always by the collar.

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He would half-rip their clothes
off them to get them out

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and put \'em in the paddy wagon.

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You never knew who your friends were

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and who your enemies were.

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Well, you always assumed
everybody was an enemy

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for that issue in your life.

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So keep it secret, keep
it quiet, keep it safe.

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- A group of us were in the Gay
Academic Union in the 1970s.

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A sub-group emerged of those
of us who were concerned

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that our history was disappearing

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as quickly as we were making it.

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And also, some of us had been involved

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in educational atmospheres

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where we tried to find our
own history and could not.

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That we said, naively,
oh, let\'s stop this.

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And let\'s create an institution of sorts

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that will be run by lesbians

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and therefore will collect
the history in a way

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where all lesbians would feel comfortable,

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nobody would be denied access.

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And so we did.

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- This apartment on the Upper
West Side, 215, called 13A,

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I found in the paper.

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And I went to the agent.

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And she said, \"Well, you\'ll
need three months\' rent.\"

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And I didn\'t have $1,500.

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So Deb, and we were not lovers
at the time, we were friends.

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She says to me on the phone,

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\"Joan, this is what I\'m going to do.

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\"I\'m gonna show you how
to work with the bank.

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\"You\'ve been teaching,
you have an income.\"

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And the Archives started
all based on the generosity

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of one lesbian history, Deb\'s,

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coming to help another
lesbian history, my own

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to make this home for
all lesbian histories.

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The Archives started in 1974

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and for many years it was
housed in an apartment

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which was Joan Nestle\'s apartment.

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And then her and Deb were partners then

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and they lived there together.

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The point here is that
we collect any material

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by and about lesbians, and
that we try to acknowledge

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the different, the changing
identities of lesbians.

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Like how lesbians identify.

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But still we want to include
the full range of people.

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And we are a public institution,
so anybody can come here.

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And we don\'t question people.

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We don\'t need to know their sexuality.

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We don\'t question people about anything.

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Just hello, and what can
we do for you today, okay?

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Generally, at the Archives,
there were no boxes

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in the sense that nobody asked
you to dress a certain way,

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be a certain way.

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I liked the idea that
people were really about

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showing all kinds of lesbians
and not just famous people

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and not all white women,
and not all rich women.

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Those were the values.

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The principles of the
Archives really spoke to me.

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We basically are funded through
our communities and allies.

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And we are all-volunteer.

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Basically, that\'s it. (chuckles)

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So, Colette, you want to do a tour?

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(laughing)

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- Oh my gosh.
- Or should I do a tour?

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- Sure, we can do it together.

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I\'m always telling my parents

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our culture is passed down from our elders

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but in terms of being
queer, it often isn\'t.

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So this is our library space.

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It\'s special because we
catalog things with these dots

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instead of with call numbers.

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But this is the fiction and bio section,

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and this is really
unique because we catalog

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everything by the author\'s
subject\'s first name.

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- So originally we had it
in regular library order

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and then the story is
that somebody came up

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and said to Joan, \"I can\'t
believe that you have the books

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\"in patriarchal order.\"

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And she said okay, and she changed it.

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(Colette laughing)

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And so when we got here we had to decide

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whether we would leave it in the old order

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or put it back, you know,

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the way they do in regular libraries

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and we decided that it was
an artifact of our history

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and that we would leave it this way

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especially since now
you can print out a list

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from a computer any way you want to

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so it didn\'t matter in
terms of functionality.

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If you see something.

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- I worry that my
generation isn\'t as invested

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as the older generation.
- It\'s been inventoried.

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- Or that we won\'t have
someone as devoted as Deb.

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As devoted as Max and Teddy
too, and Paula, and everyone

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to keep it going.

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- One of the things that
you find out here is that

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we are just people who persevere.

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(women chuckling)

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So, for instance, the
cataloging of the books

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took about six years

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and now we\'re doing that with the tapes

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that you\'re going to be
working on, Illaria, you know.

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Colette has really been organizing

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and we just do one tape at a time.

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- [Colette] Yep.

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- And sooner or later they
are all gonna be cataloged.

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- [Colette] We have 3,000 now.

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A little over 3,000.
- Yeah, we have 3,000 tapes.

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- Yeah, I definitely do, I feel
the weight of it sometimes.

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I mean, like I come from a culture

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that really venerates elder
people and what they do

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and that you should always learn from them

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and try to emulate the way that they act.

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But also to improve upon
it and be better, always.

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Lesbians are kind of seen
as passe in some circles.

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Yeah, I identify as queer,

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but I still feel a strong
affinity for the word lesbian.

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(cars zooming)

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- The energy was incredible,
the energy was high.

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Again, it was the 1970s

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and there were not a lot
of people doing research.

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People walked in to find
a space that was a home.

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And it was in a home, and
so the warmth, and the love,

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and the caring, it just burst at the seams

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with that kind of feeling.

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One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven takes you

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up to that thing, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13.

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You see that air conditioner over there?

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Where that big, bulky air
conditioner is sticking out,

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that was the living room of the Archives.

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(siren blaring)

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- [Narrator] From a small backroom

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in a large West Side
apartment in Manhattan

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the collection has grown geometrically.

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Over 20 file cabinets of subject
files, biographical files,

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unpublished papers,
short stories and poetry.

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10,000 books, 1,300
periodicals, artwork, slides.

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12,000 photographs, graphics,
audio and video tapes,

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musical scores, buttons, clothing.

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200 special collections
of manuscripts, diaries,

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letters and personal papers
and other representations

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of lesbian lives and activities.

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(stirring music)

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- And the minute I walked into that room,

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that little, tiny room

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it was just love at first sight.

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It was just wonderful,
it\'s just such heaven.

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It was my world, it still
feels part of my world.

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I kind of get teary-eyed
when I think about it.

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Because it was so special
to me to find this place.

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And I did cry a couple of times with them

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in the first few weeks or months

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of saying \"thank God I found you.

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\"I mean, you\'re exactly,
exactly right for me

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\"and I\'m exactly right for this place.\"

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- Deb Edel is going to
do a brief slideshow.

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I say that because it\'s
part of lesbian culture

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to have slideshows that go
at least two hours long.

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(audience laughing)

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I may have had some small
thing to do with that, but.

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This is 10 minutes

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showing the growth of the archives.

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Is anybody here who remembers it

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when it was in the tiny room
and had coffee cans, yes.

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- [Woman] This was the room in 1976.

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And for those of you who
were there, we were proud.

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This was a small room behind the kitchen.

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Notice the bookshelf.

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(audience laughing)

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Notice the coffee cans,
that was my design.

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And I have taken pleasure
over all these years

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in trying to redesign, and
redesign, and redesign the space

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to make it fit into the house as it grows.

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And I thought I was pretty clever.

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Those were the two-pound
coffee cans back in those days.

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But we truly were proud of what
we amassed at the beginning.

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And we knew there was much more out there

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but we didn\'t have it at that time.

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And what we had done was we
put in our personal collections

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which is how we grew it at the beginning.

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This is the slide of both
our technical equipment

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and our file drawer.

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(audience laughing)

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That was our first card catalog.

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(audience laughing)

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(audience applauding)

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- [Woman] Notice the
plant foliage is bigger.

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(audience laughing)

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- That\'s crazy.
- I know.

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- [Shawn] Remember how
before we were like,

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oh should we go to the visual
box, we should hold off on it.

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We should start with that one.

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- Move into the visual box, okay.

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- [Shawn] Yeah.

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- So that they have something to look at.

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- Exactly, and start filling that folder.

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I think that LHA has served
a different purpose for me

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at different times in my life.

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I came here initially because
I wanted to learn about

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who I was, and I was the community.

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I wanted to see about my history

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and who was my foremother, you know.

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Who am I supposed to become?

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So I wanted to come
here to like open a box

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and see what someone wrote down

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and then follow it like it
was the Bible. (chuckling)

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You know, because I needed a religion

17:52.570 --> 17:55.250
and I had already committed
to study this one.

17:55.250 --> 17:57.230
It was called the lesbian religion.

17:57.230 --> 17:58.970
- [Woman] Do you want me to
start putting a box together

17:58.970 --> 18:01.230
or are we just gonna go
through this stuff first?

18:01.230 --> 18:02.600
- You can start separating.

18:02.600 --> 18:04.502
- [Woman] Yeah, let\'s
go through this first.

18:04.502 --> 18:07.102
- Between things exhibit-worthy,
not exhibit-worthy.

18:11.390 --> 18:14.200
- Dancer Edwina, choreographer, Edwina.

18:14.200 --> 18:19.200
Music, Johnson Porter, sung by Sylvester.

18:20.200 --> 18:24.013
Awe, Carletta, awe, oh.

18:27.570 --> 18:29.023
This is so beautiful.

18:31.240 --> 18:36.240
This was some event, oh
this is beautiful, okay.

18:38.108 --> 18:39.363
- [Shawn] Event-worthy.

18:39.363 --> 18:40.613
- Event-worthy.

18:41.890 --> 18:45.170
- And then eventually
I realized from working

18:45.170 --> 18:47.640
inter-generationally with
the women that are here

18:47.640 --> 18:50.420
who are also the women in the boxes

18:50.420 --> 18:51.610
that we\'re all just human.

18:51.610 --> 18:55.360
There\'s no hierarchy, there\'s no deity.

18:55.360 --> 18:57.720
They\'re having existed before me

18:57.720 --> 18:58.920
and having laid the groundwork,

18:58.920 --> 19:01.298
it doesn\'t give them sort
of a hierarchal position

19:01.298 --> 19:03.603
and I don\'t have to praise them.

19:05.470 --> 19:07.021
I wish I had dates.

19:07.021 --> 19:08.354
- I know, right.

19:10.148 --> 19:12.355
- Okay.
- Somebody may recognize it.

19:12.355 --> 19:13.550
You never know.

19:13.550 --> 19:15.337
- \'Cause somebody could be
like, I wrote that in 1977.

19:15.337 --> 19:17.076
(laughing)

19:17.076 --> 19:20.076
Printed their life.
- You never know.

19:21.417 --> 19:23.930
- One of the early contributions we had

19:23.930 --> 19:26.470
was from Miss Mabel Hampton.

19:26.470 --> 19:28.200
Miss Hampton was part

19:28.200 --> 19:30.650
of the whole early days of the Archives.

19:30.650 --> 19:33.480
She\'d be there for work
nights, and I have this image

19:33.480 --> 19:37.500
of women, young women,
sitting around her feet.

19:37.500 --> 19:39.960
And Mabel Hampton\'s an
African-American woman

19:39.960 --> 19:44.290
who was born in 1901, came
out in the \'20s or earlier.

19:44.290 --> 19:47.204
And they\'d say to her, looking
up at her and they\'d say,

19:47.204 --> 19:49.480
\"Mabel, Mabel, when did you come out?\"

19:49.480 --> 19:51.217
And she\'d say, \"what do you
mean, when did I come out?

19:51.217 --> 19:52.350
\"I was never in.\"

19:52.350 --> 19:54.000
And that was the spirit.

19:54.000 --> 19:58.270
So the Archives, it was a home

19:58.270 --> 20:01.343
to most wonderful, resilient spirits.

20:02.366 --> 20:05.533
(contemplative music)

20:19.316 --> 20:20.430
(crickets buzzing)

20:20.430 --> 20:23.950
One night I was alone at the
Archives as we were closing up

20:23.950 --> 20:26.660
and there were three older women sitting.

20:26.660 --> 20:29.893
And one was a woman
with a European accent.

20:30.810 --> 20:35.810
And she turns to me and says, \"You know.

20:35.837 --> 20:39.043
\"I was a young girl when I
was taken into the camps.

20:39.987 --> 20:41.863
\"I was 12 or 13 at the time.

20:44.007 --> 20:46.657
\"Someone had given me a Polish translation

20:46.657 --> 20:48.223
\"of the Well of Loneliness.

20:49.705 --> 20:53.163
\"I wanted to live long
enough to kiss a woman.

20:55.677 --> 20:59.757
\"The dream of kissing a woman gave me life

20:59.757 --> 21:02.030
\"at a time when all the rest was saying

21:03.007 --> 21:04.767
\"it destroyed our lives.\"

21:11.800 --> 21:14.981
- Running away.
- Or doing any long-range.

21:14.981 --> 21:17.313
- Long-range.
- Yes.

21:19.589 --> 21:21.172
- Happy to see you.

21:22.690 --> 21:23.643
Hi, come on in.

21:25.198 --> 21:28.031
(women murmuring)

21:33.430 --> 21:36.960
- Well, welcome to the
Lesbian Herstory Archives.

21:36.960 --> 21:40.940
When I look around the
room, I really think we span

21:40.940 --> 21:45.940
many generations, and that\'s
what the Archives is all about.

21:46.800 --> 21:49.490
It is about generational connection.

21:49.490 --> 21:51.940
It\'s about learning about our history.

21:51.940 --> 21:55.120
And so with no further
ado, or with further ado.

21:55.120 --> 21:56.303
No further ado.

21:56.303 --> 21:57.720
(audience laughing)

21:57.720 --> 21:59.830
Get some of those phrases wrong.

21:59.830 --> 22:04.773
I\'m going to turn the microphone
over to Naomi and Eva.

22:06.740 --> 22:09.000
- I was wondering the other day

22:09.000 --> 22:11.613
what my life would have been like

22:11.613 --> 22:16.400
if I had not grown up and
lived through the trauma

22:16.400 --> 22:19.883
of the Nazi takeover in 1938.

22:23.520 --> 22:27.180
I know we all ask ourselves such questions

22:27.180 --> 22:30.313
about the seeming accident
of where we were born.

22:31.910 --> 22:33.573
One thing is certain.

22:34.600 --> 22:38.800
If I had been born into a
middle-class, Jewish family

22:38.800 --> 22:43.800
similar to mine in America,
I would not have known,

22:44.330 --> 22:48.800
at least not at such an early age,

22:48.800 --> 22:52.550
that life and people
can change tragically.

22:52.550 --> 22:57.030
And that terror and
cruelty on a mass scale

22:57.030 --> 23:02.030
that most of us as children
first learned from history books

23:03.030 --> 23:06.990
can break out under certain
conditions in your own town,

23:06.990 --> 23:11.063
and on your own street, today or tomorrow.

23:13.060 --> 23:15.550
- The history of racism in this country

23:15.550 --> 23:18.750
was something that was shared by my family

23:18.750 --> 23:23.750
and they could prepare
myself and my sister.

23:24.310 --> 23:28.993
Being gay was something
that I learned by myself

23:30.750 --> 23:33.880
and through my peers.

23:33.880 --> 23:37.250
And I think I probably had a funny uncle

23:37.250 --> 23:39.800
but it wasn\'t something
that we talked about.

23:39.800 --> 23:43.113
I mean, I\'m of a different
generation, I\'m 72.

23:46.310 --> 23:47.833
- The dangerous world.

23:49.980 --> 23:54.443
I watched you walk across
the street, slightly stooped,

23:56.290 --> 24:01.290
not seeing me, and smiled
to see that mixture

24:02.790 --> 24:07.533
of clumsiness, grace, intensity.

24:09.340 --> 24:14.240
Then suddenly I feared the cars.

24:14.240 --> 24:18.940
The streets you cross, the days you pass.

24:20.110 --> 24:23.233
You hold me as a glass holds water.

24:24.320 --> 24:27.403
You can be shattered like a glass.

24:28.648 --> 24:31.815
(audience applauding)

24:35.123 --> 24:36.620
- When I found out about the Archives

24:36.620 --> 24:39.943
it just seemed clear to
me that this is about me.

24:41.150 --> 24:43.720
And if I wanted to be fully myself,

24:43.720 --> 24:46.970
then of course I should be,

24:46.970 --> 24:51.713
of course I should be involved in this.

24:53.468 --> 24:55.968
(car zooming)

25:00.840 --> 25:03.507
(birds calling)

25:06.800 --> 25:09.027
- We\'ve gotten these desperate calls.

25:09.027 --> 25:12.857
\"I\'m breaking up with my
lover and I\'m furious,

25:12.857 --> 25:16.247
\"and I want to tear up my
letters and my photographs

25:16.247 --> 25:19.390
\"so please come and rescue them.\"

25:19.390 --> 25:21.390
And I feel like we\'re the, I don\'t know,

25:21.390 --> 25:24.507
the rescue squad, and we go down, okay.

25:24.507 --> 25:26.330
Give us your material!

25:26.330 --> 25:28.350
And we take it back to the Archives.

25:28.350 --> 25:30.940
And then five years
later they can come back

25:30.940 --> 25:33.730
and feel glad that they didn\'t destroy

25:33.730 --> 25:35.120
what they knew they were going to destroy.

25:35.120 --> 25:36.413
So it still goes on.

25:47.460 --> 25:49.650
- This jacket, it was my donation.

25:49.650 --> 25:52.710
And it was from one of my oldest sisters.

25:52.710 --> 25:57.710
It\'s not her jacket, but she
had a lover in the military.

25:57.820 --> 26:01.300
And when I asked Mary
Jo, she said, \"Well.\"

26:01.300 --> 26:04.157
And they were retired by then, for years.

26:04.157 --> 26:07.620
\"You\'ll have to take my name tag off.\"

26:07.620 --> 26:11.157
She wouldn\'t, I said,
\"Mary Jo, it\'s going into

26:11.157 --> 26:13.537
\"the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

26:13.537 --> 26:16.657
\"most of the people coming
there would be lesbians

26:16.657 --> 26:19.137
\"and even if they\'re not, I don\'t think

26:19.137 --> 26:24.137
\"they\'re, the Army has sent
anybody looking for you.\"

26:25.810 --> 26:28.550
But anyway, she finally gave it to me.

26:28.550 --> 26:30.320
I\'m very proud of her.

26:30.320 --> 26:33.133
She was very proud, both of them were.

26:36.580 --> 26:40.150
So that\'s why I\'m here at the Archives.

26:40.150 --> 26:43.420
So that stories like this can be told.

26:43.420 --> 26:47.390
And their history, who they
could never talk about it.

26:47.390 --> 26:49.263
I want people to know about it.

26:54.230 --> 26:57.440
- When we made a public
announcement about the Archives

26:57.440 --> 27:01.270
We started receiving letters from people.

27:01.270 --> 27:04.130
Some asking for research information.

27:04.130 --> 27:08.340
Some just sort of describing
themselves and their lives

27:08.340 --> 27:11.683
and wanting to just be
excited that we were there.

27:14.470 --> 27:17.717
So Elsa Gitlow writes to Julia Stanley.

27:17.717 --> 27:19.677
\"I probably am in the minority

27:19.677 --> 27:22.707
\"but I can not like the word herstory.

27:22.707 --> 27:26.187
\"History never did mean his story

27:26.187 --> 27:28.287
\"even though that is what happened.

27:28.287 --> 27:31.117
\"Might it not be stronger and braver

27:31.117 --> 27:34.987
\"to take back the word
and cleanse and reclaim it

27:34.987 --> 27:38.147
\"than to adopt an awkward one?

27:38.147 --> 27:41.237
\"I love our language and
wish we could rather purify

27:41.237 --> 27:43.097
\"words that have gone astray

27:43.097 --> 27:45.767
\"than adopt bastard expressions.\"

27:48.200 --> 27:53.200
So, sorry Elsa, we stuck with herstory.

28:00.150 --> 28:02.010
- Okay, so basically we
just wanna make this easy

28:02.010 --> 28:04.921
for Rachel or whatever
intern is processing.

28:04.921 --> 28:05.754
- Okay.

28:05.754 --> 28:06.587
- So we can go through

28:06.587 --> 28:08.080
and put things that are
alike in the same boxes.

28:08.080 --> 28:08.950
- Okay.

28:08.950 --> 28:10.900
- [Colette] Seattle to JFK.

28:10.900 --> 28:11.780
Oh my God, this is so heavy,

28:11.780 --> 28:12.613
you\'re going to have to help me.

28:12.613 --> 28:14.262
- [Illaria] Okay.

28:14.262 --> 28:19.262
(suitcase clamoring)
(zipper ripping)

28:22.380 --> 28:23.313
- [Colette] Wow.

28:25.610 --> 28:27.370
- You are literally going through

28:27.370 --> 28:29.620
the stuff of someone\'s life.

28:29.620 --> 28:33.323
And that stuff is really tender.

28:35.350 --> 28:39.040
It wasn\'t intended for anyone
else to see at the time.

28:39.040 --> 28:42.670
You\'re bearing witness to
not only one person\'s life

28:42.670 --> 28:45.800
but all of their relationships.

28:45.800 --> 28:47.750
Oh yeah, Ellie, it is here.

28:47.750 --> 28:48.910
- That\'s fantastic.

28:48.910 --> 28:50.530
- Yeah.
- Cool.

28:50.530 --> 28:52.855
Here is her Dave and Buster\'s card.

28:52.855 --> 28:55.010
(laughing)

28:55.010 --> 28:55.843
It\'s so interesting

28:55.843 --> 28:57.750
because if you think about all
the things you leave behind

28:57.750 --> 28:59.720
like, that\'s still there, right?

28:59.720 --> 29:00.670
- Right.

29:00.670 --> 29:02.170
- Your Dave and Buster\'s card.

29:04.290 --> 29:06.510
This is such a beautiful donation.

29:06.510 --> 29:08.000
- There aren\'t very many people

29:08.000 --> 29:09.573
who are put in that position.

29:11.320 --> 29:12.773
And archivists are.

29:13.800 --> 29:16.023
- Here\'s the program for her memorial.

29:18.810 --> 29:21.290
Her all-time favorite
song was by Kylie Minogue.

29:21.290 --> 29:22.947
- Which one?
- \"Slow.\"

29:24.610 --> 29:26.603
- Maybe we can play it after.

29:28.670 --> 29:31.146
- Things she probably won\'t miss, upspeak.

29:31.146 --> 29:31.979
(Illaria laughing)

29:31.979 --> 29:35.222
Headaches, passive-aggression,
picking up poop.

29:35.222 --> 29:37.972
(women laughing)

29:40.820 --> 29:45.100
You can definitely learn the
skills of how to sort things

29:45.100 --> 29:46.590
and how to preserve things

29:46.590 --> 29:49.410
and how to inventory things.

29:49.410 --> 29:53.700
But I don\'t know if you get
that same kind of training

29:53.700 --> 29:55.870
for the emotional weight of the material

29:55.870 --> 29:58.461
that you\'re going to be working with.

29:58.461 --> 30:01.294
(marker scraping)

30:09.115 --> 30:11.150
- This is so much.

30:11.150 --> 30:12.420
I\'m going to take a
photo of it on my phone

30:12.420 --> 30:13.705
and send it to Melissa.

30:13.705 --> 30:14.538
- Okay.

30:19.163 --> 30:21.540
It\'s like a very strong reminder

30:22.520 --> 30:24.973
of the fact that we\'re all gonna die.

30:26.173 --> 30:28.336
- [Woman] My brain says what
are you going to wear tonight?

30:28.336 --> 30:29.813
(women laughing)

30:29.813 --> 30:32.110
(women laughing)

30:32.110 --> 30:33.058
- I\'m Barbara Brown.

30:33.058 --> 30:35.412
- I\'m Sandy Delago.

30:35.412 --> 30:38.340
- And we have written our wills and left,

30:38.340 --> 30:40.580
if we both die at the same time,

30:40.580 --> 30:43.380
we had left our inheritance

30:43.380 --> 30:45.680
and everything that we may
have collected in our lifetime

30:45.680 --> 30:48.890
to the National Women\'s
Archives in Washington.

30:48.890 --> 30:50.460
And as of today, we\'re leaving it

30:50.460 --> 30:53.971
to the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

30:53.971 --> 30:56.804
(women clamoring)

30:57.800 --> 31:00.360
- The fact that Joan and I
were together as a couple

31:00.360 --> 31:03.106
I think allowed the
Archives to grow in a way.

31:03.106 --> 31:05.260
(women laughing)

31:05.260 --> 31:08.550
The way Joan functioned,
more so even than me,

31:08.550 --> 31:10.400
was to create this sense of family

31:10.400 --> 31:12.570
because she really wanted family in a way

31:12.570 --> 31:14.420
that I didn\'t have the same intensity

31:15.330 --> 31:17.735
because I had some family.

31:17.735 --> 31:19.777
♪ Happy Birthday ♪

31:19.777 --> 31:22.860
(indistinct singing)

31:23.919 --> 31:25.704
(women laughing)

31:25.704 --> 31:28.685
♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪

31:28.685 --> 31:33.418
- Oh for goodness sake.
(women cheering)

31:33.418 --> 31:35.145
- [Woman] We really
are an Olympian family.

31:35.145 --> 31:38.080
(women clamoring)

31:38.080 --> 31:40.231
- [Woman] So we have to
sing that last part again.

31:40.231 --> 31:41.750
- [Mabel] Oh my gosh.

31:41.750 --> 31:44.810
- [Joan] Amy, Melissa
and Rory, Joan, Mabel.

31:44.810 --> 31:47.074
- [Mabel] Oh it\'s so beautiful.

31:47.074 --> 31:48.777
- Joan\'s one, there\'s one more.

31:48.777 --> 31:51.527
(women cheering)

31:55.413 --> 31:57.996
- Everybody get one.
- Bunch of.

31:59.516 --> 32:02.183
(air whooshing)

32:12.780 --> 32:15.213
- So what tapes have
you been listening to?

32:16.440 --> 32:21.440
- [Illaria] There\'s one
with Joan Nestle and Deb

32:21.610 --> 32:23.810
and they\'re on a radio show.

32:23.810 --> 32:27.260
It\'s just, I never know
what it\'s going to be.

32:27.260 --> 32:29.280
- I think the thing that\'s
always been interesting to me

32:29.280 --> 32:31.810
is that people really,
women in the community,

32:31.810 --> 32:35.020
used to go everywhere
with a tape recorder.

32:35.020 --> 32:37.050
And now that you can
actually tape it easily,

32:37.050 --> 32:38.166
they don\'t do it.

32:38.166 --> 32:38.999
- [Illaria] Right.

32:38.999 --> 32:40.380
- It\'s sort of they have
this kind of feeling

32:40.380 --> 32:43.780
that somehow it\'s going to be in the ether

32:43.780 --> 32:44.950
even if they don\'t do it.

32:44.950 --> 32:47.570
But everybody would feel so responsible

32:47.570 --> 32:50.890
to document all these different events

32:50.890 --> 32:53.470
and I worry that we\'re not going to have

32:53.470 --> 32:55.690
the same kind of documentation

32:55.690 --> 32:59.060
even though everybody is
taking photos of everything.

32:59.060 --> 33:00.320
And we would always think about that.

33:00.320 --> 33:03.390
Like I did a lot of taping
when I was working for ACT UP

33:03.390 --> 33:08.047
and we went and confronted all
of these government people.

33:09.700 --> 33:12.127
We would always bring a tape recorder

33:12.127 --> 33:12.960
and then we would always say,

33:12.960 --> 33:13.793
\"Can we have permission to tape?\"

33:13.793 --> 33:14.888
And they would say, \"no.\"

33:14.888 --> 33:16.340
And we would say \"then we can\'t stay.\"

33:16.340 --> 33:17.857
And they would always say \"why?\"

33:17.857 --> 33:20.520
And we would say because
we have to make sure

33:20.520 --> 33:22.220
that women that couldn\'t be at the table

33:22.220 --> 33:23.680
know what went on.

33:23.680 --> 33:27.100
And then they would kind
of eventually give in.

33:27.100 --> 33:30.120
Got the best tapes in the world, you know.

33:30.120 --> 33:34.160
Just, of course it was the
idiocy of the male establishment

33:34.160 --> 33:36.953
that it was really worth having.

33:39.420 --> 33:41.410
There are a couple of
things that were really bad.

33:41.410 --> 33:43.900
One was Reaganomics

33:43.900 --> 33:47.320
and there were also raids on Times Square.

33:47.320 --> 33:52.320
There was a trans and black
bar that the cops would raid.

33:54.360 --> 33:56.880
And people think that was
over at Stonewall, it wasn\'t.

33:56.880 --> 33:58.230
This was the early \'80s.

33:58.230 --> 34:01.330
It was a time of \"Cruising,\" the movie

34:01.330 --> 34:04.453
that people found really objectionable.

34:05.330 --> 34:07.800
And it was, the AIDS crisis had started.

34:07.800 --> 34:11.910
So it was really, it was
a very difficult time

34:11.910 --> 34:15.902
in terms of what was happening
in the gay community.

34:15.902 --> 34:16.735
(people yelling)

34:16.735 --> 34:19.406
- [All] ACT UP, stand tall,

34:19.406 --> 34:22.163
it\'s time to march on City Hall, ACT UP.

34:22.163 --> 34:23.960
- We\'re here to demonstrate for more money

34:23.960 --> 34:26.770
more services, more
anything from the city.

34:26.770 --> 34:29.533
It\'s a crisis and already
it\'s beyond proportion.

34:30.796 --> 34:33.820
(people clamoring)

34:33.820 --> 34:35.686
I\'m waiting to get arrested.

34:35.686 --> 34:38.603
(people clamoring)

34:46.080 --> 34:47.950
- When I started coming to the Archives

34:47.950 --> 34:49.010
I met a lot of people.

34:49.010 --> 34:50.470
I met Maxine Wolfe.

34:50.470 --> 34:53.200
And Maxine was, in
addition to being engaged

34:53.200 --> 34:54.490
with the Lesbian Herstory Archives

34:54.490 --> 34:56.180
was working with ACT UP.

34:56.180 --> 34:57.307
And she said \"you gotta come,

34:57.307 --> 35:00.050
\"you gotta come to Monday night meetings.\"

35:00.050 --> 35:02.360
- The ideas and images that are out there

35:02.360 --> 35:06.410
do not reflect the realities of our lives.

35:06.410 --> 35:09.180
When they do reflect our situations

35:09.180 --> 35:11.680
the explanations disregard the operation

35:11.680 --> 35:15.400
of actual barriers and
instead blame the victims

35:15.400 --> 35:18.200
and indeed call us victims
when we are survivors.

35:18.200 --> 35:21.200
I was lucky, I never had
friends at that point

35:21.200 --> 35:22.683
who were infected.

35:23.780 --> 35:27.170
But the homophobia was rampant, rampant.

35:27.170 --> 35:29.830
It didn\'t matter if you
were a lesbian or a gay man.

35:29.830 --> 35:31.730
I was walking across 9th Street

35:31.730 --> 35:35.350
and somebody obviously
picked up that I was a dyke

35:35.350 --> 35:38.520
and said, \"I hope you die of AIDS.\"

35:38.520 --> 35:39.533
It didn\'t matter.

35:40.620 --> 35:44.913
The newspapers were full of
homophobic stuff, headlines.

35:46.730 --> 35:49.100
People were talking about tattooing

35:49.100 --> 35:51.778
gay people on their asses, you know.

35:51.778 --> 35:54.500
- [All] Off our bodies you must go.

35:54.500 --> 35:56.560
Off our bodies you must go.

35:56.560 --> 35:59.437
- Lesbians were a very
powerful group in ACT UP.

36:00.990 --> 36:03.550
We had a lot of comraderies
with certain gay men.

36:03.550 --> 36:07.150
Not everybody, but a lot
of our friends were men.

36:07.150 --> 36:08.420
And the men became interested

36:08.420 --> 36:10.190
in the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

36:10.190 --> 36:12.410
Because we\'d have parties
and throw fundraisers

36:12.410 --> 36:15.193
with some of the men from ACT UP.

36:18.331 --> 36:22.013
There were also gifts of
estates to the Archives.

36:24.930 --> 36:29.400
- People often say, how do
you get some of the material?

36:29.400 --> 36:32.510
We met Marge in the early 1980s.

36:32.510 --> 36:33.980
We would sent Christmas cards

36:33.980 --> 36:36.080
and holiday greeting cards back and forth.

36:37.920 --> 36:40.760
And then we got a call from her friend

36:40.760 --> 36:43.110
who said Marge had died

36:43.110 --> 36:45.090
and in the reading of her will

36:45.950 --> 36:49.150
her family found out
that she was a lesbian

36:49.150 --> 36:52.207
because it said, in the
reading of her will,

36:52.207 --> 36:55.887
\"and I give my papers, my photographs

36:55.887 --> 36:59.447
\"and some of my books to the
Lesbian Herstory Archives

36:59.447 --> 37:02.130
\"an organization that was
very important to me.\"

37:02.130 --> 37:03.960
We also heard from that woman

37:03.960 --> 37:06.760
that the family was distraught

37:06.760 --> 37:09.260
and that they were going to try to destroy

37:09.260 --> 37:10.453
as much as they could.

37:12.650 --> 37:17.650
- Joan, and her girlfriend
at time Eileen, and I

37:19.180 --> 37:21.840
called out sick at work, we got in a car,

37:21.840 --> 37:23.850
drove to Columbus, Ohio.

37:23.850 --> 37:26.437
And when we got it back
here and we looked at it

37:26.437 --> 37:30.020
and we looked at the
photographs, and her diaries,

37:30.020 --> 37:31.130
they\'re incredible.

37:31.130 --> 37:33.930
The diaries talked about what it was like

37:33.930 --> 37:38.463
to come out in the 1950s in Ohio.

37:42.360 --> 37:45.460
- [Narrator] Thursday, October 3rd, 1957.

37:45.460 --> 37:48.560
Last night, Al, his cousin
Margie and I went out.

37:48.560 --> 37:51.340
Margie thought him quite
good looking, I did not.

37:51.340 --> 37:53.700
Probably that was because I would not like

37:53.700 --> 37:56.930
anyone that she likes because
of my interest in her myself.

37:56.930 --> 37:58.570
It is still as strong as ever.

37:58.570 --> 38:00.090
Stronger in fact.

38:00.090 --> 38:02.970
I want her and I do not want
anyone else to have her.

38:02.970 --> 38:05.100
I want her for a companion,
and when she is hurt

38:05.100 --> 38:07.540
I want the right to take
her in my arms and hold her

38:07.540 --> 38:09.530
and try to drive away the hurt.

38:09.530 --> 38:12.890
I want her near when I am
happy and when I am unhappy.

38:12.890 --> 38:14.610
I want her with me when she is grouchy

38:14.610 --> 38:16.910
and when she is in her playful moods.

38:16.910 --> 38:19.173
I want her always and for always.

38:22.561 --> 38:25.380
- It was a great introduction
into the sorts of like

38:25.380 --> 38:29.950
the rescue SWAT team,
guerrilla archival tactic

38:29.950 --> 38:33.170
that we were taking at the
Lesbian Herstory Archives

38:33.170 --> 38:38.163
to literally rescue lesbian
history from the trash.

38:39.526 --> 38:42.609
(vehicles whooshing)

39:04.070 --> 39:07.657
- I guess it must have been 1985 or \'86.

39:11.550 --> 39:13.260
You know, Joan and Deb realized

39:13.260 --> 39:15.570
that if anything ever happened to them

39:15.570 --> 39:17.000
nobody would know anything

39:17.000 --> 39:19.300
about what was happening at the Archives

39:19.300 --> 39:21.710
and so they asked if there were people

39:21.710 --> 39:25.080
who would be willing to form
like a coordinating committee.

39:25.080 --> 39:26.810
And I said sure, you know.

39:26.810 --> 39:31.810
So here I am, 30 whatever
years later. (laughing)

39:38.640 --> 39:43.230
- [Deb] As the archives began to take over

39:43.230 --> 39:45.270
the apartment at 13A

39:45.270 --> 39:50.193
it was an idea that we
would have our own building.

39:52.020 --> 39:54.160
Not quite in the way of.

39:54.160 --> 39:58.450
They would come for us and
we would grab what we could

39:58.450 --> 40:02.500
and run off with it in
10 different directions

40:02.500 --> 40:03.960
in order to save it.

40:03.960 --> 40:07.790
But that was kind of the impulse.

40:07.790 --> 40:11.070
And I think that we still
have that impulse now

40:11.070 --> 40:15.623
in terms of having the
material be in our own hands.

40:18.090 --> 40:19.780
- I was tired.

40:19.780 --> 40:21.660
And I was tired of the worry.

40:21.660 --> 40:25.220
And I felt, so when everyone
went home, the door closed,

40:25.220 --> 40:26.980
and there I was with this collection

40:26.980 --> 40:29.450
that had taken over the whole apartment.

40:29.450 --> 40:32.120
I could see the sagging boxes.

40:32.120 --> 40:35.070
I could see what needed work.

40:35.070 --> 40:38.660
There was enough women
who would find a home

40:38.660 --> 40:41.910
for the Archives, so I said
it was time for it to go.

40:41.910 --> 40:44.873
I wasn\'t feeling well,
I was worried about it.

40:46.110 --> 40:48.070
- [Deb] Now the Archives
must look to the future

40:48.070 --> 40:50.240
as carefully as it does to the past.

40:50.240 --> 40:52.170
The Archives has outgrown its current home

40:52.170 --> 40:53.840
in the apartment of one of the founders

40:53.840 --> 40:56.810
and a larger, more permanent
space is necessary.

40:56.810 --> 40:58.680
- [Joan] The time has
come for the Archives

40:58.680 --> 41:01.180
to move to a more professional space.

41:01.180 --> 41:03.690
Our goal is a small, accessible building

41:03.690 --> 41:05.990
close to public transportation

41:05.990 --> 41:09.510
that will house such wonders
as an audio-visual room,

41:09.510 --> 41:11.920
a room for the volunteers
to do their work,

41:11.920 --> 41:15.463
and a humidity-controlled room
for the special collections.

41:16.810 --> 41:18.570
Buildings are available now,

41:18.570 --> 41:20.590
and we need to raise one million dollars

41:20.590 --> 41:22.240
for purchase and renovation.

41:22.240 --> 41:24.490
Here\'s how you can help.

41:24.490 --> 41:27.480
Send a donation, large or small.

41:27.480 --> 41:30.140
If one lesbian gives a million dollars,

41:30.140 --> 41:32.010
we will have a home.

41:32.010 --> 41:35.610
But if one million lesbians
each give a dollar,

41:35.610 --> 41:38.490
we will also have a wonderful home.

41:38.490 --> 41:39.337
- And the money just came in.

41:39.337 --> 41:42.040
The first letter brought in like $60,000

41:42.040 --> 41:44.330
so that was where the money came from.

41:44.330 --> 41:47.090
And it was not from
people with lots of money.

41:47.090 --> 41:49.004
It was from people.

41:49.004 --> 41:52.070
One of the most touching
things was one letter

41:52.070 --> 41:55.450
that we got from a woman
had four stamps in it.

41:55.450 --> 41:57.120
And she had a letter that went along

41:57.120 --> 41:58.890
and she said, you know
I don\'t have any money.

41:58.890 --> 42:01.260
I\'m on welfare and I\'m really poor,

42:01.260 --> 42:02.750
but I really want to help you,

42:02.750 --> 42:04.313
and here are four stamps.

42:05.690 --> 42:08.290
And she got the same thank
you note as everybody else

42:08.290 --> 42:11.610
and I think that\'s what our politics are.

42:11.610 --> 42:14.277
(bird tweeting)

42:15.586 --> 42:19.150
(women murmuring)

42:19.150 --> 42:23.580
- Having a building was
a way for us to solidify

42:23.580 --> 42:27.400
the place for the collection
and metaphorically, then,

42:27.400 --> 42:31.450
to solidify the place
of lesbians in history.

42:34.130 --> 42:36.204
- What do you think, Joanne?

42:36.204 --> 42:37.207
- [Woman] It\'s great.

42:37.207 --> 42:39.903
- [Deb] The space, it was
just, it called to us.

42:43.305 --> 42:44.500
- One of the ways we got a mortgage

42:44.500 --> 42:45.750
was because there was a lesbian

42:45.750 --> 42:47.920
who was a vice president at what was then

42:47.920 --> 42:50.870
Brooklyn Union Gas and
is now National Grid.

42:50.870 --> 42:53.200
And no bank would, why would
they give us a mortgage?

42:53.200 --> 42:56.173
We had no defined income, nothing.

42:56.173 --> 42:58.923
(women laughing)

43:00.153 --> 43:02.552
- The actual moment.
(women cheering)

43:02.552 --> 43:05.622
We did it 17 years later.
(laughing)

43:05.622 --> 43:07.930
- A dream come true.
- Come true, exactly.

43:07.930 --> 43:09.490
- We did something impossible.

43:09.490 --> 43:11.840
When we started the
Archives, from every answer,

43:11.840 --> 43:13.224
said you can\'t do it.

43:13.224 --> 43:15.410
You can\'t do that in an apartment.

43:15.410 --> 43:17.850
And you can\'t, you\'re not librarians.

43:17.850 --> 43:19.030
And you don\'t have the money.

43:19.030 --> 43:22.211
And there\'s no place, and you
don\'t have humidity control.

43:22.211 --> 43:24.253
(women clamoring)

43:24.253 --> 43:28.310
- [Woman] Want to grab a
chair, let\'s go inside.

43:28.310 --> 43:30.120
- [Woman] Here, we\'ll
have reflector back into.

43:30.120 --> 43:32.523
- [Woman] Back up more, back up, Max, up.

43:32.523 --> 43:34.060
- Okay.
- A number above.

43:34.060 --> 43:36.877
Just get in front.
- Here we go.

43:36.877 --> 43:37.710
(flash flares)

43:37.710 --> 43:39.551
- One more.
- I wasn\'t looking.

43:39.551 --> 43:41.428
(women laughing)

43:41.428 --> 43:42.261
(shutter clicks)

43:42.261 --> 43:46.103
- Okay.
- Let Polly get in.

43:46.103 --> 43:46.948
(cork pops)

43:46.948 --> 43:47.927
(women cheer)

43:47.927 --> 43:49.888
- [Woman] Give me, come on girl.

43:49.888 --> 43:52.373
- Did anybody bring glasses?
- I did, I did, I did.

43:53.299 --> 43:55.720
(women laughing)

43:55.720 --> 43:59.183
- Lucky cork.
- I brought the glasses.

44:00.360 --> 44:02.210
- There were concerns that there could be

44:02.210 --> 44:03.710
physical violence to the building

44:03.710 --> 44:05.430
because there was physical violence

44:05.430 --> 44:07.470
to queer people on the streets.

44:07.470 --> 44:10.200
Because we were the first
lesbian organization

44:10.200 --> 44:11.730
to have a free-standing building

44:11.730 --> 44:16.440
we naturally felt that it was risky

44:16.440 --> 44:19.720
and we took measures to keep the building

44:19.720 --> 44:22.900
and our collections safe.

44:22.900 --> 44:25.100
And our visitors safe.

44:25.100 --> 44:29.150
- [Videographer] Well,
construction on the new bathroom

44:29.150 --> 44:32.083
on the first floor started last week.

44:34.870 --> 44:35.720
I\'m going to go downstairs

44:35.720 --> 44:37.470
and see what those girls are up to.

44:39.256 --> 44:41.371
- Elizabeth\'s been here
screwing things all day long.

44:41.371 --> 44:42.204
(women laughing)

44:42.204 --> 44:43.810
- [Videographer] Heard that
screw been going behind there,

44:43.810 --> 44:45.464
just some amazing noises, huh?

44:45.464 --> 44:47.110
She\'s a noisy screwer, eh?

44:47.110 --> 44:48.809
- She\'s very good at finding studs.

44:48.809 --> 44:51.150
(women laughing)

44:51.150 --> 44:52.890
- [Narrator] Hey we got
somebody at the front door.

44:52.890 --> 44:53.830
- I\'ll go get \'em.

44:53.830 --> 44:55.230
- [Videographer] Why don\'t
you go get them from here?

44:55.230 --> 44:58.700
- Yeah.
- Down to the cellar.

44:58.700 --> 44:59.540
- [Woman] Women came in

44:59.540 --> 45:01.660
and did a lot of the work in the house

45:02.764 --> 45:04.314
that we didn\'t have to pay for.

45:06.850 --> 45:08.120
- [Polly] We had great discussions

45:08.120 --> 45:10.313
about how to mark the building.

45:11.297 --> 45:12.915
- It\'s interesting because there\'s layers

45:12.915 --> 45:16.010
and people who come along 10
years ago, five years ago,

45:16.010 --> 45:17.410
one year ago, two years ago.

45:17.410 --> 45:20.657
Everybody has a sense,
this is the way it is.

45:20.657 --> 45:21.740
And there is no is.
(laughing)

45:21.740 --> 45:23.793
And there is no was.

45:24.680 --> 45:26.459
It\'s an evolving process

45:26.459 --> 45:27.960
and that\'s part of what\'s
kept it alive, I think.

45:27.960 --> 45:29.490
- The street address was not public

45:29.490 --> 45:31.450
until well into the \'90s.

45:31.450 --> 45:35.963
And the building did not have
a sign on it until later.

45:36.840 --> 45:41.840
So the process was that you
had to call the 718 DYKE number

45:41.950 --> 45:44.130
to get the street address

45:44.130 --> 45:47.750
and then make your way with
that street address privately.

45:47.750 --> 45:50.630
But we didn\'t even
publish the street address

45:50.630 --> 45:52.843
in the queer newspapers.

45:56.310 --> 45:59.853
- Watching the boxes be packed,

46:01.140 --> 46:03.690
the walls became emptier and emptier.

46:03.690 --> 46:06.193
The apartment became quieter and quieter.

46:08.090 --> 46:11.510
And there was a starkness
of Joan looking at her life

46:11.510 --> 46:15.520
without being, if I may,

46:15.520 --> 46:18.363
the mistress of the Archives.

46:26.210 --> 46:28.360
- Oh my goodness, it\'s that time again.

46:28.360 --> 46:31.430
- [Videographer] It is, once
again, the time in our workday.

46:31.430 --> 46:33.810
- Yes, when we make our public speeches.

46:33.810 --> 46:36.300
Is there enough light, your
little red light is on.

46:36.300 --> 46:37.920
- [Videographer] That
means that you\'re on.

46:37.920 --> 46:40.166
- Oh it means that I\'m on Candid Camera.

46:40.166 --> 46:42.067
- You probably in silhouette there.

46:42.067 --> 46:42.990
- Well I\'ll be glad to go back here

46:42.990 --> 46:45.920
because I\'m getting my hair
cut for the opening on Monday

46:45.920 --> 46:49.150
so it\'s important to see how long it is.

46:49.150 --> 46:51.810
Take a good luck because
it\'s going to disappear.

46:51.810 --> 46:54.640
I\'m trying to make it shorter on the sides

46:54.640 --> 46:55.990
and long on the front again.
- Wow.

46:55.990 --> 46:58.360
- Carolyn always does a good
job, she makes good choices.

46:58.360 --> 47:00.870
But today what I\'m doing,
today is, I don\'t remember,

47:00.870 --> 47:04.073
it\'s one week before
the great grand opening.

47:04.073 --> 47:04.906
- [Videographer] It is the 11th hour.

47:04.906 --> 47:05.739
- It is the 11th hour.

47:05.739 --> 47:06.739
Well, it\'s the 10th hour.

47:06.739 --> 47:08.470
- 10th hour.
- 10th hour.

47:08.470 --> 47:12.080
I am trying to make sense
out of the desks and things

47:12.080 --> 47:14.830
so we will have pencils and
paper to work with very shortly.

47:14.830 --> 47:16.810
- Very important.
- Yay ho.

47:16.810 --> 47:18.690
It was exhilarating,

47:18.690 --> 47:21.520
but as the person
controlling the finances,

47:21.520 --> 47:22.930
not controlling the finances

47:22.930 --> 47:25.463
but taking care of the
finances, if you will.

47:27.470 --> 47:29.280
The worry about, are we gonna make

47:29.280 --> 47:31.133
our monthly payments each month?

47:32.090 --> 47:33.870
Not only did we make our monthly payments

47:33.870 --> 47:36.220
but we were able to pay
off the building early.

47:46.780 --> 47:50.923
- Oh, here\'s the Archive\'s
opening. (chuckling)

47:52.480 --> 47:53.650
There\'s some folks there.

47:53.650 --> 47:56.387
That\'s JP and Sam.

48:00.840 --> 48:04.670
The first day we opened,
we had a huge party.

48:04.670 --> 48:05.780
Everybody came.

48:05.780 --> 48:07.780
We had a little parade down the street.

48:07.780 --> 48:09.337
We had some speeches.

48:09.337 --> 48:11.937
- Thank you.
(people cheering)

48:11.937 --> 48:14.210
Oh, thank you all for
coming to help us celebrate

48:14.210 --> 48:15.933
this glorious day.

48:15.933 --> 48:20.650
(people cheering)
(band flourishing)

48:20.650 --> 48:23.380
This building demonstrates
that lesbians are determined

48:23.380 --> 48:25.410
to mark this world in significant ways.

48:25.410 --> 48:27.470
That we will fight for our lives

48:27.470 --> 48:30.200
and we will accomplish
change on our own terms

48:30.200 --> 48:34.490
and that we will never,
ever allow ourselves

48:34.490 --> 48:38.900
to be hidden, under-valued,
diminished, stepped over,

48:38.900 --> 48:41.305
disparaged or forgotten.

48:41.305 --> 48:43.168
(audience cheering)

48:43.168 --> 48:46.085
(band flourishing)

48:48.140 --> 48:52.090
- Today, June 20th, 1993.

48:52.090 --> 48:57.090
One more step in a proud
history of significant moments.

48:57.940 --> 49:02.320
We have traveled in a
short, almost 20-year period

49:02.320 --> 49:06.690
from a kernel of an idea,
through a Manhattan apartment,

49:06.690 --> 49:10.529
to the first lesbian-owned
building in New York City.

49:10.529 --> 49:15.529
(audience cheering)
(band music)

49:23.653 --> 49:25.224
(band music)

49:25.224 --> 49:26.057
♪ Oh when the dykes ♪

49:26.057 --> 49:26.959
♪ When the dykes ♪

49:26.959 --> 49:28.168
♪ Go marching in ♪

49:28.168 --> 49:29.353
♪ Go marching in ♪

49:29.353 --> 49:34.213
♪ Oh when the dykes go marching in ♪

49:34.213 --> 49:39.040
♪ Oh how I want to be in that number ♪

49:39.040 --> 49:43.040
♪ When the dykes go marching in ♪

49:45.810 --> 49:48.200
- We paraded down the
edge of the park and back

49:48.200 --> 49:51.110
and then we had tour,
after tour, after tour.

49:51.110 --> 49:52.723
People just streaming in here.

49:58.266 --> 50:01.960
- I don\'t think I saw
a single, frowning face

50:01.960 --> 50:06.790
all day long, it was absolutely fantastic.

50:06.790 --> 50:07.800
There\'s a couple of pictures

50:07.800 --> 50:10.220
where you can see all of
our faces except for mine,

50:10.220 --> 50:11.570
because I\'m taking it.

50:11.570 --> 50:16.570
But (laughing) I looked
equally happy, I\'m pretty sure.

50:18.270 --> 50:19.123
I\'m pretty sure.

50:20.127 --> 50:24.127
♪ When the dykes go marching in ♪

50:29.830 --> 50:32.580
- We had Open House for our neighbors.

50:32.580 --> 50:35.660
We told them what it was.

50:35.660 --> 50:38.130
We invited them in.

50:38.130 --> 50:40.773
We heard all sorts of wonderful stories.

50:42.710 --> 50:45.590
We had people who lived in this building

50:45.590 --> 50:49.080
who came and told us the story of

50:49.080 --> 50:54.060
that they were refugees
from Europe in World War II

50:54.060 --> 50:59.060
and they loved the fact
that it was, well, lefty.

51:00.120 --> 51:01.080
They loved the fact

51:01.080 --> 51:03.933
that it was the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

51:26.770 --> 51:31.000
- [Woman] I want to tell
tales of a lesbian life

51:34.073 --> 51:35.073
and I hope I\'m wrong

51:36.457 --> 51:39.870
but I think this life is coming to an end.

51:39.870 --> 51:42.993
And I\'m only 38, and I\'m frightened.

51:45.190 --> 51:49.277
But in 38 years (sighing)
I\'ve learned how to cherish.

51:56.800 --> 52:00.302
And I want to talk about the
wonderful women I\'ve known.

52:00.302 --> 52:01.277
And I want to talk about what
it\'s meant to be a lesbian

52:07.690 --> 52:10.940
and how it was at the core

52:12.240 --> 52:15.023
of all I think that was best in me.

52:22.167 --> 52:23.620
- The point that we were all engaged in.

52:23.620 --> 52:28.030
We were all so eager to
combat lesbian invisibility

52:28.030 --> 52:31.250
that we took risks with what we recorded

52:31.250 --> 52:34.143
and we took risks with what
we left in the Archive.

52:39.840 --> 52:43.040
- One of these is a love me tape.

52:43.040 --> 52:44.348
- Oh.

52:44.348 --> 52:46.032
- And it\'s like, it\'s
like \"never forget me.\"

52:46.032 --> 52:47.140
(women laughing)

52:47.140 --> 52:49.477
Like, \"I\'ll always love you.\"

52:51.204 --> 52:53.304
It\'s kind of threatening,
but pretty funny.

52:53.304 --> 52:54.137
- Kind of threatening?
- Yeah.

52:54.137 --> 52:55.450
- Well I used to trade cassette mix tapes

52:55.450 --> 52:56.522
when I was coming out

52:56.522 --> 52:57.470
because I had an internet girlfriend

52:57.470 --> 52:59.160
and she lived in Ireland.

52:59.160 --> 53:00.690
- That\'s cool.
(women laughing)

53:00.690 --> 53:03.153
- It was like 1997, what
else were we gonna do?

53:13.061 --> 53:14.500
You want to be validated for who you are.

53:14.500 --> 53:16.240
You want to know that you\'re
not alone in the world.

53:16.240 --> 53:18.580
And I think that\'s something
that the archives does

53:18.580 --> 53:21.120
is it ensures that you\'re not alone

53:21.120 --> 53:22.670
and that you have voices from the past

53:22.670 --> 53:24.170
who are echoing your own life.

53:27.650 --> 53:32.180
- Over time, even when Joan was here

53:32.180 --> 53:34.980
and it was harder and harder
for her to get to Brooklyn,

53:36.750 --> 53:38.720
she was a little bit less involved

53:38.720 --> 53:40.193
in the daily activity.

53:41.300 --> 53:42.530
You know, I think different people

53:42.530 --> 53:44.240
had very different feelings.

53:44.240 --> 53:48.803
Some of us were more
saddened by her leaving.

53:52.180 --> 53:55.533
She had held up a lot
of the sky, if you will.

53:57.600 --> 53:59.393
Chicken Little, the sky is falling.

54:00.240 --> 54:02.940
That that was what was going
to happen when Joan left.

54:05.530 --> 54:08.340
- This wasn\'t going to
be a one-night stand.

54:08.340 --> 54:10.470
It was going to be a
long-term relationship.

54:10.470 --> 54:11.910
We had a commitment to the Archives

54:11.910 --> 54:13.960
that one, it had to be
a life-long commitment.

54:13.960 --> 54:16.770
Because just think, if an
archives doesn\'t outlast

54:17.770 --> 54:20.913
at least one generation,
it\'s not an archives.

54:22.080 --> 54:24.230
- I think I was feeling
an increased burden

54:25.080 --> 54:28.770
because I knew then I was
the last of the originals.

54:28.770 --> 54:30.523
Last of the old-timers.

54:41.700 --> 54:44.053
- Yeah, so all these boxes will go to LHA.

54:49.950 --> 54:54.950
After Deb and I separated,
I had several lovers.

54:57.118 --> 54:59.583
But when it went, it was like

55:02.140 --> 55:04.100
life had been ripped from the walls.

55:04.100 --> 55:07.173
It felt so alone in that apartment.

55:09.220 --> 55:12.553
Cello, we\'re gonna trip each other.

55:14.510 --> 55:15.983
Old person and an old dog.

55:17.000 --> 55:22.000
13A, where it all started,
was a marvel of a place.

55:25.960 --> 55:28.433
Because of everyone who
walked through that door.

55:42.090 --> 55:44.833
It was my family, the
only family I ever had.

55:46.990 --> 55:50.863
I think harder than having
it was saying goodbye to it.

55:52.090 --> 55:53.040
That was different.

56:05.890 --> 56:08.940
I, like many ex-pats
who come to Australia,

56:08.940 --> 56:12.560
I never realized the tyranny of geography,

56:12.560 --> 56:15.100
as a famous book has said.

56:15.100 --> 56:17.640
I never realized that I would
be saying goodbye to people

56:17.640 --> 56:18.973
I would never see again.

56:20.350 --> 56:23.700
- Actually, I\'ve been away
for a very long time, so.

56:23.700 --> 56:25.715
- [Woman] We\'re glad to have you back.

56:25.715 --> 56:26.915
(women laughing)

56:26.915 --> 56:30.490
- It\'s very lovely that
the steady, devoted ones

56:30.490 --> 56:32.340
have asked me to welcome you.

56:32.340 --> 56:34.280
This is a very special year for us.

56:34.280 --> 56:36.780
It\'s our 25th anniversary year.

56:36.780 --> 56:38.960
(people cheering)

56:38.960 --> 56:40.910
Really, this place, standing in a place

56:40.910 --> 56:42.670
that created something

56:42.670 --> 56:44.570
that hadn\'t existed in the world before

56:44.570 --> 56:48.470
which was a home for the history
of lesbian lives and loves

56:48.470 --> 56:52.130
to be taken as seriously as
any other body of history

56:52.130 --> 56:55.870
and to really have impact
on all future human history.

56:55.870 --> 56:59.470
So, now there\'s a world-wide movement

56:59.470 --> 57:02.970
of lesbian and gay and
trans and bi archives.

57:02.970 --> 57:06.810
But you\'re standing in really
a place hallowed by a dream.

57:06.810 --> 57:08.170
And the dream was
(cork popping)

57:08.170 --> 57:10.720
when then called us freaks
(women chuckling)

57:10.720 --> 57:12.320
and when they called us criminal

57:13.300 --> 57:17.500
and when they said we
didn\'t deserve to have

57:17.500 --> 57:21.603
a full way of loving, so many
decades and in so many ways

57:21.603 --> 57:25.480
we said no, so this basically
is a place that says yes.

57:25.480 --> 57:28.170
- That was an incredible,
an incredible milestone.

57:28.170 --> 57:31.063
Now it feels like way in the past.

57:32.060 --> 57:34.970
Because we\'ve had a 40th,
and that is amazing.

57:34.970 --> 57:37.240
And in a number of years,
we\'ll have our 50th.

57:37.240 --> 57:38.520
And I\'ll be around still for that.

57:38.520 --> 57:41.163
I may not be as physically
involved all the time.

57:43.480 --> 57:48.480
It\'s allowed me to feel
proud of something I created.

57:50.070 --> 57:51.563
And that\'s quite remarkable.

57:55.170 --> 57:56.193
Makes me cry.

58:00.440 --> 58:01.273
Sorry.

58:02.846 --> 58:05.263
(band music)

58:11.060 --> 58:13.170
- But the people who do come love it

58:13.170 --> 58:14.796
and they\'re out-of-towners.

58:14.796 --> 58:15.629
- It\'s part of their whole day.

58:15.629 --> 58:16.462
- Yes, yes.

58:16.462 --> 58:18.100
- I\'m happy that I\'ve
been here long enough

58:18.100 --> 58:20.600
to see a new generation of people arrive

58:20.600 --> 58:23.190
and participate and
process, and create events

58:23.190 --> 58:28.190
and create new things, because it helps me

58:28.260 --> 58:30.450
to feel less responsibility

58:30.450 --> 58:32.420
in that potentially the same way

58:32.420 --> 58:35.333
that Deb, and Maxine, and Paula must feel.

58:36.194 --> 58:37.683
I hope other people will
come and they\'ll do it.

58:37.683 --> 58:38.516
(laughing)

58:38.516 --> 58:40.602
They\'ll take it on too.

58:40.602 --> 58:43.019
(drum music)

58:48.950 --> 58:51.470
- History is meant to
tell a specific story

58:51.470 --> 58:53.870
that has a specific purpose

58:53.870 --> 58:56.220
for the people who are in power.

58:56.220 --> 58:59.140
So if you don\'t have that kind of power

58:59.140 --> 59:01.240
your story is not going to be told.

59:01.240 --> 59:05.810
And I think that LGBTQ people,
a huge part of our work

59:05.810 --> 59:10.810
is visibility, being
active in communities,

59:11.370 --> 59:13.870
like loving each other,
keeping each other safe

59:13.870 --> 59:17.070
and preserving these histories
is the way to do that.

59:18.884 --> 59:23.884
(\"When the Saints Go
Marching In\" by Lori Scacco)