American Women — Lesbians

  • Mendola Report: Mary Mendola and Francis Clayton interviews

    Interview with Mary Mendola, author of “The Mendola Report: A New Look At Gay Couples” [Crown, 1980] and Dr. Frances Clayton, lesbian psychologist and therapist, about Mendola’s survey of gay couples and interviews with and about gay couples. Mendola talks about her use of the word “marriage” to describe committed same-sex relationships and Clayton discusses…

  • The Lesbian Show: July 15, 1980 – Third World Lesbian Writers Conference (2nd annual)

    The Lesbian Show, produced by Donna Allegra, features readings from the 2nd Annual Third World Lesbian Writers Conference in April 1980, sponsored by the Azalea collective and Salsa Soul. Audre Lorde opened the night reading “Need.” The following readers are Imani, Joan Gibbs, Anita Cornwell, Isis, Arisa Reed, Candice Boyce, Chirlane McCray, and Jabu reading…

  • Poetry reading to benefit Out & Out Books

    Blanche Wiesen Cook hosts a poetry reading that took place May 11th of this year (1978) to benefit Out & Out Books, a feminist press. Poets include Charlotte Carter, June Jordan, Sarah Miles, Marilyn Hacker, Patricia Jones, Esther Newton, and Eugenie Urcell[sp?]. Produced by Donna Allegra.

  • Interview with attorney Susan McGreivy on the Norton Sound lesbian purges from the Navy

    Susan McGreivy, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, discusses the present state of the Norton Sound 8 case, where eight women were purged from the United States Navy for homosexuality. McGreivy talks about the evidence being presented against the women in the case as insubstantial and the result of jealousy, as well as the…

  • How Virginia Bought it in California: by Nancy Stockwell

    Nancy Stockwell (1940 – 1999), Bay Area lesbian-feminist author, reads from her semi-autobiographical work How Virginia Bought It in California (unpublished). Contains sensitive language.

  • Majority report, December 23, 1982: Tara Burke, Kitchen Table, Gay and Lesbian studies at UCB, reparations

    Peggy Bray and Ginny Z. Berson host Majority Report, December 23, 1982: Segments: 1. News wrap-up — 2. Peggy Bray reports on sexual abuse of children in light of the Tara Burke case; contains an interview with a survivor of childhood sexual abuse — 3. Ginny Z. Berson interviews Barbara Smith, Black lesbian-feminist activist and…

  • Dialogue in Nairobi / Sylvia Borren; produced by Helene Rosenbluth.

    In July 1985, more than 14,000 women gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the UN’s Third World Conference on Women, which marked the end of the Decade for Women. The conference marked a decided evolution from the 1975 International Women’s Conference in Mexico City, which was dominated by middle-class white women. Sylvia Borren of the International…

  • Women and the world in the 1980s: November 20, 1982-Audre Lorde

    Blanche Wiesen Cook interviews poet, essayist and civil rights activist Audre Lorde (1934-1992) about her new book, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name – A Biomythography (Persephone, 1982), from which she reads excerpts. Lorde and Cook discuss various scenes in the book, including Lorde’s relationship with her mother, her process of becoming a reader,…

  • National march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights (ACTUALITIES)

    On October 14, 1979, ten years after the Stonewall riots, more than 100,000 people from the United States and ten other countries marched on Washington, D.C. for lesbian and gay rights. Pacifica producers in Washington recorded speeches and actualities from the rally, and parts were broadcast live. This second set in the series consists of…

  • May Swenson reads at the Poetry Center

    This is a recording of May Swenson (1913 – 1989) reading from her own work at the YM-YWHA Poetry Center in New York City. On Part 1, Swenson reads Living Tenderly, The Surface, Fountain Piece, The Exchange, The Engagement, Death, Great Smoothener, At First, At Last (introduced as A Diagram of Life), The Lightning, Working…