Sinister Wisdom 118: Forty-Five Years / A Tribute to the Lesbian Herstory Archives offers some of the founding of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, describing what it meant to walk into an apartment and later into the four-story limestone building where shame became history, secrets became shared connections and complex lesbian, queer histories were enriched by maintaining intergenerational community. As the title suggests, 45 years ago movements of liberation made possible the birth of a new project in the world: the Lesbian Herstory Archives. A grassroots collection, the Archives was intentional about engaging with all facets and complexities of lesbian life, inclusive of diversity in race and gender-identity, from the bar life of the fifties and before, to the lesbian-feminist cultural richness of the mid-twentieth century and beyond, to the gender richness of the twenty-first. This issue honors an Archives that articulates the complexities of how lesbians make our way in the world.

Sinister Wisdom has a limited number of copies of Sinister Wisdom 112: Forty-Five Years / A Tribute to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in the office. If you would like to purchase a copy, please email Julie at sinisterwisdom dot org to arrange to purchase it.

An ebook of the issue is available for sale here.

Sappho's Reading Room and Open Mic:

Full Video of the Joan Nestle Tribute Event (Live Chatlog: PDF version

5-Minute Introductory Tribute to Joan Nestle:

Salute to Joan Nestle from the LHA Archivettes:

Sinister Wisdom 118: Forty-Five Years / A Tribute to the Lesbian Herstory Archives Launch Event:

Featureing Joan Nestle, Deborah Edel, Elana Dykewomon, Lucinda Zoe, Linda McKinney, Morgan Gwenwald, Stefani Echeverria-Fenn, Representatives of Little Rainbows: Alexis Clements, with Catalina Schliebener, Ellen Baxt, Luciana Pinchiero, and Elvis Bakaitis. Hosted by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz with visuals and hellos from LHA Coordinators past and present. Co-sponsored by the Lesbian Herstory Archives, CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies, and the NYU Division of Libraries.

The Archivettes: A Conversation with Megan Rossman:

These videos, and all of Sinister Wisdom's recorded programs, are also available on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/SinisterWisdom.