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Preserving the Legacy of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Writing in Los

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Preserving the Legacy of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Writing in Los CSW u p d at e2013 Making Invisible Histories Visible: Preserving the Legacy of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Writing in Los Angeles SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE NEH/MAZER PROJECT, A COllaBORATION BETWEEN CSW, THE UCLA LIBRARY, AND THE JUNE L. MAZER LESBIAN ARCHIVE 1 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF LESBIAN WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS IN LOS ANGELES UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP—be- three-year effort to arrange, describe, Lesbian Archives and the UCLA Li- tween CSW, the UCLA Library, digitize, and make physically and brary, grew out of CSW’s two-year A and the June L. Mazer Lesbian electronically accessible two major “Access Mazer: Organizing and Digi- Archives—is making the materials clusters of collections related to West tizing the Lesbian Feminist Archive related to the history of lesbian writ- Coast lesbian/feminist activism and in Los Angeles” project, which was ers and publishers in Los Angeles writing since the 1930s. Principal supported in part by the UCLA Cen- available for scholars, researchers, and Investigators are Kathleen McHugh, ter for Community Partnerships. This the public. CSW DIrector and Professor in the project processed five collections: The project is “Making Invisible His- Departments of English and Cinema Connexxus/Centro de Mujeres Collec- tories Visible: Preserving the Legacy and Media Studies at UCLA and Gary tion, Margaret Cruikshank Collection, of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Strong, University Librarian at UCLA. Lillian Faderman Collection, Southern Writing in Los Angeles.” Funded in This project, which continues California Women for Understand- part by an NEH grant, the project is a CSW’s partnership with the Mazer ing (SCWU) Collection, and Women 2 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) Collection). The Mazer Lesbian Archives is the sole archival repository on the West Coast dedicated to preserving lesbian and feminist history. Its holdings in- clude over 3500 books, 1000 unique video and audio recordings, and close to a hundred unprocessed. This project will process and make accessible paper collections and re- cordings documenting lesbian political acts and effects in their communities, and materials documenting the lives and literary imagination of this bur- geoning community. In addition to while ensuring the future of the Mazer Finding Aids are available at the Online Archive of California providing crucial materials to humani- and its collections. Currently, the Mazer ties scholars and historians, the project does not have the physical space to will also grow the Mazer’s infrastruc- grow. Moving collections to the UCLA ture, preserving content that exists now Library gives the Mazer the capacity to 3 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 collect new materials and will enhance UCLA’s holdings in two significant areas of interest: LGBT archives and Los Ange- les collections. Scholars and historians throughout the world will benefit di- rectly from the primary research materi- als this project will make available. In this special issue, we share an interview with Ann Giagni, President of the Board of the Mazer, an interview with Angela Brinskele, a member of the Mazer’s Board and a well-known pho- tographer whose photos are included in the Mazer’s collections. In addition, we provide overviews of some of the collections that are now available for researchers. Finding aids for 27 of the collections that are to be processed Finding Aids and digitized materials are available at the under the project are now available UCLA Library’s website. 4 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 through the Online Archive of California Tyger-Womon Papers For more information on the activities (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/) and at the Lesbian Schoolworkers Records of the Mazer, visit http://www.mazer- UCLA Digital Library (http://digital2. Red Arobateau Papers lesbianarchives.org or https://www. library.ucla.edu/mazer/): Lesbian Catholics Together Records facebook.com/pages/The-June-Mazer- Joan Robbins Papers Lesbian-Archives/51347743934?fref=ts Women’s Building Records Ruth Reid & Kent Hyde Papers Daughters of Bilitis Records Linda Farin Papers Terri de La Pena Papers Robin Ruth Linden Papers Diane Germain Papers Marion Zimmer Bradley Papers Marie Cartier Papers Barbara Guest Papers Linda Garber Papers Judy Freespirit Papers Lesbian Nurses of Los Angeles Re- Margaret Amanda Porter Papers cords Broomstick Magazine Records Elaine Mikels Papers Barbara Grier Periodical Collection Bunny MacCulloch Papers Jewish Feminist Conference Records The UCLA Digital Library includes digi- Lesbian Visibility Week Records tized materials as well. Kitty Tsui Papers For updates on this project, visit National Lesbian Feminist Organiza- http://www.csw.ucla.edu/research/proj- tion Records ects/making-invisible-histories-visible. 5 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 INTERVIEW WITH ANN GIagNI President of the Board recalls how her history and the Mazer’s intertwined NN GIagNI demonstrated many to a 10-year stint as a children’s librarian, talents and had various careers including three years at the Alma Reaves Abefore becoming president of the Woods–Watts Branch of the Los Angeles board of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Ar- Public Library. chives in 1996: she trained as a ballerina “I loved that…that was a fabulous job,” throughout high school, studied math says Giagni during an interview over and English at New York University, and coffee at Literati Café in Santa Monica. Celebration of the launch of the directed a production of “Berlin to Broad- “And that’s sort of where my interest in partnership between UCLA Center for the Study of Women, UCLA Library, way with Kurt Weill” that was nominated joining the Archives board came from: and the June L. Mazer Lesbian for a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle my experience being a librarian. And I Archives, November, 2009: left to right, Kathleen McHugh; Ann Giagni; Award in 1986. However, Giagni traces just had an affinity for libraries, even as a Sheila J. Kuehl; Abbe Land; Gary E. her interest in archival work to her love of kid. I used to spend a lot of time in them. Strong; and April De Stefano. libraries as a child, which eventually led I just liked the environment.” 6 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 Although Giagni, an avid reader, was drawn to the quiet spaces and free books offered by libraries, her work in Watts helped her discover the library as a place of social engagement and a way to inter- act with new communities. “[We started] doing activities for the kids because we had a lot of kids that were latchkey kids, so they would hang out…There was a housing project across the street, so a lot of the kids from the housing project would just hang out with us because it describes as “one of the most fun jobs Giagni’s love of books and libraries led her to work for the Los Angeles Public was safe and something to do. We would I’ve ever had.” Library, including three years at the keep them occupied. It was a very, very “When you go to the community Alma Reaves Woods–Watts Branch (above right) and to operate a bookmobile in enriching experience for me, and I think it sites, you’re only there for an hour or South Central and East Los Angeles. was good for the kids, too.” two,” says Giagni. “For that little piece Giagni became even more intertwined of time you become one thread in with the communities of South Central the fabric of that community, and I and East Los Angeles when she operated still remember that. There would be a a book mobile in those areas, which she crowd of people waiting for us when 7 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 we pulled up. They were regulars, and service, but I got to know L.A. really, re- Giagni came into her own as a lesbian and an activist during the boom of we got to know them and we knew ally well.” feminism and LGBT activism that took what they liked. So we were always look- These combined interests in working place in the 1970s. ing for books: oh, this book for so-and-so with communities and archiving and at this stop, and this book for so-and-so disseminating meaningful stories made at that stop. It was a very personalized the Archives an ideal venue for Giagni to 8 MAKING INVISIBLE HISTORIES VISIBLE CSW u p d at e2013 find meaningful work and community. but I never saw two women in a similar health and the way the medical com- Giagni, who was born in 1948, also union.” munity was mistreating us. So there was found herself invested in the Mazer Giagni was at NYU when Stonewall, women’s health, and then there was Lesbian Archives because she remem- one of the major events to raise cultural women’s publishing, and then there was bered a time when lesbians and les- consciousness about gay men, lesbians, women’s music, and then there were bian history seemed to be invisible. and the Gay Liberation Movement, took women’s bookstores, and then there “I grew up in a theater family; my place. However, she wasn’t “out or aware were collectives everywhere. There was dad is a choreographer. I knew about of [her]self” at the time. Giagni came a lot of what was called “consciousness gay guys because my parents would into her own as a lesbian and an activist raising.” It went from nothing to every- have gay male couples over for dinner. during the boom of feminism and LGBT thing so fast.
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