Please join us for a warm, intergenerational online conversation between the QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU, Bengaluru, and the Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York City, on 4 March 2023 at 5:30 PM (IST).

We are delighted to be speaking with Joan Nestle, co-founder of the LHA, whose infectious energy, generosity, and passionate writing has made this event possible. We will talk about the emergence and role of independent archives in activism, memory and change in social movements, and new challenges such as archiving intangible feelings.

Register here for the Zoom link.

EVENT

• Joan Nestle reflects on the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
• LHA archivists Saskia Scheffer and Olivia Newsome take us on a special online tour of the building and collections, a labour of love that spans nearly 50 years.
• Open discussion with reflections by Jaya Sharma, Flavia Rando and Amy Beth.

Joan Nestle (born 1940) is a working-class Jewish lesbian, writer, editor, teacher, activist and co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City. She is the author of A Restricted Country, winner of an American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award, and A Fragile Union, A Lambda Literary Award recipient. She has edited over a dozen award-winning collections. She lives in Australia with her love, Di Otto. Her most recent book is A Sturdy Yes of a People: Selected Writings (Sinister Wisdom, 2022)

Flavia Rando and Amy Beth are archivists at the LHA.

Jaya Sharma is a queer, kinky feminist activist and writer.

 

About the Archives

The Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA), founded in 2017, is a multi-media archival project at the NLSIU that chronicles and preserves the memories and reflections of queer persons in India.

Visit us at qamra.in and on Instagram

The Lesbian Herstory Archives was founded in the 1970s when a group of women involved in the Gay Academic Union realized that Lesbian history was “disappearing as quickly as it was being made.” Their mission is to gather and preserve records of Lesbian lives and activities so that future generations will have ready access to materials relevant to their lives.

Visit the LHA at https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org and on Instagram

This event will be recorded.