Getting to the bottom of it
Resources and methods for investigating Philadelphia's lesbian history.
“… of fluidity, of unfinishedness, of an inexhaustible work in progress, which is inherent to the fascination and frustration of oral history—floating as it does in time between the present and an ever-changing past…” – Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories
In August, I attended a panel on documenting queer histories in Washington, DC. The library room was packed with people of all ages, listening to the four panelists discuss their projects spanning different eras and formats. Audience members asked about these recorded histories, and they also asked about preserving their own—what procedures to follow, what objects to keep, how to make their digital footprints easy to follow in future. Someone asked about the challenges to documenting queer history at the Library of Congress under the homophobic Trump administration. Another asked about the ethics of archiving an ex-partner’s volumes of poetry after their death.
Preserving less officious forms of history—not the politician’s speeches, but rather the family conversations, the scrappy flyers, the post-it notes—has long been the work of activists, community centers, and public libraries as well as historians. These sources, considered less reliable documentation in dominant Western historiography, are often those that sustain marginalized memories. The work of finding and preserving them consists not only of remembering the past, but of actively and accurately trying to capture the present. John Anderies, director of the John J. Wilcox, Jr., Archives at the William Way LGBT Center in Philadelphia, told me that he sees a range of people use these archives: not just researchers, but also activists, journalists, community members. Apart from a few collections that the William Way has purchased, most of the materials there are donated. Sometimes, people will donate entire boxes of ephemera after a loved one passes on, even if that person’s name is known to no one beyond their friends and family.
A documented history is evidence of existence.
When We Go Out aims to showcase Philadelphia’s lesbian history through oral testimony. Since the summer, I have been interviewing members of Philly’s lesbian community with involvements dating back to the 1960s. From these life history interviews and from my own reading, I have started to gather the narrative pieces of a larger history. Every week, I’ll be presenting one piece of it in this newsletter—an event, a bar, an article from a lesbian newspaper (expect shorter emails).
This project is certainly not the first of its kind. Below are some of the resources I’ve been using to do my research, and which may be helpful to you if you are curious to find out more about Philly’s lesbian community and/or gayborhood. I’m adding to this bibliography all the time—let me know your suggestions!
Interested in being interviewed? Fill out this form, or send me an email!
Online Sources:
Books:
Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia by Thom Nickels
City of Sisterly & Brotherly Loves by Marc Stein
Smash the Church, Smash the State! The Early Years of Gay Liberation ed. Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Black Lesbian in White America by Anita Cornwell
Archives:
The John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at William Way LGBT Community Center