Lesbian Testimony Podcast

“When we actually began to unpack these women’s histories, it wasn’t that, perhaps as they initially thought, that oh they only became a lesbian in their forties and fifties when they officially came out, it was quite evident that this had been running as a current in their lives since they were teenagers and that they had ignored it or not understood it and taken the road that most people were moving down for a whole host of reasons.” - Valerie Korinek

For episode 6 we spoke to Valerie Korinek about her chapter in the upcoming 2018 anthology, Beyond Women's Words. We discuss her chapter titled “Locating Lesbians, Finding ‘Gay Women,’ Writing Queer Histories: Reflections on Oral Histories, Identity, and Community Memory” and the issues of naming and identification in the queer community when trying to conduct oral history research.

Watch out for our next episode when we speak to Rebecka Sheffield's collected interviews for her project The Beside Table Archives where she interviewed women about the contents of their bedside tables which lead to many interesting narratives of queer experience.

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To see more from Valerie Korinek check out her website, two recently published chapter contributions, and forthcoming book.

VJ Korinek, “We’re the girls of the pansy parade” Historie Sociale/Social History (2012)

VJ Korinek, “A Queer Eye View of the Prairies” in the A. Finkel, Sarah Carter and Peter Fortna, The West and Beyond: New Perspectives on an Imagined Region (2010)

Forthcoming book:

VJ Korinek, Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985 (University of Toronto Press) forthcoming in Spring/Summer 2018

http://artsandscience.usask.ca/profile/VKorinek#/profile

"Often a person you’re interviewing will take themselves through the emotion, to the other side." - Cameron Duder

For episode 4 we spoke to Cameron Duder about their interview of Shirley Petten who won a same sex benefits landmark ruling against the British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board after the tragedy of losing her partner. We also discuss how to navigate interviewing someone about difficult topics, and how to interview someone you know well.

Watch out for our next episode when we speak to Valerie Korinek on her incredible research of rural queer communities. Specifically we will discuss her chapter titled “Locating Lesbians, Finding ‘Gay Women,’ Writing Queer Histories: Reflections on Oral Histories, Identity, and Community Memory” for an upcoming anthology.

Follow this channel for more great content! Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.

“Gender is both a social construct, a desire, and also what material possibilities impact on it." - Joan Nestle

For episode 4 we spoke to Joan Nestle a long-time activist, educator, and writer who has made landmark contributions to lesbian culture and history. She is the author of Restricted Country, the editor of A Persistent Desire: A Butch-Femme Reader, and the co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, New York. Today we will discuss one of her interviews from the Herstory archive with Mabel Hampton, an African American lesbian born in 1902. We discuss the changes over time of lesbian norms, language and politics and how one's positionality as the interviewer is complicated by our historical limitations.

Watch out for our next episode when we speak to Cameron Duder, about his interview of Shirley Petten who won a same sex benefits landmark ruling against the British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board. Follow this channel for more great content! Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.

Mabel Hampton Tapes

http://herstories.prattinfoschool.nyc/omeka/document/SPW63

Herstory Archives website

http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/

For episode 3 we spoke to Candice Klein, a graduate student in the History department at SFU, about one of her oral history interviews she donated to the Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony through the Lesbian Generations in Vancouver collection. We play a clip from that interview and discuss her current dissertation on "Conflict and the Vancouver Indochinese Women’s Conference of 1971," the clash and convergence of lesbian feminist politics in the 70's, and trans visibility.

Watch out for our next episode when we speak to Joan Nestle, feminist heavyweight and cofounder of the Herstory Archives in Brooklyn! Follow this channel for more great content. Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.

Our guest for this podcast is Ma-Nee Chacaby, a lesbian, two-spirit, Ojibwa-Cree elder from Ontario. We will be discussing her new memoir “A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder,” her LGBT activism, coming into a full understanding of sexual identity, and her involvement in oral teaching how we can preserve oral teaching.

Next episode will speak to Candice Klein, a graduate student in the History department at SFU. We will discuss her new research on the Indochinese Women’s Conference of 1971, lesbian feminism of the 70’s, trans visibility, and more! Follow this channel for more great content. Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.

Music by Tegan Wahlgren

Host Callie Hitchcock talks to Archives of Lesbian Testimony director Elise Chenier for the first episode of Lesbian Testimony: a podcast to encourage greater engagement with lesbian oral records.

Each week we will talk to a donor of the archive about one of their submissions or talk to an oral historian involved in lesbian oral history.

Next episode will be Ma-Nee Chacaby, a lesbian, two-spirit, Ojibwa-Cree elder from Ontario. We will discuss her new memoir “A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder” and much more! Follow this channel for more great content. Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.