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Snapshot continues to spread lesbian cheer in 2023! Sinister Snapshot is Sinister Wisdom’s biweekly newsletter with a featurette and lots of links. If you have suggestions for future editions of Sinister Snapshot, send them to info@sinisterwisdom.org.
Received this as a forward? Sign up to get Sinister Snapshot in your inbox or change your email preferences.
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Before Snapshot went on hiatus in the month of January, the Sinister Wisdom team solicited your input on Snapshot. The Sinister Wisdom team has greatly appreciated your feedback — and Sinister Snapshot will continue! Over the next couple of months, the newsletter will pilot some of the suggested changes, but here are the changes that WILL take place:
- Sinister Snapshot will be on hiatus during the months of January and July.
- Starting in March of 2023, Sinister Wisdom will begin to implement segmented email lists. The three email segments will be Issue Emails, Events Emails, and Sinister Snapshot. Customize your email preferences to continue receiving Snapshot.
- Subject lines will be more descriptive.
- Snapshot will get a makeover!
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Local Lesbian Landmark: The Firebrand Books Building
by Lynette Yetter
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The building that housed Firebrand Books, courtesy of the Home Dairy Facebook page.
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This image, and the banner below, were hung in the office of Firebrand Books.
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In October 2022, the Common Council of Ithaca, New York, designated the building where Firebrand Books operated from 1984 until 2001 as a local landmark. This recognition is another milestone in preserving lesbian history through the historic preservation process. Recently, the San Francisco home of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon received a similar recognition as well as a home in Washington, D.C., where The Furies lived.
Nancy K. Bereano, publisher of Firebrand Books, was at the forefront of publishing lesbian feminist anti-racist literature from 1984-2001. Even before the historic landmark designation, Firebrand Books has long been celebrated as a crucial part of lesbian culture. Here are a few highlights of Firebrand’s work:
- In May 1997, Lambda Book Report: A Review of Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Literature published an interview by Kanani Kauka with Firebrand Books publisher, Nancy K. Bereano. The article’s opening paragraph highlights the importance of Firebrand Books to lesbian literature and community:
"Imagine a world without Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel, … A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde, … Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg … You have just imagined a world without Firebrand Books."
- Alison Bechdel’s 2008 blog praises Firebrand Books for being her first publisher and for publisher Nancy K. Bereano personally encouraging her to create her graphic novel memoir, Fun House, which eventually became a Broadway musical.
- The list of Firebrand books is long and impressive and includes many authors familiar to Sinister Wisdom readers including Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clarke, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Pat Parker, Judith Katz, Barrie Jean Borich, and Audre Lorde.
Prior to this designation, Firebrand Books’ building was one of thirty-two stops on Ithaca College’s LGBTQ history walking tour of Ithaca.
Firebrand’s roots are deep in the Ithaca community, and the Firebrand’s archives are held by the Cornell University Library. Interested readers and researchers can contact Cornell to request they digitize anything you’d like to peruse in the Firebrand Books records, 1984-2001.
Historian Dr. Jeffry Iovannone initiated the campaign to declare Firebrand Books building a local landmark for the LGBTQ+ community. News of this monumental designation was reported in The Ithaca Voice and The Advocate, and Ithaca.com published background on the community process leading up to designating the Firebrand Books building a local historic site.
People who spoke in favor of landmarking the Firebrand Books Building at the Ithaca Common Council public meeting include: Firebrand Books publisher Nancy K. Bereano, historian Dr. Jeffry Iovannone, Cornell University Librarian Brenda Marston (who archives all of Firebrand Books’ documents), and the Interim Executive Director of Student Equity and Belonging and Director of the LGBT Center at Ithaca College Luca Maurer. The Ithaca Common Council voted unanimously to designate the Firebrand Books Building a local landmark.
Former editor of Sinister Wisdom Adrienne Rich noted in her 1980 landmark essay “Heteronormativity and Lesbian Existence” that lesbian existence has long been ignored, marginalized, or erased from history. That situation is changing. Many people are working to preserve, honor, and continue Firebrand Books’ important chapter in lesbian history. What other sites of lesbian history (and history-in-the-making) can we collectively work to landmark for posterity?
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Lynette Yetter, MALS, makes music, movies, books and art to touch your soul and make you think. Her most recent book, Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose (Fuente Fountain Books, 2022), introduces Bolivia’s most celebrated writer and lesbian activist to English-speaking readers. www.LynetteYetter.com
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Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose is longlisted for the 2023 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation! Zamudio's birthday is a national holiday in Bolivia. Self-taught, Zamudio was the mother of feminism and women's education in Bolivia and was active for Indigenous people's rights. Several chapters, including the prologue by Bolivian Zamudio scholar Virginia Ayllón, outline Zamudio's biography and the cultural context in which she wrote. Adela Zamudio's celebration of lesbian love and her ironic cultural critiques continue to resonate today.
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Join Sinister Wisdom and previous intern bell pitkin for an exploration of what makes Lesbian art "Lesbian." Four Lesbian visual artists, Verlena Johnson, Hobbes Ginsberg, Liu Jay, and Mi Ok Song will ponder how their work fits into their Lesbian identity and how the theme of Lesbianism functions in their work. This interactive panel will take place on February 21 at 7 P.M. E.T. Register here.
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Join Sinister Wisdom and Charis Books and More on March 2 at 7:30 P.M. E.T. for a discussion and reading of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South. Author La Shonda Mims will be in conversation with Julie R. Enszer. La Shonda Mims considers a constructed archive including feminist newsletters and queer bar guides to explore the complex nature of lesbian life in the South. Mims's work reveals significant differences between gay men's and lesbian women's lived experiences, with lesbians often missing out on the promises of prosperity that benefitted some members of gay communities. Register here.
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Every spring, the Arco Iris community gathers to walk the boundary of the 500 acres of Ozark Wilderness that they steward in a five-day blessing ceremony. This year's Caminata will take place from March 28 to April 2. Their community day will be Saturday, April 1. View a slideshow of the 2022 Caminata.
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While Snapshot was on hiatus, Naomi Replansky died. Replansky was a subscriber to Sinister Wisdom and supporter of the journal as well as beloved to many in the Sinister Wisdom community. Her memory and her poems are a blessing.
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LIBER hosted a panel on feminist publishing. Panelists talk about the necessity of having intergenerational forums to discuss feminist issues, feminist church, internet culture, and various iconic feminist authors such as Zora Neal Hurston. Read the transcription.
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Sarah Schulman writes about Nicole Eisenman’s work in the 1990s, the lesbian places and history behind some of her work, and the bravery of the conclusions she drew in an article published in Artforum. “Nineties lesbian radicality eschewed the causal explanations of both nature and nurture. We just declared ourselves to be.”
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The library is open. It's time we saw more movies, films, and plays taking the art of drag more seriously. Writer Matt Cain references Sarah Water's Tipping the Velvet and Gladys Bentley.
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Read about French icon Collette who pioneered the genre of autobiographical fiction in her home country and whose works are filled with mischievous romance and "immorality."
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Guardian’s poem of the week was written in 1914 by Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva about her relationship with poet and translator Sophia Parnok.
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"Generations is a book about staring history in the face." Lavelle Porter ponders what Lucille Clifton's Generations mean today.
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If you would like to support Sinister Wisdom's thriving Lesbian community, please consider donating or subscribing. Your support is vital to our mission of profiling, supporting, and nurturing Lesbian culture as well as providing educational resources to women and Lesbians. Thank you to our sustainers for supporting the advancement of Lesbian art and culture!
Curated with community, history, and an understanding that every present moment is a nexus of many pasts. May these stories of Queer culture inspire, enthuse, and rouse you to Lesbian actions. We hope you've enjoyed this installment of Sinister Snapshot! Have a lovely weekend.
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