Lives of Common Lesbians, a book published by Sinister Wisdom featuring new writing that reflects and honors iconic lesbian and feminist publication from the 1980s CL/LL, short for “Common Lives / Lesbian Lives”, was launched via zoom as part of Los Angeles One Institute “Queer Histories Festival” this year.
What an honor it was for this common lesbian who mostly writes in Spanish to be able to read LAUNDRY -a poem about love, desire and domesticity included in the book- and the poem that inspired it, also included in the book, LIMBO, a piece by Jacqueline Woodson originally published by CL/LL in 1988, the year I started college back in Spain. This writing excercise was an attempt to connect with the sisterhood of Iowa’s 1980s lesbian and feminist movement. I believe I succeeded!
Above is a copy of CL/LL quaterly #28 from Fall 1988 cover and index including Woodson’s poem. You can find other quaterly information and copies in this archive
Everybody say LESSBIANS! Say LESSBIANS!
The lovely evening was attended by over a 100 people, mostly lesbians. What a rush! And it ended, as it is tradition in all Sinister Wisdom’s programing, with music, singing and dancing to the tune of “Everbody say… LESSBIANS”.
The program was also a class on queer women’s collective art, activism and community organization. See it for yourself at Sinister Wisdom’s youtube channel. It was a privilege to be part of this trip down memory lane, a lane that so many other queer women walked before us!
You can purchase the book here
maría mínguez arias 