Season 5, Episode 3 - The Revolutionary World-Making of the Lesbian and Women in Print Movement
Tune in as Jaime interviews Dr. Julie Enszer, Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, about feminist and lesbian print culture! Enszer, who also serves as editor of the iconic (and longest surviving!) multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, Sinister Wisdom, shares an overview of the history and revolutionary importance of the lesbian and feminist print movement. She delves into how it functioned as a way for women to not only create and disseminate empowering information and shape the cultural production of how women and lesbians were perceived in the 60s and 70s, but also served as an opportunity for women to earn a living at a time when jobs were limited for women.
In keeping with this year's theme of feminist and queer world-making, Enszer explores how women were able to build their own world through their creation of magazines, books, broadsides, and whatever else they wanted to publish that otherwise would have been overlooked by mainstream publishers and how critical it was for these women to be able to "make things and sell things and become economically autonomous."
Listen also as Jaime and Enszer dish on their favorite lesbian literary gossip, something they consider an all-important pedogogical tool. Additionally, Enszer shares about her latest works in progress, a book about the Lamed Vavniks, who are known as the 36 Righteous Ones, whose existence, according to Jewish tradition, determines whether the world as we know it will continue to exist or not and a book of Tahines poems, little yiddish prayers women share in women-only spaces in the Jewish world.
Episode notes
Click here for Dr. Julia Enszer’s latest publications
For the most current issue and back issue copies of Sinister Wisdom, click here
For more information about The Women in Print Movement, see Dr. Jaime Harker’s book, The Lesbian South, check out jaimeharker.com