BLSS: Black Lesbian Research Symposium
About this Event
We invite you to hear from and celebrate six Black Lesbian researchers who spent their summer engaging Black Lesbian materials at LHA. This event is open to anyone and will be partially livestreamed for ticketholders via Zoom.
AGENDA:
- Researcher presentations (Zoom livestream available)
- Panel discussion with researchers (Zoom livestream available)
- Researcher breakout spaces (will not be livestreamed - researchers will spread out across LHA to host discussions or small workshops related to their topics. Participants will be free to join any researcher they'd like!)
ABOUT BLSS & THE RESEARCH SALON
Black Lesbian Saturday School is a program hosted by and for Black Lesbians at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Our primary goal is to build stronger community by regularly engaging archival materials that represent the richness of our shared histories. In the spirit of activiating Black Lesbian archival collections, especially those often overlooked, we invited any Black Lesbian interested in archival research to pitch a project for our summer research salon. We selected and trained this cohort of researchers, who selected topics that touch themes of travel, self-love and self-determination, abolition, adornment, sex work, and more.
We hope participants leave the symposium with a greater awareness of what you can find in LHA's large collection, appreciation for the intentional researcher led by the Research Salon cohort members this summer, and perhaps a newly sparked interest for archival research.
RESEARCHER BIOS:
JAYLN COX: Jalyn’s research explores jewelry and adornment as intimate archives of Black Lesbian life. She is interested in how material culture and intentional self-fashioning can reveal histories of memory, identity, intimacy, and legacy. IG: @rawintentionjewlery
KENNY SHILOH RUSSELL: Kenny is studying Black Lesbian survival and self-determination through sex work and labor organizing. Their LHA collection focus largely surrounds that of Wilmette Brown and Black Women for Wages for Housework. IG: @kennyshilohrussell
RACHEL BARKLEY: Rachel is an attorney and anti-domestic violence advocate researching Black Lesbian accounts of DV from the 1970s - 1990s. Her LHA research focuses on Debra Reid’s trial for defending herself from an abuser. IG: @rachebarkley
RENITA JAMES: Renita is interested in understanding belonging and love of self, other, and community. Through performance, she explores: “What does it look like to be a Black Lesbian loving? Being? Belonging?” IG: @renitajam
SERITA SARGENT: Serita’s focus is on expanding information access for incarcerated people & using library services as a means to abolition. Their research at LHA is on Black Lesbian resistance through incarceration; particularly how Black Lesbian love has been a beacon of resistance and hope for comrades inside. IG: @_seritasargent_
SHEENA DAREE ROMERO: Shenna is interested in travel and geographic mobility, especially when it comes to accounts of Black Lesbians moving, loving, connecting, organizing, writing, etc., around the world.
Agenda
🕑: 03:30 PM
Doors Open
🕑: 04:00 PM
Welcome + Researcher Presentations
🕑: 05:30 PM
Panel Discussion
🕑: 06:00 PM
Breakout Conversations + Workshops
🕑: 08:00 PM
Closing
Where is it happening?
USD 0.00
