STICKY IMPULSE ARCHIVE NIGHTS ARCHIVE
Sticky Impulse Archive Night
Lavender Conception Conspiracy
Program
Videos
Mixtape
Motherfuckers
Laurel Swenson, 1995
“This is a video about lesbians who fuck lesbian mothers. This is a video about lesbian mothers who feel fucked over.” Short and sharp to get things started.
Lesbian Mothers
Amelia Productions 1981
“Through interviews with young people and their lesbian mothers, this tape explores the social stigmas of being a woman, a single mother and a social extreme – being a lesbian mother in today’s society.” Shot in the tradition of feminist conscious raising and anti-violence work, this video contains explicit discussion of violence against children.
Your Mother Wears Combat Boots
Laurel Swenson 1996
“A defiant montage of testimony, home video and rants, this video confronts the ‘just like straights’ model of middle class lesbian motherhood.” Some things have changed in the 15 years since Lesbian Mothers, and some things have decidedly not.
1-800 Yer Mama
Terra Poirier, 1998
“She cooks! She cleans! She nurtures! It’s Lesbo-Mom! Get yours today! The versatile new accessory for today’s discerning dyke… An embittered little rant on the fetishizing of dyke moms and their kids.” Rounding things out with some pointed advice to those of you interested in your friendly neighbourhood queer mom.
“Opening up the family circle.”
Lee MacKay. Kinesis. (May 1985).
Nestled within a supplement on “Feminism and Motherhood,” this article by Lee MacKay describes a new model of parenting called “Sharemothering.” In its attempts to break down a hetero dyad of parenting, this model speaks to a vein of lesbian feminist thought which attempted to radically re-create family structures (to extremely varied affect.) Available in the Time & Space print collection at the CDMLA, and online through UBC:
Oral history interview with Betsy Spaulding
Betsy Spaulding is a lesbian activist and mother who was involved in the Lavender Conception Conspiracy. This oral history is part of ALOT: the Archive of Lesbian Oral Testimony.
Amelia Productions, 1980.
“This tape documents the events during a Mothers Day Festival organized by a coalition of East Vancouver women’s groups. Wages for housework, senior citizens, lesbian mothers and working mothers in the “female job ghetto” of low-paying and menial jobs are examined and actions discussed.”
This video captures a cross-section of women’s groups in the early 1980s which explicitly places mothering work in solidarity with other labourers and racialized women’s struggles. Worth checking out even just for the glimpses of a pre-2010-renovation Grandview Park.
“Queer and gendered housing: a tale of two neighborhoods in Vancouver.”
Anne-Marie Bouthillette. Published in Queers in Space, 1997.
Analyzes the origins of Vancouver’s two historic gay neighbourhoods (Davie Village in the West End and Grandview-Woodland on the East side) through a lens of housing and human geography. Any insights above regarding the impact of housing on community formation came from Bouthillette’s work.
“To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing”: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives.”
Michelle Caswell, Marika Cifor, and Mario H. Ramirez. The American Archivist, 2016.
Digging into the impact of community archives on those whose stories are held within, Caswell, Cifor and Ramierz illustrate how independent archival spaces can be sites of refuge from the “symbolic annihilation” of popular history and media.
“Lesbians conspire at bringing up babies.”
Angles. 2(2) (Feb. 1985).
This special issue of Angles contains multiple articles on gay and lesbian parenting, including an interview with members of the Lavender Conception Conspiracy. Available in the Time & Space print collection at the CDMLA.
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