Panel: I Found My Lesbian Lineages in San Francisco

Celebrate the enduring legacies of San Francisco’s lesbian, transgender and queer counterculture, activism and literary movements of the 1980s and 1990s through a dynamic conversation and a rare presentation of archival images and materials seldom shown publicly. 

In celebration of Pride Month, Villa Albertine San Francisco welcomes radio documentarian, performer and scholar Norah Benarrosh Orsoni alongside acclaimed author, poet and organizer Michelle Tea for an intergenerational dialogue exploring the cultural forces that shaped a transformative era. 

Drawing from Norah Benarrosh Orsoni’s research on lesbian, transgender and queer activism and cultural movements that emerged in San Francisco, alongside Michelle Tea’s experiences as a young writer and community organizer, the conversation will trace a genealogy of queer literary communities and creative networks. Through audio interview excerpts of the 30+ interviews Norah has conducted with key figures of Bay Area lesbian history, as well as archival objects and imagery, the discussion will examine Tea’s lasting influence on the genre and reflect on how the literary and activist movements of past decades continue to shape contemporary queer voices and cultural production today.

Norah Benarrosh Orsoni is a French radio documentarian, writer, performer and social anthropologist Ph.D. She creates hybrid stage works that blend text, sound and image. Her work questions the role of archives and fiction in the reinvention of cultural lineages and collective heritage that connect queer people to their elders. When our history isn’t passed on, what other available narratives do we rely on to shape our identity?

In her multidisciplinary project, Transatlantic Lesbian Genealogies, she researches the little-known history of San Francisco’s lesbian and queer community since the 1980s. She is the author of the film performance A Sudden Wave Of Dykes, and the founder and programmer of Ciné-Gouines, a monthly film series featuring rare queer films made in the Bay Area.

Michelle Tea is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical and auto-fictional works explore queer culture, feminism, class, sex work and countercultural life. Known for the Lambda Award–winning Valencia and PEN/ Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award–winning Against Memoir, she founded RADAR Productions, the Sister Spit tour, DOPAMINE and created Drag Queen Story Hour, influencing generations of queer and feminist writers.