The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project.

IN PRODUCTION: UBLEP is a feature-length documentary that will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. Thank You for helping us make our goal on Indiegogo! We are still taking donations to help us reach our 1st Phase Online Fundraising goal of $15,000! Our 2nd Phase is coming soon!

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Storme

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photographed by Avery Willard

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Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014) was a butch lesbian whose purported scuffle with police, many eyewitnesses recount, was the defining moment that incited the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action.  

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POETS & WRITERS🌿✏️ #DianeBogus in a handsome tee printed in the magazine “Sister Source” based in Chicago. Aug 1, 1982. Thanks to @dykebarchi and @kristenkaza for the image and text. #lesbianculture #lesbianwriter #lesbianpoet #dykepoet #qpoc #blacklesbians #chicagodyke #sistersource #fascinatingmidwestlesbians (at Chicago, Illinois)

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Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton: The first person to perform the song “Hound Dog”.

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Audre Lorde: “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”

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“Without Sister Rosetta Tharpe, we wouldn’t have rock and roll as we know it now. Her pioneering guitar virtuosity was fueled by the gospel swinging, shouting, holy-spirit energy of the evangelical church and the blues she heard on Chicago’s Maxwell Street, which crossed each other like crackling live wires in her hands – and boom, we’re at the beginning of the revolution that would later be widely and wrongly attributed, almost entirely, to the white teens and young men who emulated her. “ - Cheryl Pawelski

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Jackie “Moms” Mabley: The first woman to ever perform stand-up at the Apollo Theater.

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Alice Walker: The first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. 

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Here are 10 things you should know about Ethel Waters, born 122 years ago today. Water was a monumental figure in American show business, achieving success in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio, in movies, on television and in the recording industry.

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[journeyoutwards]

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The Beautiful Poet Audre Lorde by Cheyne Gallarde

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Poster for Josephine Baker’s show at the Olympia, Paris 1959. From Roger-Viollet Collection.

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Big Mama Thornton

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Ada “Bricktop” Smith: Cabaret performer, vaudevillian actress, and Parisian saloon owner. 

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Echo of Sappho, Volume 1, issue 2, August/September 1972.

(Below, is some of their interview, from the rest of the page, most of it not pictured above:)

"Bobby and Joan (with their dog, Satellite.)

Bobby and Joan were married in the Church of the Holy Apostle, April 18, 1970. Their wedding was covered by both Life and Post magazine. The story came out in the April 19, 1970 issue of Post. Jet carried an article stating that these 2 women have just liberated themselves by becoming united.

Bobby and Joan reside in a small but attractive apartment in upper Manhattan. Interestingly, their interview with me turned into a serious but unheated debate between each other.

Joan: "Everyone that read the 1970 articles and saw the pictures, recognized Bobby but were not too sure about me."

They expected to get crank telephone calls but actually didn't get any except for Joan's ex-husband. He called the very next day to put in his dig.

When they were recognized on the street, people would say, (A waiter in a restaurant,) "That was a brave thing to do." Most would say, "Be happy," or, "I'm glad someone brought it out," or, "How has married life been?"

Bobby: "These have been mostly straight men. There have been no negative marks made, at least to our faces."

Joan: "They recognize HER but not me."

Bobby: "That's because I'm more distinguishable I guess, because I'm a butch and so short."

Joan: "Some people have thought that she is my son."

Bobby: "I am very short. That makes Joan look like a giant, but she's not. We work it out though..."

They knew each other 6 months before they were joined. They met at an employment agency, both looking for work. In their wedding album, Bobby has written, "Two wonderful days of marital bliss. We feel as if we've just begun again. We feel new with different and deeper insight being placed with- in our daily routine- WE are beautiful.""

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Cheryl Dunye: The first self-identified black lesbian to direct a narrative feature.