This event has been ended!
We See Each Other: An Intergenerational Conversation Inspired by the Photographs of Donna Pollach
Event by: Oregon Historical Society
Location: Oregon Historical Society, Southwest Park Avenue 1200, Portland
About event
During the early 1970s, artist and photographer Donna Pollach found community among the feminist and lesbian women of Portland. For over 30 years, she captured intimate moments among women as they worked together to deconstruct and redefine conventional ideas and expectations of womanhood, family, motherhood, and relationships.
In the process, this community developed its own consciousness, established institutions based on feminism and egalitarianism, and began separating from patriarchy to create its own lesbian culture, also called womyn’s culture. At the same time, other marginalized communities experiencing repression — including gay, bi, nonbinary, and transgender people — began to redefine social, political and economic conventions while seeking to be accepted by the mainstream. Decades later, there is interest among many, including the oppressors, to merge these communities together.
Finding shared values and unity among LGBTQIA+ people today remains a challenging goal. This panel discussion — offered in partnership with OHS’s current exhibition, “We Were All Living a Dream”: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Lesbian Feminism through the Photography of Donna Pollach — will offer first-person memories on the life and times that Pollach documented as well as connections and changes from then to today.
In the process, this community developed its own consciousness, established institutions based on feminism and egalitarianism, and began separating from patriarchy to create its own lesbian culture, also called womyn’s culture. At the same time, other marginalized communities experiencing repression — including gay, bi, nonbinary, and transgender people — began to redefine social, political and economic conventions while seeking to be accepted by the mainstream. Decades later, there is interest among many, including the oppressors, to merge these communities together.
Finding shared values and unity among LGBTQIA+ people today remains a challenging goal. This panel discussion — offered in partnership with OHS’s current exhibition, “We Were All Living a Dream”: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Lesbian Feminism through the Photography of Donna Pollach — will offer first-person memories on the life and times that Pollach documented as well as connections and changes from then to today.