“Eine der Lektionen, die ich gelernt habe beim Versuch, mit Geschichte zu leben, ist, dass wir für jede Repression eine geeignete Form des Widerstands fanden. Unsere Geschichte ist die Chronik unserer Lebendigkeit, unserer Leidenschaft, unserer Klugheit und oft unserer Integrität. Wir müssen jetzt einen Weg finden, mit dem wir sowohl das Alte als auch das Neue ehren können. Wir müssen nach Verbindungen suchen, nicht nach Verurteilungen.”
(One of the lessons I have learned in trying to live with history is that for every repression, we found an appropriate form of resistance. Our history is the chronicle of our vibrancy, our passion, our wisdom and often our integrity. We must now find a way to honor both the old and the new. We must look for connections, not condemnation.)
“Begehren und Widerstand” by Joan Nestle, Jewish lesbian fem from the working class, offers profound insights into her essays on liberation struggles and the working-class butch fem(me) community.
The astonishingly timeless texts by Nestle, writer, editor,activist and co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York, show how important (intersectional) activism is – and how powerful lesbian or queer desire is.
The contributions come mainly from “A Restricted Country” (1987) and “A Fragile Union” (1998). Thanks to the excellent translations by Anna Kuntze, Bettina Wind, Desz Debreceni, Johanna Davids and Sabine Fuchs, these essays, some of which are decades old, are incredibly topical.
Nestle, Joan. Begehren und Widerstand. transl. by Anna Kuntze, Bettina Wind, Desz Debreceni, Johanna Davids, Sabine Fuchs. Etece Buch (2024)
Thoughts?