ILIS Herstory

Power and Scope

ILIS is expanding rapidly. The organization’s secretariat is rotating. It moves to Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris… The newsletter is reaching more and more people, and activists are travelling to expand their activities across every continent. The autonomous collective Vanille-Fraise [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clit_007] is preparing to hold a major ILIS conference in Geneva. Meanwhile, ILIS members are traveling to Nairobi to attend the third UN World Conference on Women. They intend to openly identify as lesbians at the UN and defend their cause. Featuring, in order of appearance : Sylvia Borren ; Paola Bacchetta ; Evien Tjabbes ; Anne Krul ; Rina Nissim ; Suzana Tratnik ; Lepa Mlađenović Extracts and borrows : Berkeley Library Dialogue in Nairobi [https://avplayer.lib.berkeley.edu/Pacifica/b23306773] ; Laurie Anderson ; Nicol Miquel - Chez Nicole [Chez Nicole. Une histoire de bars lesbiens, à paraître aux éditions Hystériques et associéEs] ; Cindy Lauper The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Beginnings, celebration and Joy

We meet the pioneers of ILIS who, with the support of the local lesbian group Interpot, organised the very first international lesbian conference in Amsterdam. That was in 1980. ILIS began to take shape, published its first newsletters, and expanded its network. It was decided that the next conference would be held in Turin. Up to this point, ILIS is still a subgroup of the I-G-A (which would later become ILGA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lesbian,_Gay,_Bisexual,_Trans_and_Intersex_Association]), but upon arriving in Italy, the issue of independence is on everyone’s lips. How can we create spaces of our own and take the time to build a lesbian community when the goals of some seem to differ from those of others? ILIS splits from ILGA and becomes fully autonomous. Featuring, in order of appearance Evien Tjabbes ; Sylvia Borren ; Haidy Möller ; Paola Bacchetta ; Eva Isaksson read by Sari Kouvo ; Rina Nissim. Extracts and borrows : Teacher Eliane Morissens [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_%C3%89liane_Morissens] ; Foreigner ; Lesbian Nation To go further : some picture from the Turin conference 1981 [https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720316682507/] The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

From the present to the past

We start in 2017 at the annual ILGA-Europe [https://www.ilga-europe.org/] conference in Cyprus. Eighty lesbians come together and decide to form an independent group. And so EL*C [https://lesbiangenius.org/] is born. Propelled by their enthusiasm, the new network announces that it will organise the first ever international lesbian conference. The first? No it is actually not, as a Dutch activist points out - and introduces them to the existence of ILIS, a lesbian network active many years ago. ILIS? But who knows about ILIS [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lesbian_Information_Service]? Apart from those who were part of it, subsequent generations of lesbians have never heard of this exceptional activist network, which has almost been erased from history. But memories and people remain. That is why we set out to meet those who, for 18 years, worked tirelessly to raise the profile of lesbians and defend their rights. Featuring, in order of appearance : Evien Tjabbes ; Dragana Todorovicz ; Joëlle Sambi ; Silvia Yuri Casalino ; Haidy Möller ; Sylvia Borren ; Lepa Mlađenović. Extracts and borrows : EL*C conference Vienna 2017 : History of Lesbian Movement in Europe [https://www.okto.tv/de/sendereihe/queerwatch/video/59dcd38baee66/european-lesbian-conference-2017-history-of-lesbian-movement-in-europe] with Maria von Känel ; Propellerheads ; Meredith Monk ; Adrienne Rich - Planetarium To go further : Some pictures from the Amsterdam Conference in 1980 [https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720316686043/] The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.