For the past 16 years the Women’s Education Research and Resource Center (WERRC) in UCD have held what has always been the highlight of the lesbian year – the Lesbian Lives Conference.

In these days of cool-today-tired-tomorrow, it’s amazing that the conference has remained relevant, current and  in touch with what women want to discuss year in year out.

As someone who has attended more Lesbian Lives weekends than I care to remember, it has always bothered me that some women feel that the conference is too academic.

When I put this to Katherine O’Donnell of WERRC, she is mystified; “There was a word out there in cyberspace that Lesbian Lives was ‘too academic’ – but you could only maintain that position if you didn’t actually read the programme”.

This is a fair point, read the programme and you might just be surprised at what you’ll find. The discussions are always entertaining, sometimes raucous things, and you’d be amazed at what you can learn.

This year, the concentration is on lesbian visibility, or lack thereof, in the media, with talks on everything from The L Word to lesbian life in South Africa, to something I’m really looking forward to – a talk on Radclyff Hall’s the Well of Loneliness.

For Katherine, the highlights are, “the South African Women, the programme of nine Irish lesbian video makers – some stunning work. And Emma Donoghue’s new book.”

But it’s not just the workshops and discussions, although the heart of Lesbian Lives, which are the only factor. UCD is hopping all weekend – it’s like pride for lesbians.

Asked to describe the conference to anyone who’s have been and Katherine says, “it’s full of stimulating ideas, friendly people, a warm atmosphere, with a huge mix of academics, activists, artists and none of the above.”

Events like Lesbian Lives are hugely important, they give us a place to talk about our history and our future, our similarities and our differences.

As Katherine says, “I think there could be more solidarity between lesbians in Ireland. Outside of L.inC, in Cork, there seem to me to be very few kindly spaces where lesbians can exchange ideas, information add phone numbers with each other outside a commercial space”. And for that we are eternally grateful.

Lesbian Lives takes places on Feb 13 and 14 in UCD, Belfield.

For more info click here (link opens in a new window.)

Popularity: 1% [?]

No related posts.