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\u201cThis exhibit will give our community an opportunity to immerse themselves in decades of momentous LGBTQ history,\u201d London Jones, community outreach and operations manager at The Center, said. \u201cThe \u2018Out of the Box\u2019 exhibit highlights lesbians who have pushed through both individual and collective adversity to actualize vibrant lives full of love, friendship, and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Meyer and Larson\u2019s 50th anniversary, the couple held a party described by curator and friend Angela Brinskele as their “coming out.\u201d The couple\u2019s story is just one of many highlighted throughout the exhibit which show how love, whether romantic, friendly, for self or community-wide, perseveres despite political and social obstacles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know our community members will be just as ecstatic as we are for this beautiful collection, and will see themselves reflected in a legacy of strength and hope,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Other highlights include photos from Marie Cartier and Kimberly Esslinger, who married in 2008 before same-sex marriage was made illegal with the passing of Prop 8 in California. The two spent their honeymoon protesting for marriage equality.<\/p>\n
Also represented is the Southern California Women for Understanding, which had hundreds of members during its run from 1976 to 1999 and was described in 1982 as the \u201clargest lesbian support group in the country\u201d by Lesbian News.<\/p>\n Curated by Brinskele, the archives\u2019 director of communications, alongside Julie Botnick, Breann Kramer and Suzette Zazueta, the exhibit shows a selection of items that span nearly a century.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that people will see how regular everyday feminist and lesbian women\u2019s lives of the past were actually extraordinary,\u201d said Brinskele, a photographer in her own right and a longtime member of the Long Beach women\u2019s community. \u201c[The Center] is only the second place it\u2019s being exhibited, but Berlin is interested in having it next and then we would love it to go to London as well as the West Hollywood Library.\u201d<\/p>\n Founded in 1981 in Oakland, the Mazer archives were moved to Southern California four years later and into the Werle Building where \u201cOut of the Box\u201d was first shown in the Fall. For the past 37 years, the Archive has been run by volunteers with support from private donors and the City of West Hollywood.<\/p>\n Two of the couples who gave collections to the Archives, Meyer and Larson, Cartier and Esslinger, are expected to attend the opening reception.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southern-California-Women-for-Understanding_SCWU_1970sEra-970x673.jpg\")
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