| African American topics | |
|---|---|
|
Political movements
|
|
|
Sports
Negro league baseball |
|
|
Ethnic sub-divisions
Black Indians · Gullah · Igbo |
|
|
Diaspora
|
|
| Category · Portal | |
The Salsa Soul Sisters, Third World Wimmin Inc Collective was the first "out" organization for lesbians, womanists and women of color in New York City [1]. The group is now the oldest black lesbian organization in the United States[1][2] [2].
Contents |
The Salsa Soul Sisters grew out of the Black Lesbian Caucus of the New York City Gay Activists Alliance (GAA)[3], which in turn split in 1971 from the original Gay Liberation Front. They originally called themselves the Third World Gay Women's Association, with the informal moniker 'Salsa-Soul Sisters'.[3]
In 1974 the Black Lesbian Caucus reformulated itself as Salsa Soul Sisters, Third World Wimmin Inc, an autonomous group of Black and Latina lesbians offering its members a social and political alternative to the lesbian and gay bars, which had "historically exploited and discriminated against lesbians of color".[4][5] The Sisters started by "searching out each other, because of the strong needs we have in common" but also to "grow to understand the ways in which we differ."[3]
Original sisters included founders Achebe Betty Powell (then Betty Jean Powell) and the Reverend Dolores Jackson, along with Harriet Austin, Sonia Bailey, Luvenia Pinson, Candice Boyce and Maua Flowers[6][7][8]
Early collective member and activist Candice Boyce noted that, at the time of the group's founding, "there was no other place for women of color to go and sit down and talk about what it means to be a black lesbian in America"[9] The founders hoped to create "an organization that is helpful and inspiring to third world gay women" and to "share in the strengthening and productivity of the whole gay community."[3]
The Jemima Writers Collective was formed by members of the Salsa Soul Sisters to "meet the need for creative/artistic expression and to create a supportive atmosphere in which Black women could share their work and begin to eradicate negative self images."[10]
Salsa Soul Sisters published several quarterly magazines, including Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians (Published c1977-1983)[4], and Salsa Soul Gayzette, (published: c1982)[5][11][12]
The Salsa Soul Sisters, Third World Wimmin Inc Collective has changed their name to the African Ancestral Lesbians United for Societal Change. The group is "committed to the spiritual, cultural, educational, economic and social empowerment of African Ancestral womyn".[13]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||