Description:
The Lesbian Avenger Handbook contains everything a budding troublemaker needs to know. From how to hold a meeting to a step-by-step guide to mind-blowing actions. With new content essential for activists and historians alike.
Brief description: Kelly Cogswell is the director of the Lesbian Avenger Documentary Project and prize-winning journalist whose work has been recognized by the New York Press Association. Her 2014 memoir, Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger (U of Minn Press) was a finalist for the Lambada Literary Award and Triangle Book Award. In 2018, Yale University Awarded her its Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. She speaks frequently as a specialist in community media and social change. She lives in Paris.
Review Quotes:
"The Lesbian Avenger Handbook agitates, instructs, and inspires. It is mandatory reading for all activists, organizers, and everyone who teaches politics, history, gender studies or theater."
Michael Bronski, Author of A Queer History of the United States
"This is an extremely valuable resource for activists as well as historians and other scholars. Witty, bold, and unstoppable, the Lesbian Avengers organized brilliant direct actions to end homophobia and defend lesbian rights. The new expanded version makes clear the lasting significance of the Avengers' model of movement building, which prioritizes developing members' skills and empowering people to make change."
Tamar W. Carroll, Author of Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty and Feminist Activism
"The Avengers' focus on lesbian visibility and survival achieved through attention-grabbing non-violent direct action is as relevant as ever. The communiques, which I had never seen, were fascinating pieces of history, revealing the range of creative, often zany actions through which the Avengers made their name. The LACROP reflections were intriguing, too, for what they revealed about the tensions between urban and rural styles of organizing, documenting a process of erring, reflecting, and coming back stronger. I am excited to use this amazing quasi-historical document in my classes and to share it with comrades, especially younger people just starting out."
Lana Dee Povitz, Author of Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice