What Do We Do Next?

Book dedication reads: For Nadine, let's keep sharing our stories. In sisterhood, Rosemary Curb.

From the book Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence edited by Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan

In this last section, we try to evaluate the political nature of book dedications through the question: "What Do We Do Next?"

The previous two dedications have not been explicitly political in nature. Their contents were merely speculative in terms of LGBTQ+ content. However, this dedication explicitly relates to telling lesbian stories. The time in which this book was published was at the height of the Reagan era, so it is clear that Rosemary Curb is directly advocating for other LGBTQ+ women to tell their stories.

This is one of the most exciting book dedications that I have come across because of this call to action. In a time where LGBTQ+ history was at the fore, it was still relatively secretive. Relationships between LGBTQ+ individuals were largely demonized, especially for cis men. The act of known lesbian Rosemary Curb recognizing a need to tell these stories is a powerful testament to the lack of stories being known and told.

As stated in the introduction, these dedications are permanent. They are made in pen ink rather than in pencil. This is a form of permanence that transcends the lifespan of a book. It wants to exist in the future, to not be erased. Just like Rosemary Curb wanted with LGBTQ+ stories.

Halperin says that we need “to reimagine [sexuality] a horizon of possibility, a concrete and changing practice, a way of life that is constantly evolving.” LGBTQ+ identity is constantly evolving. Many times it evades specific categories. But these stories, no matter how many, are important to tell. They reflect an innate need to see oneself in literature. This form of everyday writing recognizes the importance of writing, in all contexts, about LGBTQ+ existence.

We often take for granted the stories that we are able to see today. This has not always been the case for LGBTQ+ people. Kumbier argues that “the decision to collect LGBTQ+ materials, and to create a community space for populations whose lives, histories, and experiences are represented in collections, is a political one.” Even today, this ephemera is political. It marks the existence of queer people in everyday contexts. Their lives are ordinary, but the marks that they have made have created great progress in LGBTQ+ acceptance in the United States.

Great change has occurred. As Sarah Beck states “collective queer archives [are] essential...in that it helps to not only document the ‘stuff’ of queer lives but also capture fleeting and affective moments of queer collisions and becomings” We hope that you were able to collide with these book dedications, connect with their infinite possibilities. Like the permanent pen ink on these dedications, LGBTQ+ people are not going anywhere.

Works Cited:

Halperin, David. “Queer Love.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 45, no. 2, Winter 2019, pp. 396-419.

Beck, Sarah. “‘Doing It’ in the Kitchen: Rhetorical Field Methods, Arts, Practice-Based Research, and Queer Archives.” Cultural Studies, Critical Methodologies, vol. 21, no. 1, September 2020, pp. 16-26.

Kumbier, Alana. Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive, Litwin Books, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/fsu/detail.action?docID=3328242.