Assembling a range of interviews, essays, and conversations, Sisters in the Life narrates the history of African American lesbian media-making during the past thirty years, thereby documenting the important and influential work of this group of understudied and underappreciated artists.

Preface. To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film / Alexandra Juhasz  ix Introduction. The Sisters in the Life Archive Project / Yvonne Welbon  1 Part I. 1986–1995 Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  15 1. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video / Michelle Parkerson  21 2. Narrating Our History: An Introduction / Thomas Allen Harris  26 3. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora / Edited by Raùl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon  29 4. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings / Kara Keeling  47 5. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  51 6. the book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture / Pamela L. Jennings  63 7. A Cosmic Demonstration of  Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice / Roya Rastegar  66 8. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography / Devorah Heitner  92 Part II. 1996–2016 Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  115 9. Producing Black Lesbian Media / Candace Moore  125 10. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman / Karin D. Wimbley 11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes / Jennifer DeVere Brody  160 12. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  165 13. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold / Patricia White  176 14. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making / L. H. Stallings  191 15. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post-Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" / Marlon Rahquel Moore  205 16. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Ree's Pariah / Jennifer DeClue  225 17. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures / Alexis Pauline Gumbs  249 Acknowledgments  261 Selected Bibliography  263 Contributors  269 Index  273  

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf."