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Old Lesbians Organizing for Change records
LSC.2203
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Old Lesbians Organizing for Change records
Creator:
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2203
Physical Description:
1.2 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1986-1994
Abstract: Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC) is a national organization for lesbians over the age of 60. Using education and
public discourse, the core mission of OLOC is to combat ageism and increase the visibility of older lesbians. The majority
of the materials in the collection are about the 1987 West Coast Conference and Celebration and its planning and programming.
Also included is correspondence between members, as well as people on the steering committee.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are primarily in English, some materials in Spanish.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance unknown. This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) , and the
UCLA Library .
The
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA is an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) , and the
UCLA Library . These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This
partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize,
preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.
[Identification of item], Old Lesbians Organizing for Change Records, (Collection 2203). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Stacy Wood, 2013. Description enhanced and further physical processing completed by Sabrina Ponce, 2017.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language
that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9973847793606533
After the publication of the book
Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging and Ageism by Barbara MacDonald and Cynthia Rich, a group of lesbians was inspired and empowered to start the First West Coast Conference
and Celebration for Old Lesbians in Southern California. The event was held at the California State University, Dominguez
Hills Campus in Carson, California in April 1987.
Out of the group that attended this conference as well as its follow-up in 1989, a group of sixteen lesbians went on to form
an organization. At the first organizational meeting, a name was chosen, a statement of purpose drafted, tasks assigned, a
coordinator designated and future meetings scheduled. The Old Lesbian Organizing Committee (later renamed Old Lesbians Organizing
for Change) had begun.
Participation was strictly limited to lesbians 60 years of age and older. However, OLOC has always welcomed the support of
younger lesbians while maintaining the need for separate space.
OLOC quickly established a newsletter with a national reach and began enrolling members. Early efforts were concentrated on
educational materials on ageism, using familiar and effective consciousness raising techniques. These materials were pooled
and published in
The Facilitator's Handbook: Confronting Ageism: Consciousness Raising for Lesbians 60 and Over.
OLOC was a strong and highly visible part of the National Lesbian Conference in Atlanta 1991 as well as the March on Washington
in 1993.
By 1992, OLOC sought and gained non-profit status, incorporating in the state of Texas. It achieved tax exempt status in 1994.
In 1996, OLOC held its first National Gathering, held on the campus of University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. In 1999, it
held its second gathering in San Francisco, CA. The third was in 2002, again in Minnesota. The conferences are now held every
other year.
OLOC continues to produce a quarterly newsletter called the
OLOC Reporter, coordinate biennial gatherings, participate in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project and produce a line of age-positive,
women-friendly greeting cards.
This collection contains organizational materials for Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC), an organization devoted to
combating ageism through education and advocacy. The majority of the materials in the collection deal with the West Coast
Conference and Celebration, its planning and programming. Also included is correspondence between members as well as people
on the steering committee.
Materials arranged by type and in chronological order.
Barbara Macdonald papers (Collection 2159). Available at Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Elaine Mikels papers (Collection 1954). Available at Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Degania Golove papers (Collection 1984). Available at Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Ester Bentley papers (Collection 1981). Available at Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Papers of Cynthia Rich and Barbara Macdonald, 1893-2004 MC 505. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Aging -- Social aspects -- United States.
Ageism -- United States.
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change -- Archives