American LGBTQ+ Museum Launches OLYL Intergenerational Pen Pals Program
Envisioned as a celebration of joy and shared history, the letter-writing exchange aims to build connection between sapphics across generations.
Featured Image: illustration by Veshalini Naidu, courtesy of American LGBTQ+ Museum
“Whether you’re craving community, curious about queer history, or excited to build a meaningful connection with someone from another generation, this program is for you,” reads the invite from the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Dedicated to the joyous preservation and sharing of our histories and stories, this bold new institution has partnered with Old Lesbians documentary filmmaker Meghan McDonough in an exciting initiative to connect lesbians, queers, and sapphics across generations: introducing the OLYL Intergenerational Pen Pals Program.
The idea was inspired by exchanges and sparks that followed screenings of Meghan McDonough’s 29-minute documentary, Old Lesbians, which delves into the making of the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project. The doc incorporates animated narratives from those who lived in a time when they “didn’t have a name” for that thing that, as one elder put it, “used to keep me up until the girl next door came and tucked me in at night.”
The director began to notice a pattern of beautiful moments unfolding in the audience, on panels, and after showings of the movie which prominently features Old Lesbian Oral Herstory founder, Arden Eversmeyer.
Image: from Old Lesbians documentary, courtesy of Meghan McDonough
“I think one of the best parts about the whole process was getting to screen the film in front of audiences,” McDonough tells GO, “And we found from universities to community centers, that the audiences were very intergenerational.” She loved seeing older lesbians chatting with 20-year-olds in college, and appreciated that there aren’t many spaces where that can happen. “I think that planted the seed. I’ve always loved receiving letters and writing letters,” the director says, “and I started thinking about what a pen pal program could look like.”
The screening in New York last year felt like a beautiful encapsulation of everything that she was hoping to do with the film.
Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, Chief of Public Programs & Partnerships at the American LGBTQ+ Museum, picked up on the moment too. Following the screening at the Museum’s “Old Lesbians X Young Lesbians” event in New York City in 2024, she felt the collective energy of something she described as “beautiful and big and wonderful and positive.”
The Public Programs & Partnerships team of Suhaly Bautista-Carolina and S.C. (“Luci”) Lucier joined forces with Meghan McDonough and brought the pieces together for what promises to be a wonderful intergenerational opportunity.
“At the moment, there is a real hunger and a need for intergenerational community building and dialogue,” says S.C. (“Luci”) Lucier, Director of Public Programs & Partnerships at the Museum. “I think this is just such a wonderful extension of the connection that we witnessed in person. It seems to translate into this project in a way that people are really excited about.”
In this time of challenge, connection to lineage and the forging of bonds can make all the difference – in terms of our personal well-being as well as our collective ability to thrive.
In that spirit, Suhaly Bautista-Carolina says that the American LGBTQ+ Museum exists as a space for future activists, a space that might inspire future generations who will fight for LGBTQ+ rights, dignity, care, and community. “Keeping within that tradition means looking back and learning from everything that we’ve made, everything that we’ve done, so that we can understand that there have been other fights along in the movement.”
The project’s artwork was created by Veshalini Naidu, a self-described queer, disabled, Malaysian Indian justice-based multidisciplinary artist. Lavender features prominently as a symbol of resistance, infused with the artist’s will to create a sense of joy in the illustration. Nadu chose a barn owl as the center-piece. Owls make their home in most of the world, according to Naidu, and are known to be queer. The background includes lightly-rendered excerpts of poems and letters from writers such as Mary Oliver, Audre Lorde, and Lorraine Hansberry, a funeral attendee at Marsha P Johnson’s wake.
The pen pal exchange is open to all lesbians, queers, and sapphics (note: this is not meant for romantic connections). Why look for a pen pal? Project creators envision opportunities to mentor/mentee, share/hear stories, cultivate new friendships, learn from differing experiences, and build community.
Here’s how it works: interested participants fill out an online form with contact information, preferred age range for connection, preferred way to connect (email, postal mail, Zoom), etc. Pen pals will be hand-picked based on mutual interests and compatibility.
Sign-ups have been extended through January 19.
The Old Lesbians documentary (running time: 29 minutes) is available to view free on The Guardian website.
