TITLE | DESCRIPTION | DATE CREATED | IS FORMAT OF |
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Kendra Mon oral history interview recording | Kendra Mon oral history interview recording for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project.
ABSTRACT:
Kendra Mon is Del Martin’s biological daughter, from Martin’s first marriage. She lived with Del and Phyllis sometimes as a teenager and as an adult was in their lives across the rest of their lives. She describes the early decor of the home and her initial impressions of how small it was. She also describes some early parties in the home. Kenrda also describes how the house was adapted to Del and Phyllis’ needs as they aged. In addition, she notes the archival quality of their home, where they collected photos, news clippings, books related to women’s accomplishments, lesbian and gay issues, their own publishing, and records of their lives and activism, stored in the basement and throughout the house. Kendra also discusses how Phyllis’ caregiving was funded through community-based small loans against the assumed resale value of the property after she passed. She describes holidays at their home. Her vision for the house is to move it to some kind of LGBTQ “pioneer village” where it would be a tourist attraction with other well-known LGBTQ people’s homes. Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 | |
Marcia Gallo oral history interview recording [part 1] | Marcia Gallo oral history interview recording [part 1] for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project.
ABSTRACT
Dr. Marcia Gallo, is an activist and professor of history. She met Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon when working for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to fight against state propositions to ban teaching about queer topics and also regulating pornography in the 1970s and ‘80s. Dr. Gallo discusses getting to know Martin and Lyon best when interviewing them for her book on the Daughters of Bilitis lesbian rights organization. She describes spending the most time in the living room and kitchen of their home. She also discusses Martin and Lyon’s memories of earlier times in the home, including parties, closing the curtains of their picture window for protection, writing in the home office, etc. Dr. Gallo suggests that the home would make for an excellent writer’s retreat for grant recipients. She concludes with a discussion of her different relationships with Martin and Lyon, and the ways those relationships evolved over time, particularly her relationship with Lyon after Martin passed away. Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 | |
Marcia Gallo oral history interview recording [part 2] | Marcia Gallo oral history interview recording [part 2] for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project.
ABSTRACT
Dr. Marcia Gallo, is an activist and professor of history. She met Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon when working for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to fight against state propositions to ban teaching about queer topics and also regulating pornography in the 1970s and ‘80s. Dr. Gallo discusses getting to know Martin and Lyon best when interviewing them for her book on the Daughters of Bilitis lesbian rights organization. She describes spending the most time in the living room and kitchen of their home. She also discusses Martin and Lyon’s memories of earlier times in the home, including parties, closing the curtains of their picture window for protection, writing in the home office, etc. Dr. Gallo suggests that the home would make for an excellent writer’s retreat for grant recipients. She concludes with a discussion of her different relationships with Martin and Lyon, and the ways those relationships evolved over time, particularly her relationship with Lyon after Martin passed away. Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 | |
Pauline Shulman and Diane McCarney oral history interview recording | Pauline Shulman and Diane McCarney oral history interview recording for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project.
ABSTRACT:
Pauline Shulman and Diane McCarney were neighbors of Del and Phyllis from 1994 onward, across the street at Newburg and Duncan, three doors down. They had sightlines into one another’s homes from their kitchen windows. Their friendship evolved as Pauline and Diane supported them in their aging. Diane drove them to their 2004 marriage before then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, and they were their escorts to their 2008 City Hall marriage. They tell stories of the longtime goodwill of the neighborhood toward Del and Phyllis going back to the 1950s. They describe how Del and Phyllis politicized them initially through neighborhood politics related to gentrification. They give a lot of details of the furnishings and art as well as how Del and Phyllis used the garden and rooms in the house, including at the end of Phyllis’ life. They also detail the caregiving model in her later years. They describe their walkthrough video of the house after Phyllis passed, which has also been donated. They express interest in the space being recreated in ways that give the rooms “narratives” about its lived-in history for Del and Phyllis as well as an artist-in-residency and lecture/salon program, in a “living and breathing kind of way, not like a stilted sort of museum sort of thing....Something with a community spirit.” Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 | |
Pauline Shulman video tour of the Lyon-Martin House | Pauline Shulman video tour of the Lyon-Martin House, supplemental material for the Lyon-Martin Oral History Project. Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 | |
Kate Kendell oral history interview recording | Kate Kendell oral history interview recording for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project.
ABSTRACT:
Kate Kendell is former longtime (1996-2018) Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and current Chief of Staff at the California Endowment. She met Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon in 1993 or 1994 at an American Civil Liberties Union or National Center for Lesbian Rights event. Soon after she began monthly lunches with them in their home, where they would regale her with stories and history. She discusses the home, the living room with their chairs and the view, and their kitchen nook as special places in the home. She discusses parties from the 1950s and 1960s she had heard about there, including the curtains they would put up so women would feel comfortable dancing together. Kendell also underscores the importance of the outside stairs and position of the picture window from the sidewalk, where she could wave to Phyllis in her advanced age and they would blow each other a kiss. She underscores the parallel of the house’s modesty to Del and Phyllis’s modesty as “how they moved in the world.” Kendell imagines the space being used for LGBTQ and women’s political salons, community conversations, and community gardening. Located at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco, the Lyon-Martin House is the former home of lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) and Del Martin (1921-2008). In 2021, the City of San Francisco designated the Lyon-Martin House a City Landmark in recognition of its association, through Lyon and Martin, with the lesbian rights, homophile, and marriage equality movements. |
2022 to 2023 |