Berenice Fisher and Linda Nathan Marks

These two ladies kindly allowed us to infiltrate their New York apartment to devour Indian food and discuss life successes. Enamoured with their lifestyle, a strong loving lesbian couple devoted to the amazing projects of their careers, the entire class listened intently to their questions and advice given to us in a wise and intellectual manner.

Linda Nathan Marks is the founder of a project called The Crystal Quilt that begun in 1981 based within the women’s movement. She was looking to begin a project that was reflective of the title she chose; “crystal for clarity, light, healing, for multifaceted truth; quilt for warmth, connections between women, for making a beautiful whole out of the pieces of our lives.” (Dear Women newsletter, Spring 1997) The Crystal quilt became a non-profit organization that brought women together in a supportive environment fighting racism, homophobia, ageism and more, allowing the women of the group to grow stronger in their activist pursuits for women’s rights.

Berenice Fisher is a retired professor of Philosophy from New York University and is a published scholar on the experiences of women and other minorities in a phallocentric society. She has worked with the Crystal Quilt and has pursued similar themes in her own way through academics.

Talking to the ladies left me in a state of awe. Though I have grandparents, I have never received advice from any of them and listening to the wise words of two mid seventies feminist lesbians, I felt the generational connection that is often missing in my academic studies. I often have discussions with emerging feminists around my age and mid career feminists who often have a different focus in their interactions with me, but I am missing the wisdom of the older generation. These ladies had decided to focus on the ideas of success and what success means to us, giving us a perspective that we may never have seen before. There is something interesting about talking to someone who has lived a large percentage of their life already; as a young lady it is hard to not perceive life as a hopeful blank slate with many possibilities. These two ladies have already lived their possibilities and were very successful at it in terms of their effect on others.

In gendered exploration of the space, there was a definite feminist theme to our discussions, James being the only man in the room and many of our projects being based in Women’s Studies. The atmosphere was comfortable and feminist; no doubt a reflection of their years of work with The Crystal Quilt working with groups of women like us, which left me inspired and hopeful for my future. Though it was feminine, it didn’t feel exclusive of masculinity, only of patriarchy.

As for the sexuality of the space, the opportunity to enter their home created a wonderful outlook on lesbian life; they have been together for over 25 years and I have never met a long term couple. Seeing that homosexuality that was based in true love (you could see it in their eyes) in the same way I have been exposed to in long term heterosexual couples gave me a different view on lesbian lives. Its not that I didn’t think it possible, it just seemed like a fairy tale because I had not encountered it before.

Linda and Berenice, Thank You.