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The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education will host an exhibition from the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project, lasting well beyond LGBTQ+ Pride season. Outliers and Outlaws: Stories From the Eugene Lesbian History Project opens Sunday, June 8, and runs to Oct. 26, focusing on the community of balabustas—a Yiddish term meaning “mother of the house”—that thrived from the 1960s through ’90s in Eugene.
The private lives and public pursuits of 83 women are represented through photos, archival footage and other artifacts. The exhibition celebrates not only their creative achievements—remembering the bands, plays and community events they organized through the mid- to late 20th century—but their political ones too. A key feature of Outliers and Outlaws looks back on the 1992 Freedom Seder hosted to raise awareness of and opposition toward the infamous Oregon Ballot Measure 9, which would have equated homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality (voters defeated it that fall).
“This story is a model of how to face hard times with courage, creativity and stamina,” said exhibition co-coordinator Judith Raskin, associate professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oregon, in a statement. “Envisioning a future depends on knowing the past. The young women who came to Eugene are now lesbian and queer elders whose hard-won wisdom can offer us guidance.”
OJMCHE’s Outliers and Outlaws programming includes showing the documentary of the same name by Courtney Hermann, which showed at last year’s Queer Documentary Film Festival; a concert by the Portland Lesbian Choir featuring songs by musicians such as Melissa Etheridge, Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman; and a panel discussion around journalist June Thomas’ book A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women’s Culture.
“This exhibition is about more than just telling a story—it’s about creating space for all LGBTQIA+ individuals, including Jewish lesbians, who have often been overlooked," said Alisha Babbstein, OJMCHE’s director of collection and exhibitions, in a statement.
SEE IT: Outliers and Outlaws: Stories From the Eugene Lesbian Project at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 724 NW Davis St., 503-226-3600, ojmche.org. 11 am–4 pm Wednesday–Sunday. $5–$10, free for children under 12 and museum members.