The Gender of Desire: Joan Nestle’s Last Interview
The Gender of Desire: Joan Nestle’s Last Interview  
Podcast: Our Dyke Histories
Published On: Mon Dec 22 2025
Description: In this deeply moving and often electric episode, Our Dyke Histories sits with legendary writer, activist, and Lesbian Herstory Archives co-founder Joan Nestle in her last interview as she reflects on the queer worlds that shaped her life in the 1940s–1960s. Joan guides us through her Friday night walks from a condemned Lower East Side tenement to the Sea Colony bar; the dangers and solidarities of queer street life; the violent policing and erotic possibility inside lesbian bars; and the role of race, class, and labor in shaping queer women’s worlds. Along the way, she brings us into Harlem drag balls with Mabel Hampton, the lesbian feminist relationship to the Women’s House of Detention, the labor histories behind Massachusetts’ Moody Gang, and the erotic power of butch-femme desire. This is Joan Nestle at her usual: always generous, political, and brilliant—offering a vivid map of mid-century queer survival and community.**Join Our CommunityWant to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on!Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com**CreditsProducer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack GiesekingCo-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister WisdomCo-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade WaldoAssistant Editor: Mel WhitesellSocial Media: Audrey WilkinsonInterns: Michaela Hayes and Sophie McClainConsulting Producer: Rachel FagenMusic: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.