In 2021, I am proudest of all that we did to foster connection. Across time and space, we came together – first as a team, and then as a digital community – to make The Curve Foundation happen.
When we started working on the foundation in May, I wondered what it would be like to start something at a time so concerned with endings. Did people have the energy to begin anything again? Coming together, remotely, to plot and plan about a place where lesbian women could inspire generations certainly felt like a dream at times. As we face 2022, though, I am proud to say that we’ve brought something to bear that is exactly what we dreamed it would be.
Finding Old Friends
I am proud of how we reconnected with our community last year. In September, Franco and our incredible partner Danielle built out the Curve Community – a Facebook group where women and people who saw themselves in Curve could find each other again. Since then, the group has swelled to over 1,500 members and remains a vibrant place for connection and rediscovery.
As a national organization, we wanted to connect (in COVID-safe ways) with as many lesbians, queer women, trans women and non-binary people as we could! We reconnected with old friends and new loves at the Dinah Shore Weekend and Women’s Week Provincetown. Along the way, we met the hair goddesses at Barb, caring and careful film enthusiasts at the Provincetown Film Society, and had a blast sharing space with the Lesbian Bar Project at Lea DeLaria’s fabulous Club.
Surrounding all of it was a renewed sense of connection to the magazine, and we saw that from writers and friends from Curve past, too. We started the year under the watchful eye of former editor-in-chief Merryn Johns, and her interview with Lyndsey D’Arcangelo shone as a testimony to what mentorship, care and good writing can do.
Building New Bridges
Standing in this legacy, then, I ‘m also proud of the ways in which we’ve built new connections with lesbian, queer and trans storytellers.
Sharing space with the first Curve Award cohort is a perpetual lesson in fearlessness, prerogative, and grit. They are journalists of the highest caliber but come to our space with a humility and joy that belies the careers that they ‘ve had.
Just this year, among other stories,Katie Barnes and Yvonne Marquez have written riveting, full-bodied profiles of transgender children and the ways in which our systems continue to fail them; Giulia Heyward has covered everything from the Afghan crisis to the case for reparations in her year at the New York Times. Helen Santoro brought her full self to an in-depth investigative reflection on the fight to get healthcare for her wife. And when all else failed, Shar Jossell offered us incredible tweets and thoughtful commentary on the escapism of this moment in the media. Together, they embody everything we hoped that this foundation would support: authentic stories that cultivate belonging and build on the resilience of this community.
In 2022, we hope to leverage what we learned about connection to bridge new and old stories – reintroducing ourselves as a philanthropic organization, instead of a magazine, and completing our archive. In doing so, our goal is to connect Curve’s legacy as a curator of culture to contemporary conversations about our community. I am looking forward to meeting more of you, in place and digital space, and learning what you hope to see in the work that we do.
In the meantime, I hope this letter re-acquainted you with some fun moments from last year. If you haven’t already, check out an issue of Deneuve or read one of the Curve Award cohort’s articles. We’re so happy you’re here, and we cant wait to get started together.
Sincerely,
Jasmine & The Curve Team
