Finding Aid for the Marie Cartier papers, 1988-2010

Processed by Stacy Wood, 2011; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.

UCLA Library Special Collections

Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library

Box 951575

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575

Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu

URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/

Descriptive Summary

Title: Marie Cartier papers

Date (inclusive): 1988-2010

Collection number: 1953

Creator: Cartier, Marie, Ph.D.

Extent: 5 document boxes (2.5 linear ft.)

Abstract: Marie Cartier is a teacher, poet, writer, healer, artist, activist and facilitator. She also has a first degree black belt in karate. She currently teaches at the University of California Irvine in the Film Department and at CSU Northridge in the Women's Studies Department. Her poetry is widely published. She has written and published five plays, all originally published by Dialogus Press. An active and accomplished performer, she has gained notoriety with her one woman show Ballistic Femme which explored the identity politics and history of butch femme dynamics and communities. Another project of Cartier's, MORGASM (The Museum of Radical Gender and Sex Matrix), was conceived as a consortium and educational group devoted to exploring and displaying unexplored aspects of women's sexual pleasure and bodies. Included in the collection are published and unpublished examples of her academic work, materials pertaining to her incest survivors' rights activism, and documentation and promotional items for her performances.

Language: Finding aid is written in English.

Language of the Material: Materials are in English.

Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.

Los Angeles, California 90095-1575

Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition

Gift of Marie Cartier, 1991. This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library.

Processing Note

Processed by Stacy Wood, 2011.

Sponsor

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA is an outreach and collection-building partnership between the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library . These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize, preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Marie Cartier papers (Collection Number 1953). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

Biography/History

Marie Cartier is a teacher, poet, writer, healer, artist, activist and facilitator. She also has a first degree black belt in karate. She currently teaches at the University of California Irvine in the Film department and at CSU Northridge in the Women's Studies department.

She has a BA in Communications from the University of New Hampshire, an MA in English and Poetry from Colorado State, an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, an MFA in Film and Television from UCLA, an MFA in Visual Art (Painting and Sculpture) from Claremont Graduate University, and a PhD in Religion from Claremont Graduate University. Her dissertation "Baby You are My Religion" explores the butch-femme community in the Pre-Stonewall era. Much of her academic and performative work focuses on the butch-femme dynamics both in historical context and as an erotic force.

Her poetry is widely published. Many of her poems have been included in publications such as Sinister Wisdom, Heresies, Colorado State Review, Culture Concrete and Central Park as well as being included in several poetry anthologies including Wanting Women and Poetry of Sex.

She has written and published five plays, all originally published by Dialogus Press. Stumbling into Light incorporates monologue, poetry and Greek chorus to explore a woman's healing path from sexual trauma and abuse. Leave a Light on When You Go Out utilizes both drama and humor through the style of performance poetry to deal with issues of violence against women. Freeze Count is adapted from original oral histories conducted with inmates at the Wyoming Women's Center. Close to Home is a more traditional play, humorously exploring the attempt for a mother and daughter to find common ground.

An active and accomplished performer, she has gained notoriety with her one woman show Ballistic Femme which explored the identity politics and history of butch femme dynamics and communities. Another project of Cartier's, MORGASM (The Museum of Radical Gender and Sex Matrix), was conceived as a consortium and educational group devoted to exploring and displaying unexplored aspects of women's sexual pleasure and bodies.

Scope and Content

The Marie Cartier Papers contains her academic work emerging from her time as a PhD candidate at Claremont Graduate University, published and unpublished creative writing projects including plays, short stories, poetry and fiction, flyers from performances for area artists as well as for Marie herself, ephemera from performances, documents relating to the Dandelion Warriors incest survivors work, and personal papers relating to job searches, grants and project proposals.

Also included is a large collection of published books on a variety of subjects as well as a selection of periodicals and organizational publications and calendars.

Organization and Arrangement

Arrangement reflects original order.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

Cartier, Marie, Ph.D. --Archives.

Lesbian authors --California --Archival resources.

Women performance artists --California --Archival resources.

Related Material

Terry Wolverton Papers also housed in UCLA Special Collections.

Container List

Box 1, Folder 1

Bound Plays. 1993.

Physical Description: two bound, chapbook style playbooks

Scope and Content Note

"Leave a Light on When You Get Out" explores issues of violence against women with humor and drama, published by Dialogus Press. "Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are" is a Christmas Carol like play forcing a closeted lesbian lawyer to take a journey with the ghosts of gay and lesbian past (including Joan of Arc). Also originally published by Dialogus Press.

Box 1, Folder 2

Women's Poetry Project. 10/8/1994-8/6/1995.

Physical Description: newspaper clippings; photocopied documents; printed documents

Scope and Content Note

This folder contains Marie Cartier's materials from Terry Wolverton's Women's Poetry Project. Included are a syllabus, studied poetry, notes, new poetry and a newspaper clipping about the poetry of Adrienne Rich.

Box 1, Folder 3

Miscellaneous Poetry. 1994-1996.

Physical Description: printed paper

Scope and Content Note

Miscellaneous poetry representing a two year period, multiple copies of some as well as some poems covered in notes for revision or commentary.

Box 1, Folder 4

Academic Writing from Claremont Graduate University. 1998-1999.

Physical Description: printed paper; photocopied paper

Scope and Content Note

Six papers fulfilling coursework for the PhD program at Claremont Graduate University in Religious Studies with a focus on Women's Studies. Papers contained are listed in the Notes section below.

Additional Note

1. "The Virgin of Guadalupe: Her Impact on Chicana Women, Especially As Seen in the Work of Chicana Poets, Specifically Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros" Fall 1998 for Sex, Gender and Corporeality in Ancient MesoAmerica for Professor Sylvia Marcos 2. "Exploring the Use of Catholic Saints within Vodou and Liberation Theology Especially in Terms of Mary and Guadalupe" Fall 1998 for Intro to Women's Studies in Religion for Professor Karen Jo Torjesen 3. "The Nature of Transcendence Experienced in the Dissolution of Boundaries: Between the Self and Nature versus Between the Self and Another" fall 1998 for Introduction to Women's Studies in Religion for Professor Torjesen 4. "An Intial Attempt to Articulate a Theology of Women's Spirituality, especially as evidenced in" The Feminine Face of God" fall 1998 for Intro to Women's Studies in Religion with Professor Torjesen 5. "Gendering the Argument for Activism Presented in Rauschenbusch's A Theology for the Social Gospel" fall 1998 for Backgrounds in Contemporary Theology with Professor Marjorie Suchocki 6. "What Kind of Person Do You Think a Girl Wants? or Gender Bending and its Theological Implications within Rebel Without a Cause" spring 1999 for Religion and Film with Professor Jack Coogan

Box 1, Folder 5

Dissertation. 2010.

Physical Description: library bound dissertation

Scope and Content Note

"Baby, You are My Religion: The Emergence of 'Theeology' in pre-Stonewall Butch-Femme/Gay Women's Bar Culture and Community" is Marie Cartier's dissertation for the Phd program at Claremont Graduate University. Using over 100 ethnographies of lesbians and their experiences in pre-stonewall bar culture, she explores the sense of community that arose. She also situates the religious implications of a community of people categorized as "a priori sinners", whose options for communal experience was relegated to secret spaces. She also expounds upon the erotic/religious potential of butch/femme relationships.

Box 2, Folder 1

"Don't Tell Anyone." No Date.

Physical Description: 104 page unbound script with notes

Scope and Content Note

A script about a performance artist, martial artist, bisexual dealing with childhood prostitution, her relationships, a recent abortion, a male surfer lover, a sexy female lawyer lover and creating a family. This was Marie Cartier's thesis script for the UCLA MFA program.

Box 2, Folder 2

"For All the Saints" or "Full Moon." No Date.

Physical Description: two unbound copies of script

Scope and Content Note

Script for the story of one woman's journey to healing from incest, and the story of how her lesbian relationship helps her save her life. A never before seen behind the scenes story of love and commitment,women's community, healing, and lots of tie-dye, music, passion, fights,and coming clean out on the other side of hell. Big music festivals, witchy gatherings, rituals, tears and love. A BIG CHILL of sort of...epic... proportions.

Box 2, Folder 3

"Stumbling Into the Light." No Date.

Physical Description: printed script with notes

Scope and Content Note

Unpublished script.

Box 2, Folder 4

Short Stories. No Date.

Physical Description: printed unbound stories

Scope and Content Note

Contains: "Gathering Him Up" and several drafts of "The Kindness Of"

Box 2, Folder 5

One Woman Show Scripts. No Date.

Physical Description: printed unbound scripts

Scope and Content Note

Contains: "Ballistic Femme" a performance about the persistent desire of the butch/femme dynamic, "Let Me Entertain You", "The Blessed Virgin"

Box 2, Folder 6

Dandelion Warriors Materials. 1988-1996.

Physical Description: photocopies of newspaper clippings; poetry, flyers, newsletters, photocopies of published writing and printed writing

Scope and Content Note

This folder contains items related to the Dandelion Warriors, Marie Cartier's project bringing incest survivors together with the pledge that they will not kill themselves. There are flyers for events, poems written by Cartier, articles related to incest issues in the public sphere, press materials, various writings as well as an Anthology of Student Writing edited by Cartier entitled "Writing as if Your Life Depended On It."

Box 2, Folder 7

"Wild Kingdom." 1988.

Physical Description: bound play

Scope and Content Note

A play by Leaf Seligman

Box 3, Folder 1

National Center for Lesbian Rights Materials. 1989.

Physical Description: two bound guides, letters, flyers

Scope and Content Note

Guides providing legal advice to child custody as well as protection for couples in domestic partnerships.

Box 3, Folder 2

Women's Mining Research Materials. 1991.

Physical Description: folder; bound informational packets; business cards; letters

Scope and Content Note

Information from various sources providing background on women in mining, mining practices and technologies and history. One of the letters contained alludes to the materials being used in research for a screenplay.

Box 3, Folder 3

Research Materials for "The Blessed Virgin." 1992-1995.

Physical Description: flyers; bulletins; calendars

Scope and Content Note

This folder contains materials used to research the construction and writing of the one woman performance "The Blessed Virgin." Included are various items from Catholic churches around Los Angeles not limited to church bulletins, newsletters, pamphlets and educational materials.

Box 3, Folder 4

Grants, Project Proposals. 1996.

Physical Description: printed letters and proposals; faxed paper; photocopied paper

Scope and Content Note

Notes, letters of support and descriptions of various proposals and applications for grant money or other support for artistic projects.

Box 3, Folder 5

Flyers and Brochures. 1996-1998.

Physical Description: flyers or varying size

Scope and Content Note

Brochures, flyers, informational packets about gay and lesbian organizations, establishments and cultural events around Los Angeles. Venues include Girl Bar and Highways Performance Space, brochures advertise the services of anything from the One Archives to Tarot card readers.

Box 3, Folder 6

Correspondence. 1997.

Physical Description: printouts of email

Scope and Content Note

A handful of printouts of personal correspondence in the form of email.

Box 3, Folder 7

Power of Attorney and Will. June 28, 1997`.

Physical Description: photocopy

Scope and Content Note

This is the signed and dated power of attorney and will for Marie Cartier.

Box 3, Folder 8

Job Search Materials. 1997-1999.

Physical Description: letters; envelopes

Scope and Content Note

This folder contains letters to and from institutions with academic positions. Also included are letters of recommendation and job listings.

Box 3, Folder 9

Claremont Graduate University Commencement Materials. 2010.

Physical Description: bound commencement program, two small copied photos

Scope and Content Note

A bound commencement program from 2010, the year Marie Cartier was awarded a Phd from Claremont Graudate University.

Box 3, Folder 10

Time Management/To Do Materials. No Date.

Physical Description: handwritten notes, pre purchased printed materials

Scope and Content Note

Notes, memos and schedules having to do with time management.

Box 3, Folder 11

Miscellaneous. No Date.

Physical Description: printed paper

Scope and Content Note

Contains a small treatise "I hate Jody Foster" by anonymous, a description of the art piece "Gay Citizens" by Ron Anderegg, the cover sheet for an excerpt from Cartier's "The Lost Angel Tour", a Dyke march chant, and a letter from the Police Chief E.M. Davis circa 1975 refusing to participate or condone Gay Pride Week.

Box 4

Periodicals. 1988-1995.

Physical Description: published periodicals

Scope and Content Note

Feminist and Lesbian periodical publications spanning almost a decade. Ranging from programming guides for local film festivals to small scale community pamphlets to Ms. Magazine. Complete contents listed below.

Additional Note

Survivor (Guide produced by the LA Commission on Assaults Against Women) 1985 Ms. Magazine January 1988 Ms. Magazine November/December 1990 Ms. Magazine March/April 1991 VOX Winter 1991 Off Our Backs July 1992 Out Magazine January 1993 Ms. Magazine May/June 1993 On Our Backs January 1995 ONE IGLA Bulletin Spring 1995 Christopher Street West Pride Guide June 1995 Deneuve Magazine June 1995 San Francisco Pride Guide June 1995 ONE IGLA Bulleting Spring 1996 DIVA Magazine June/July 1996 Outfest Film Festival Program Guide July 1996 ONE IGLA Bulletin 1997 The Survivor Activist Volume 6, Number 2 – Summer 1998 Girlfriends Magazine August 1999 The childhood Trust Brochure Children of the Night Brochure

Box 5

MORGASM and Miscellaneous. 1991-2002.

Physical Description: ephemera, newspaper clippings

Scope and Content Note

Included in this box are calendars, newspaper articles related to incest or sexual abuse (anything from criminal trials to media impact) and materials for Marie Cartier's performance/installation MORGASM.

Additional Note

MORGASM is a consortium devoted to the exploration of the millenium shift in the dominant gender paradigm. The purpose for which this museum exists is to preserve, display and interpret items from the various collections which make up the consortium. MORGASM operates undera living collections policy, in which the collections' holdings are used and viewed within the communities which MORGASM serves.

| | | | | | | |