by Ella Stern, with help from Samantha Sapp

In April, we (Ella, a college student and former Sinister Wisdom intern, and Sam and Katie, two local literature-loving lesbians) spent several hours at the Web: a farm in central Minnesota run by the incredible Nett Hart.


Nett is a lesbian activist from St. Paul, Minnesota, who co-purchased the Web in 1980 after she grew interested in women’s land. She lives on the land: farming, making art, and hosting both lesbian events and wandering lesbians passing through.


Immediately upon arrival, we could tell we were in a special, queer space—a place we soon learned was once condemned but salvaged by Nett with her own hands and skills. Each room was painted a different color and decorated with art that Nett and other lesbians had created, as well as ephemera from feminist and lesbian collectives past and present. But greatest of all were the books: one shelf spilled over with books on plants and gardening; another sported feminist and lesbian journals, including every copy of Sinister Wisdom; and Nett’s room was bursting with feminist and queer theory. I asked her how many books were in the house, and she said that she didn’t know, but she had read them all.


We had lunch and dinner with Nett, eating lentils and vegetables that she had grown on her land. We talked about our homes, experiences in Minnesota, experience or lack thereof with okra, and the writing and work we hold dear. Our conversations lingered long after we’d already finished our seconds.


This type of intergenerational queer connection is often missing in the lives of even those in the strongest queer communities. We are not often born into families with other queer people around, and our society is not structured in a way that encourages friendship between people of different ages. Given this, all of us around that table were grateful that we had sought out this connection.


I (Ella) especially loved getting to ask Nett about the feminist lesbian periodicals I saw around her house, her art and writing, and her experiences being queer in Minnesota earlier in her life. I moved to St. Paul for college three years ago, and I had known about the highlights of queer life in the Twin Cities in past decades—especially Amazon Bookstore, a feminist and queer-owned bookstore and community institution—but had lacked the broader context of lesbians who came before me in my new city.


We left the Web many hours later, laden with copies of books that Nett and Lee published, “100 Simple Things You Can Do to End Patriarchy” posters that Nett designed in different languages, some pots for my new basil plant—and an invitation to return and continue the intergenerational conversations we had started.


Note: Nett wants the community to know that print copies of the books she and Lee published (the Almanacs of Lesbian Lore and Vision - Ripening, Dreaming, and Awakening) her book Spirited Lesbians are all still available for purchase. She sells the set of four books for $25, which includes postage as a special to the Sinister Wisdom community. People interested in purchasing can send a check or money order to Nett Hart, PO Box 53, Foreston, Minnesota 56330.

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Ella Stern is a rising senior at Macalester College and a journalist living in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her journalism focuses on the labor movement, and she loves to write and talk about queer spaces and intergenerational queer connection.