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Season 2, Episode 8

Posted in Episodes, and Season 2

Conservation “On the Natch” at the Alcoholism Center for Women

At the Alcoholism Center for Women (ACW), women regain their lives and claim their space in the world. They also take care of two century-old homes in one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods. Brenda Weathers founded ACW in 1974 to give women—primarily lesbians, mainly women of color—a place to heal. Miracles have taken place there for nearly half a century. Recent grad Lindsay Mulcahy has spent the past few years delving into ACW’s rich history, which she shared with us last year (Sisterhood Is Beautiful, Season 1, Episode 7). In this new episode, she returns to talk about a public history project centering the women of ACW, and how recovery and conservation are more alike than we might think.

Season 1, Episode 7

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

Sisterhood Is Beautiful

In 1974, Brenda Weathers came across a century-old home in Pico-Union, an early Los Angeles neighborhood that had seen better days. She decided to use the rundown residence to help people like her: lesbians with alcoholism. Ever since, the Alcoholism Center for Women has served as a treatment center for women in recovery–most of them lesbian; many of them women of color, living in poverty and/or formerly unhoused. This sisterhood has faced more than the obvious challenges along the way, including an old-fashioned demolition threat with an eye-rolling resolution. In this episode, grad student Lindsay Mulcahy talks with co-host Trudi Sandmeier about the many facets of this fascinating story.