Karen Durbin Papers

This collection contains the personal and professional materials of Karen Durbin, created between 1929 to 2016, and represents her work as a feminist, writer, editor, film critic, teacher, and figure in the journalism community. Durbin’s work and life are represented in a wide variety of formats, including journals, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, research and drafts, recorded and transcribed interviews, published articles, and ephemera from events.

Series 1, Professional life, spans the years 1964-2016. This series documents Karen Durbin’s work as a film critic, her teaching, and her committee service and memberships. Most of Durbin’s published writing present in this series is for Elle, Mirabella, Mademoiselle, or The New York Times. This series includes interview transcripts; recordings of some of these interviews can be found in Series 5. Durbin’s drafts and research reveal her research methods and references, including annotated articles on issues surrounding gender, sexuality, body positivity/acceptance, and self-help. The Professional life series also includes published writing and drafts from Durbin’s early career, such as writing produced as an intern for the Indianapolis Times, as well as syllabi and assignments pertaining to her teaching work at Columbia School of Journalism. The series includes a significant number of press passes to various events between the years 1975-2016, such as Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and New York Film Festival.

Series 2, Village Voice, contains materials created during Durbin’s time at The Village Voice as Staff Writer, Senior Editor, Arts Editor, and Editor-in-Chief, spanning 1975-2002. The years that Durbin served as editor-in-chief for the newspaper (1994-1996) are well documented not only through the preserved press coverage and correspondence regarding Durbin’s work, but also through meeting notes, budgets, and staffing files. Major moments in the history of The Voice documented in the collection include staff unionization (1977), Leonard Stern’s purchase of The Voice (1987), and Free Village Voice (1996)–the newspaper's switch from a paid weekly to a free, alternative weekly. Many of the records in the series are produced by or include Village Voice contributors or executives, such as David Schneiderman, Ellen Willis, Karen Cook, Stan Mack, Nat Hentoff, Clay Felker, Leonard Stern, and Lee Smith.

Series 3, Personal life, is the most heterogeneous series in this collection. This series consists of Karen Durbin’s life and work beyond her professional endeavors, and is organized into five subseries: Education, Photographs, Writing and Journals, Ephemera and Memorabilia, and Books. The Education subseries includes yearbooks, certificates, awards, and programs from her time at Short Ridge High School and Bryn Mawr College. The Photographs subseries holds photos spanning 1929-2010 of friends, family, and Durbin herself. Writing and Journals is the most expansive subseries within the Personal life series, and includes Durbin’s personal writing from childhood to adulthood in varying levels of completion. A large amount of this writing can be seen in a collection of journals and notebooks. The Ephemera and Memorabilia subseries includes materials such as pamphlets, artwork, and works from other writers. The books included in this collection are signed with personal notes to Durbin. This series contains several descriptions of sexual assault as well as the usage of racist language. These materials are found primarily in boxes 27, 28, and 30.

Series 4, Correspondence, contains multiple forms of correspondence between Durbin and a wide variety of people and organizations. Some of the materials represented include postcards; holiday cards; invitations; and letters from readers, family, and friends. There is a significant amount of communication from her time spent in London in the 1970s, as well as with her artistic peers throughout her career.

Series 5, Audiovisual and born-digital materials, contains all of the audiovisual and most of the born-digital materials (apart from one floppy disk, which was grouped with Series 2 Village Voice, Subseries 2) in Karen Durbin papers, and represents the years 1989-2014. This includes audiocassettes with film-related interviews and music (notably from American vocal trio of sisters, The Roches, who are personal friends of Durbin’s), one hard drive, CDs, VHS tapes (mostly taped events that Durbin took part in), and floppy disks. The floppy disks contain both personal and professional writing.