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The Lesbian Bar Chronicles : The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces
Overview
A grassroots tour of the nation's lesbian bars that illuminates their past, present, and hopeful future, from the co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising Lesbian bars are so much more than a place to get a drink. For over a century, they've acted as community posts, political organizing grounds, and sanctuaries. Yet whereas in the 1980s there were an estimated 200 lesbian bars across the US, the current count sits at a few dozen. In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, author and co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising Rachel Karp embarks across the country with her wife and best friend to chronicle the stories of the remaining US lesbian bars. Recent narratives have claimed lesbian bars are dying, but Karp's group finds many of the places they visit to be thriving, their communities sustaining themselves over decades of change and challenges. Weaving together over 100 hours of immersive interviews with bar owners, staff, and regulars, Karp highlights places like -Chicago spot Nobody's Darling, where readers meet "the mayor" Shirley J, who in the 1970s was instrumental in the birth of house music -Frankie's in Oklahoma City, where readers attend a "family night" to learn how a lesbian bar can birth a chosen family -Redz, a Chicana lesbian bar in East LA involved in the precedent setting court case that followed years of arrests for patrons wearing men's clothing A heartfelt reclamation of queer history and queer lives, Karp's narrative examines how these beacons for community and inclusion can teach us to live openly, cultivate connection, and continue to take up space.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780807023440
- ISBN-10: 0807023442
- Publisher: Beacon Press
- Publish Date: May 2026
- Dimensions: 9.14 x 6.07 x 1.19 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.88 pounds
- Page Count: 280
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In 2020 and 2021, news articles speculated that the few dozen remaining lesbian bars in the U.S. might soon be gone. This concerned Rachel Karp, who had made memories in several of these bars and recognized them as repositories of queer knowledge and records of queer lives. As she puts it, “For centuries, queerness was often a secret taken to the grave. This is why so much of queer history is found not in books, but in bars.” Together with her girlfriend, Jen McGinity (now her wife), and her friend Sarah Gabrielli, Karp decided to take a road trip to visit lesbian bars across the country, seeking out the stories of their owners, employees and patrons. They shared their findings on a podcast, “Cruising,” that the three co-produced. In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces, Karp recounts what they discovered at each of the 20 bars they stopped at, and adds chapters about lesbian bars that no longer exist, but that have left major legacies. These historical chapters are some of the most moving and interesting in the book. One illuminates a Prohibition-era lesbian tearoom run by Eve Adams, a leftist who also worked for Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth. Another captures Chicago’s lesbian nightlife scene from the ’60s to the 2000s, including a party for women of color called Executive Sweet. When booking venues, organizers Patricia McCombs and Vera Washington would tell bar owners that they were planning a sorority meeting. Karp also documents the “Cruising” team’s visits to recent additions to the sapphic sphere, like The Bush in Brooklyn, New York, and the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon. Some of the bars face neighborhood opposition, like Washington D.C.’s As You Are. Others are the subjects of controversy after they’re revealed to have safety issues or mistreat their employees. Reactions will vary to the testimonies of those involved in these incidents, some of which are upsetting. Through all these accounts, however, what stands out is the variety among modern queer spaces and the people who make use of them. Because everyone’s experiences of sexuality and gender are unique and are only a fraction of what makes us who we are, there’s no generalization about queer people that doesn’t crumble to pieces under examination. But in one of our bars, we can bump elbows and buy each other drinks, taking part in rituals we’ve engaged in for at least a century, if you count from Eve Adams’ tearoom. Judging from the new lesbian bars that have opened since Karp wrote The Lesbian Bar Chronicles—like Nashville, Tennessee’s Chapstick—rather than being consigned to history, lesbian spaces are lighting up our future.
In 2020 and 2021, news articles speculated that the few dozen remaining lesbian bars in the U.S. might soon be gone. This concerned Rachel Karp, who had made memories in several of these bars and recognized them as repositories of queer knowledge and records of queer lives. As she puts it, “For centuries, queerness was often a secret taken to the grave. This is why so much of queer history is found not in books, but in bars.” Together with her girlfriend, Jen McGinity (now her wife), and her friend Sarah Gabrielli, Karp decided to take a road trip to visit lesbian bars across the country, seeking out the stories of their owners, employees and patrons. They shared their findings on a podcast, “Cruising,” that the three co-produced. In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces, Karp recounts what they discovered at each of the 20 bars they stopped at, and adds chapters about lesbian bars that no longer exist, but that have left major legacies. These historical chapters are some of the most moving and interesting in the book. One illuminates a Prohibition-era lesbian tearoom run by Eve Adams, a leftist who also worked for Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth. Another captures Chicago’s lesbian nightlife scene from the ’60s to the 2000s, including a party for women of color called Executive Sweet. When booking venues, organizers Patricia McCombs and Vera Washington would tell bar owners that they were planning a sorority meeting. Karp also documents the “Cruising” team’s visits to recent additions to the sapphic sphere, like The Bush in Brooklyn, New York, and the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon. Some of the bars face neighborhood opposition, like Washington D.C.’s As You Are. Others are the subjects of controversy after they’re revealed to have safety issues or mistreat their employees. Reactions will vary to the testimonies of those involved in these incidents, some of which are upsetting. Through all these accounts, however, what stands out is the variety among modern queer spaces and the people who make use of them. Because everyone’s experiences of sexuality and gender are unique and are only a fraction of what makes us who we are, there’s no generalization about queer people that doesn’t crumble to pieces under examination. But in one of our bars, we can bump elbows and buy each other drinks, taking part in rituals we’ve engaged in for at least a century, if you count from Eve Adams’ tearoom. Judging from the new lesbian bars that have opened since Karp wrote The Lesbian Bar Chronicles—like Nashville, Tennessee’s Chapstick—rather than being consigned to history, lesbian spaces are lighting up our future.