Where Have All the Dyke Bars Gone?

LISA LUONGO, ERICA LANGHOFF, AND INDEE MITCHELL IN AN PRELIMINARY PERFORMANCE OF ALLEGED LESBIAN ACTIVITIES IN JANUARY 2015 AT THE THEATRE AT ST. CLAUDE, NEW ORLEANS. PHOTO BY MELISA CARDONA.

Where have all the dyke bars gone?

From the 1960s into the ’90s, there were more than a dozen lesbian spaces in New Orleans. Les Pierres, Paulette’s, Charlene’s, Brady’s, and so many more were sites of intimacy and resistance for queer women. Dyke spaces all over the country are disappearing, but here, in New Orleans, the lack carries a specific salience. New Orleans has long been a place of pilgrimage for queer people in the largely conservative South. It is where we could come to finally be ourselves. Now, when we arrive, where do we go to find other people like us? Where do we go to find the people who came before us? Read more