Book Review: ‘The Lesbian Bar Chronicles’ By Rachel Karp
A revealing and engrossing tour of lesbian herstory, past and present.
Featured image courtesy of Rachel Karp
On New Year’s Eve 2021, Rachel Karp proposed a wild idea to her best friend, Sarah Gabrielli, and her wife, Jen McGinity (then-girlfriend). What if the three of them were to hit the open road and visit every lesbian bar in America? At the time, all signs pointed to a dying culture of lesbian spaces. Reports at the time claimed that only 21 lesbian bars remained in America. But that devastating statistic also made the trip logistically possible.
So they hit the road: McGinity behind the wheel, Karp in the passenger seat booking last-minute motels, and Gabrielli in the backseat coordinating interviews with bar owners and patrons throughout the country. But what the trio found was not a culture fading into obscurity; it was a vibrant and thriving community whose stories were waiting to be told.
Thus, the Cruising podcast was born—an auditory archive of the people, histories, and communities found inside lesbian bars across the country.
“I think the most joyful surprise of the process was that these spaces might ebb and flow in their numbers, but they’re not going anywhere,” Karp tells GO.
As the podcast grew into a vital resource for students, historians, and queer people searching for pieces of their own history, Karp decided to bring the project to the page.
The Lesbian Bar Chronicles is a collection of the stories captured on the road—from discovering the history of Eve’s Hangout in New York, widely considered the first lesbian bar, to Columbus, Ohio, where best friends Marcia and Deb have been running Slammers for decades, and to Nobody’s Darling in Chicago, where you’ll meet regular Shirley J, affectionately known as “the mayor.” The book invites readers inside the sanctuaries that have safeguarded lesbian life for decades.
Weaving together over 100 hours of interviews with staff, bar owners, and regulars, The Lesbian Bar Chronicles travels through the bustling bars of the Northeast, the heart of the Midwestern lesbian scene, the iconic West Coast spots, and the resilient Southern spaces still carving out room for queer community.
With new lesbian bars opening nationwide, this is only the beginning for the Cruising group.
Purchase your copy of The Lesbian Bar Chronicles at beacon.org, find dates for their book tour throughout June at cruisingpod.com, and listen to the first three seasons of Cruising wherever you get your podcasts.
