“These spaces held much more than social power and places to meet each other,” says indee mitchell, one of the contributors and organizers of Last Call (who does not use capitalization in their name). The team behind it is currently unearthing and performing a musical based on diverse stories about former lesbian bars in New Orleans. Last Call: The Dyke Bar History Project is an oral history and performance project focused on this history. Through the mid 1980s until many closed in the ‘90s and 2000s, there were over a dozen lesbian bars that peppered New Orleans’ streets, though learning what they were like takes some detective work. This scene, however, shines faintly in the past: today, in a city with one of the most concentrated and vibrant gay bar scenes in the country, there are exactly zero lesbian bars left.Īcross the United States, lesbian bars are disappearing at an alarming rate, but there was a time when the lesbian bar scene was very much alive. Away from the prying eyes and very real dangers of the outside world, lesbian bars were cultural centers for many women in New Orleans for decades.
They held hands, they plotted protests they kissed. In the 1970s and ‘80s, hundreds of women in New Orleans, Louisiana found bliss at their local dive bar, swaying to the jukebox amid clinking glasses.
