Dyke Dive is a podcast series airing episodes throughout October, culminating in “Fresh On Tap,” a live recording event showcasing a panel of both former and current lesbian and sapphic club owners. Each episode delves into the personal stories and challenges behind iconic and new sapphic spaces. 

The live discussion allows the audience to hear directly from the bar owners and engage with them through a Q&A session, celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit of our community and the powerful role of love in rekindling and revolutionizing spaces where identity, acceptance, and resistance thrive.

“Dyke Dive: Fresh on Tap” will take place at One Gallery in West Hollywood on Friday, October 11, 2024, from 6:30-8 p.m.

This program may not be suitable for all ages.

Panelists

Dr. Marie Cartier, host of Dyke Dive, is a historian, writer, artist, and activist whose work focuses on the intersections of identity, social justice, and spirituality. Her groundbreaking book, Baby You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall explores the important role that lesbian bars played as alternate church spaces for the LGBTQ community pre- and post-Stonewall. As an accomplished artist and ritualist, Dr. Cartier’s work explores the gay bar as geography for social change-making and community building.

Kimberly Esslinger, Dyke Dive podcast producer, loves to tell stories of lesbians and queer women. She directed Homofiles Presents: Baby, You Are My Religion and produced WeHo public access audience favorite, Real Live Lesbian Pulp with Dr. Marie Cartier. In addition to her work in film and media, she is a poet, serves on the Long Beach QFilm Festival planning committee, and is one of the organizers for Dyke March Long Beach.

Mara Herbkersman and Emily Bielagus are the owners of The Ruby Fruit, a strip mall restaurant and wine bar serving the sapphically inclined, located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Opened in February 2023, The Ruby Fruit welcomes everyone and serves as a safe space for not only lesbians, but non-binary, gender-nonconforming and trans people. The Ruby Fruit is the first permanent lesbian bar to have opened in LA since 2017. The wine bar’s name is an homage to Rita Mae Brown’s The Rubyfruit Jungle.

This program is organized by Kimberly Esslinger and Dyke Dive with Dr. Marie Cartier as part of the Circa: Queer Histories Festival 2024, presented by One Institute.

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  Dyke Dive is a limited series podcast hosted by Dr. Marie Cartier, exploring the history and culture of lesbian and queer women's bars in the LGBTQ+ community. Dr. Cartier, author of Baby, You Are My Religion, offers her expertise in a series of interviews and discussions about the significant impact of lesbian bars.

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  One Gallery is an art gallery and cultural programming space operated by One Institute, the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country. Located in the heart of West Hollywood, One Gallery is dedicated to hosting archival and contemporary art installations that showcase LGBTQ+ history. Through partnerships with established and emerging community partners, the gallery also serves as a low-cost, multi-purpose space for community meetings, creative workshops, classes, and other mission-aligned programming.