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- Title
EVOKING AND DOCUMENTING THE LONDON LESBIAN CLUB SCENE OF THE 1980S AND 1990S THROUGH CLUB FLYERS AND ASSOCIATED EPHEMERA.
- Authors
Griffiths, Katherine
- Abstract
The marginal club scene that Black and white lesbians created in London in the 1980s and 1990s was communicated through word-of-mouth networks, listings magazines, and disposable flyers advertising events across an underground network. These items and ephemera are remnants of a fragile, forgotten, and undocumented scene. Using my own collection of flyers alongside interviews with participants as an ›activator of subcultural stories‹ (Willsteed 2020) the paper uses queer oral history accounts to recollect this neglected history. The lesbian club scene of the 1980s and 1990s was part of London's wider, vibrant cultural and political landscape but existed semi-secretly at the edge of the clubbing world. This covert scene provided a place of relative safety for lesbians to express their sexuality, meet up, dress up, party and dance. Flyers were handed out on the scene, left in bars and clubs and distributed by lesbians to lesbians. A typical flyer from the mid 1980s uses basic technology; a hand drawn, photocopied and urgent delivery of information. As technology developed into the 1990s, the design, execution and production of the flyers became more sophisticated. However, clues to the collective intentions, politics and social setting of the time are imprinted in these residual traces allowing us to remember and affirm life on these margins. The collection of personal archives is of particular significance for lesbians and queers in evidencing marginal lives and affirming identity (Hartman 2019). The predominant accounts of nightclubbing are written by straight, white men where the experiences and contributions of women (Black, white, straight and queer) are relegated or ignored. By sharing this particular history and evoking an alternative narrative this sample of experiences will add to the archive.
- Subjects
LONDON (England); ADVERTISING fliers; BLACK lesbians; LGBTQ+ culture; LESBIANS; SUBCULTURES; LESBIAN culture; LGBTQ+ history; ORAL history; CULTURAL landscapes; PROSPECTIVE memory; NANOIMPRINT lithography
- Publication
Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, 2023, p139
- ISSN
0943-9242
- Publication type
Article