Narrative and Emerging Media
New Genres Film and Performance
Theatre
Website in development. Check back 11/30
Narrative and Emerging Media
New Genres Film and Performance
Theatre
Website in development. Check back 11/30
See the bars, interviews, and all the queer spaces—karaoke, dorms, games, a futuristic island—documented here.
L-BAR
An Interactive Generative Queer Women’s Bar Storyworld
“L-BAR is an interactive multi-media trip down a very important road, alley, dark street, underground space—the lesbian bar… It is crucial historical art of the highest level.” Marie Cartier, author of Baby, You Are My ReligionL-BAR was a virtual, interactive bar world I created between 2021 and 2023—born out of the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and my deep longing for connection, nightlife, and queer community. Inspired by an experimental space I visited on Ohyay during the IDFA documentary festival in Amsterdam, I set out to build my own generative, story-rich queer women’s bar universe—one where people could hang out, explore, and feel immersed in a shared history.
The project recreated some of the most iconic lesbian bars across time and geography—including Mona’s 440 Club in San Francisco, the If Club in Los Angeles, The Lexington Club, and Le Monocle in Paris. These virtual bars were not just simulations; they were interactive spaces filled with music, performance, queer rituals, and memory. You could sit at the bar, clink glasses with a friend, sneak into the restroom, or watch historical figures like Gladys Bentley or Gertrude Stein perform. It was playful and intimate, yet rooted in cultural history.
Over the course of the project, I conducted oral history interviews with people across the U.S. who had actually been to these now-shuttered bars. Their voices—everyday patrons, bar owners, and iconic figures like Chrystos and Lillian Faderman—were woven into the environments themselves. You could literally sit in a booth or lean on the bar and hear someone tell their story, layered into the space. I called it a “history of the present.”
L-BAR was presented to platforms like Snapchat and USC, and I spoke about the project at institutions including Cal State Northridge, Cal State Los Angeles, Old Dominion, and Michigan State. It was also featured in the inaugural Circa: Queer Histories event by the ONE Archives Foundation.
More than anything, L-BAR was a living archive—a celebration of desire, memory, and queer futurity. It imagined what it means to document from inside the story, not outside of it.
See the bars, interviews, and all the queer spaces—karaoke, dorms, games, a futuristic island—documented here.
All bars will be listed soon.
Paris
Lexington Club
The Lexington Club (San Francisco) 1997 - 2015
Though I had already left San Francisco by the time it opened, I always made a point to visit The Lexington Club when I was back in town. It felt different from the bars I recreated from earlier eras—at the Lex, people wanted to be seen. While patrons of earlier lesbian bars often had to hide their presence, the Lex existed in a moment of visibility, pride, and self-expression. It was a place where gender felt as expansive as San Francisco itself.
Founded by Lila Thirkield in 1997, The Lexington Club quickly became an anchor for queer women, trans, and nonbinary folks in the Mission District. For its recreation in L-BAR, I invited photographer Chloe Sherman, who documented the Lex’s vibrant scene in the late ’90s and early 2000s, to include her work. I also asked queer film historian and curator Jenni Olson to select and frame additional materials that would deepen the storytelling inside the space.
Visitors could sit once again inside The Lexington’s virtual bar, surrounded by photos, energy, and memory—and listen to Lila herself reflect on its founding, its evolution, and the political urgency of queer space. Like the Lex itself, this room in L-BAR celebrated presence, identity, and chosen community at a time when those things felt defiantly visible.
The Sea Colony
The Lexington Club (San Francisco) 1997 - 2015
Though I had already left San Francisco by the time it opened, I always made a point to visit The Lexington Club when I was back in town. It felt different from the bars I recreated from earlier eras—at the Lex, people wanted to be seen. While patrons of earlier lesbian bars often had to hide their presence, the Lex existed in a moment of visibility, pride, and self-expression. It was a place where gender felt as expansive as San Francisco itself.
Founded by Lila Thirkield in 1997, The Lexington Club quickly became an anchor for queer women, trans, and nonbinary folks in the Mission District. For its recreation in L-BAR, I invited photographer Chloe Sherman, who documented the Lex’s vibrant scene in the late ’90s and early 2000s, to include her work. I also asked queer film historian and curator Jenni Olson to select and frame additional materials that would deepen the storytelling inside the space.
Visitors could sit once again inside The Lexington’s virtual bar, surrounded by photos, energy, and memory—and listen to Lila herself reflect on its founding, its evolution, and the political urgency of queer space. Like the Lex itself, this room in L-BAR celebrated presence, identity, and chosen community at a time when those things felt defiantly visible.
Lexington Club
The Lexington Club (San Francisco) 1997 - 2015
Though I had already left San Francisco by the time it opened, I always made a point to visit The Lexington Club when I was back in town. It felt different from the bars I recreated from earlier eras—at the Lex, people wanted to be seen. While patrons of earlier lesbian bars often had to hide their presence, the Lex existed in a moment of visibility, pride, and self-expression. It was a place where gender felt as expansive as San Francisco itself.
Founded by Lila Thirkield in 1997, The Lexington Club quickly became an anchor for queer women, trans, and nonbinary folks in the Mission District. For its recreation in L-BAR, I invited photographer Chloe Sherman, who documented the Lex’s vibrant scene in the late ’90s and early 2000s, to include her work. I also asked queer film historian and curator Jenni Olson to select and frame additional materials that would deepen the storytelling inside the space.
Visitors could sit once again inside The Lexington’s virtual bar, surrounded by photos, energy, and memory—and listen to Lila herself reflect on its founding, its evolution, and the political urgency of queer space. Like the Lex itself, this room in L-BAR celebrated presence, identity, and chosen community at a time when those things felt defiantly visible.