D.C. DYKARIES is seeking lesbians, sapphics, and women who love women to share oral histories about lesbian spaces, places, and groups in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area!
Do you have stories about Dyke Night at the D.C. Eagle? We wanna hear about it.
How about the first time you saw a drag king show at Club Chaos? We wanna hear about it.
What about the night you walked into a lesbian bar for the first time and found your people? Yup, we wanna hear about it!
Your journey as a nonbinary/trans lesbian in cisgender female lesbian spaces? Definitely wanna hear about that!
Were you a Lesbian Avenger? We want to talk to you!
Your identity as an intersectional lesbian/Sapphic human and how you have/haven’t found a place where you feel comfortable? Uh, yes, sign us up to listen to that!
Did you work at Phase or another lesbian bar? We want to interview you!
Want to be a part of recording D.C.’s lesbian/Sapphic history? Interested in telling your story? Drop us a line at dcdykaries@gmail.com with the subject line ‘DYKARIES INTERVIEW’ and we’ll work with you to schedule an interview. There are three interview options (audio-only, audio-visual, and written), and we’ll work with you to find the best option for you!
Our only criteria:
You have gone to a lesbian/Sapphic space or place in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area
You are a part of or have been a part of a lesbian/Sapphic group in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area
You are comfortable being interviewed in person or over the internet on an audio call
BONUS you identify as some flavor of lesbian, Sapphic, or wlw (not required, as many different kinds of people have inhabited these spaces over the years)
TAG FRIENDS AND FAMILY who might be interested or have a story to tell! Please share and spread the word!
D.C. Dykaries is a collaboration between B. Williams and T. M Kuta (Ty) to create a record of Washington D.C.’s lesbian/Sapphic spaces, places, and groups, as told by the people who were there.
DC Dykaries started as Ty’s Master’s thesis until B. approached them with the idea to collaborate. B. and Ty are asking members of the community to share with them memories, both physical and intangible, of the spaces, places, and groups that have made up the lesbian/sapphic scene in the Washington D.C. area.
In some cases, memories are all we have of these places, and therefore no memory is too insignificant and no story should be left untold. B. and Ty invite all members of the LGBTQ+/Queer community, whether D.C.-based or not, to contact them regarding setting up an interview to capture the memories of our Washington D.c. spaces before they are lost to the sands of time.
Both B. And Ty are members of the LGBTQ+/Queer community in Washington D.C and are committed to telling the stories of
all of the inhabitants of D.C.’s lesbian spaces, places and groups. They
have a vested interest in telling the stories of spaces/places/groups
frequented and created by people of color, bisexuals, trans people,
gender nonconforming people, and all other intersections.
no, i mean this social experiment started by a history teacher in calofornia in 1967
im Intrigued
it’s creepy not so much like paranormal but as in it’s a scary look at human nature. hang on a sec ill explain it
alright so. in 1967, a new history teacher at Cubberly High School in Northern California named Ron Jones was teaching his class about the Holocaust and Hitler’s rise to power. At some point during the lesson, many of his students began to ask why the rest of Germany had stood by and done nothing, and how afterwards they could have said they didn’t know. Many said that they would never allow something like that to happen, but most simply couldn’t understand how the population had allowed it back then. This made Ron curious: what was the answer? Why had so many Germans joined and tolerated the Nazis as their neighbors were dragged away? He realized there was no way of knowing, not without being there, and certainly no way of teaching it – unless, maybe, they could experience something similar.
The next day, Ron came in and began to command his class differently than usual. He had stricter rules, making students stand when asking or answering questions and having them fix their posture. He said it was a lesson on discipline and the phrase “strength through discipline” was written on the board.
The students, shockingly responded positively to the stricter rules; it was as if they had just been waiting for this and wanted more. They worked as a team and answered questions correctly, even sitting quietly until Ron dismissed them at the end of class.
In the next two days, the phrases “strength through community” and “action” appeared on the board. Ron announced to the class that their new rules and ideas were now the cornerstones of the group called the Wave. Their mottos were the three phrases on the board, and he introduced them to a salute (made by curling one’s right hand into the shape of a wave and tapping one’s left shoulder with it). The kids practiced both the motto and the salute that day.
Everything was going well in this experiment: Ron was increasingly seen as an incredibly important leader, the kids were being more well behaved, they were ahead in their studies, all good things, so Ron decided to continue the Wave. In class, he gave the students Wave membership cards, some of which had red x’s on the back. The x’s indicated that those people were to monitor the other members of the Wave and report directly to Ron if someone broke a rule.
Additionally that day, Ron gave the instruction to recruit members to the Wave; all were invited and all were equal in the Wave.
And recruit they did.
Later that week, there were over 200 members of the Wave. The pep rally became an official Wave rally where dozens of new members were sworn in. As the group grew, most everyone joined. However, if someone did not join, they were likely to find themselves very alone and possibly being threatened or hurt by Wave members.
By the 5th day, Ron knew things had spiraled out of control. He had grown into a mythical leader, and the students carried out his orders without hesitation, even if these orders never existed in the first place and were grown from within the Wave. He decided to tell the students that there would be a televised announcement of the Wave’s candidate announcement for the presidential election, and that all members should attend the rally later that day.
When they arrived, the hundreds of students were greeted with a blank screen and Ron. He told them the true nature of the Wave; how it had been born as an experiment that had grown exponentially until he had to end it. The students were shocked, and some even cried. They had all believed in the Wave wholeheartedly after just 5 short days.
The Wave is terrifying because it is real. Not so long ago, a history teacher fresh out from college was able to turn a school into a military state in just 5 days. We as humans are so easily led into fascist dictatorships and we so rarely question what goes on around us. The Wave is a testament to that, and a scary one.
There’s a really great German film of the same name (“Die Welle” – The Wave) based on this experiment – rather than stopping after 5 days however, the teacher lets it continue and things get much, MUCH worse. It’s a terrifying movie, but fascinating too.
Kya, canonically a lesbian, tells Korra and Asami about same-sex relationships and coming out in the four nations. We also find out that Kyoshi was bi!
My aesthetic is seeing my bisexual icons, Korra and Asami, discussing LGBT issues while the sky is painted the colors of the Bi Pride Flag behind them.
