“Ladies at a Gay Girls' Bar, 1938-1969” (originally titled "Starting from Fem" is  a solo piece by Maggie Cee that  imagines and explores the queer past and passions between people who loved, fought, and created space to be themselves out of sheer necessity and determination.  

​Through dance, soundscapes, oral history and fictional monologues the piece takes the audience into a mid-20th century urban american gay girls’ (to use the parlance of the time) bar, to explore the emotional and experiential realities of fem women. ​

See "Ladies at a Gay Girl's Bar" in it's full length premiere July 27 at FringePVD! 

​Come spend an afternoon at a “gay girls” bar. The Stonewall Rebellion is on the horizon, but across the U.S., working-class lesbians are fighting to create spaces where they can be themselves. They dress up, they flirt, they dance, and they become a powerful force for queer visibility.

Maggie Cee explores her years as a teenage gay rights activist, her own identity, and  fem history - illuminating the feminine women whose stories are too often forgotten, but whose strength and determination made the gay girls’ bars come alive.

Because not all stories are recorded equally, this piece seeks to go beyond the archive, connecting the dots to explore the emotional heart of fem history.

“Ladies at a Gay Girls' Bar, 1938-1969” premiered with the working title, "Starting From Fem" at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA on June 2, 2017. Excerpts and works in progress have been performed at The Femme Show, We Create Festival, Bar Wotever, and Dancing Queerly. The piece is made possible by support from the New England Dance Fund of the New England Foundation for the Arts and a residency at  EarthDance Creative Living. See the blog to read more about the piece and process.