Author: Alisha Stranges

Tangible Traces: Searching for the Pussy Palace Polaroids

May 27, 2022
by Alisha Stranges
Pussy Palace Project / Traversing Temporalities

Reposted from April 16, 2021. Did you know that the 2000 Pussy Palace had an instant photo room? On the fourth floor of the Palace, a sign reading “porn/photo room” directed patrons in two equally playful directions: towards a room for screening pornography and/or towards a room for having Polaroids taken to document one’s night at the bathhouse (Blair 163; Vogels paras. 10-13). In our most recent oral history interview, Carlyle Jansen, one of the founding members of the Toronto Women’s […]

Talking Sex: Engaging with the Pussy Palace Oral Histories

April 10, 2022
by Alisha Stranges
Collaboratory News / Pussy Palace Project

Join us on Wed, Apr 20 @ 6PM – 7:30PM for a virtual event, featuring both community narrators and members of the Collaboratory’s Pussy Palace Oral History Project team! Event Description: On September 15, 2000, five Toronto police raided the Pussy Palace, an exclusive bathhouse event for queer women and trans folk, laying several charges against the organizers, accusing them of violating liquor laws. There has never been an oral history project about this event, […]

Reflection on the Pussy Palace: Coding for Identity Shifts

February 26, 2022
by Alisha Stranges
Interview Coding / Pussy Palace Project / UVic Undergraduate Internship

Beginning in January 2022, the Collaboratory invited UVic undergraduate Amanda Thomson to participate in a 4-week volunteer internship with the Pussy Palace Oral History Project, supporting the team in preparing oral history interviews for coding in NVivo and experimenting with the software by coding a few interviews herself. Here are her reflections on the experience.  I have been volunteering with the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory’s Pussy Palace Oral History Project (PPOHP) since early January […]

Realizing the Value of Stories: Transcribing the Pussy Palace Oral Histories

February 23, 2022
by Alisha Stranges
Pussy Palace Project / Transcribing / UVic Undergraduate Internship

Beginning in January 2022, the Collaboratory invited UVic undergraduates Faith Lapointe and Ellis Martiskainen to participate in a 4-week volunteer internship with the Pussy Palace Oral History Project, supporting the team in transcribing the oral history interviews in preparation for donation to The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives. We are pleased to share that Faith and Ellis are continuing their work with us on the project. Here are their reflections on the experience so far… If […]

Tangible Traces: Searching for the Pussy Palace Polaroids

April 16, 2021
by Alisha Stranges
Photography / Pussy Palace Project

Did you know that the 2000 Pussy Palace had an instant photo room? On the fourth floor of the Palace, a sign reading “porn/photo room” directed patrons in two equally playful directions: towards a room for screening pornography and/or towards a room for having Polaroids taken to document one’s night at the bathhouse (Blair 163; Vogels paras. 10-13). In our most recent oral history interview, Carlyle Jansen, one of the founding members of the Toronto Women’s Bathhouse Committee, shared that the use of […]