All posts filed under: Pussy Palace Project

Back, Back, Back Again! A Snapshot of Sapphic Aquatica, the New (New) Pussy Palace

November 14, 2023
by Atticus Hawk
Activist Histories / Kink Cultures / Lesbian History / Pussy Palace Project / Queer History / The Gays Did What Now? / Trans History

The Pussy Palace is back! Sort of. In November 2022, the club that hosted the Pussy Palace relaunched the pre-pandemic women and trans bathhouse night called, uh...Sapphic Aquatica? Held in the same historic bathhouse as the Pussy Palace, the pansexual swinger’s club, Oasis Aqualounge, ran another monthly women and trans bathhouse event from 2012-2019. Thought to be yet another permanent pandemic casualty, the party is back, back, back again in yet another form with the same fishy name.

NOW OPEN! The Pussy Palace: An Instagram Story

June 12, 2023
by Alisha Stranges
Collaboratory News / Lesbian History / Oral History / Pussy Palace Project / Queer History / Trans History

If you find yourself in Toronto’s East end this Pride season, drop by Gallery 1265 at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) to experience The Pussy Palace: An Instagram Story. Commissioned by UTSC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office and the Positive Space Committee, this interactive, self-led exhibit blends digital art, narrative text, and interview soundbites from the Collaboratory’s Pussy Palace Oral History Project, immersing patrons in an “average night” at the Palace. The Pussy Palace […]

Sensory Portraits of Public Sex

May 15, 2023
by Alisha Stranges
Collaboratory News / Pussy Palace Project / Queer Affect

The Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga recently released the latest issue of their serial broadsheet, SDUK. About the issue, The Blackwood writes: This milestone fifteenth issue, CONFIDING, addresses trust and collaboration: the tools, methods, and strategies collaborators use to build mutual confidence while working together. With an international slate of largely co-authored contributions, this issue models forms of experimental and collaborative authorship through letters, exercises, interviews, oral histories, and more. Among the […]

Pussy Palace Digital Exhibit: Coming Soon!

March 17, 2023
by Alisha Stranges
Collaboratory News / Lesbian History / Public Humanities / Pussy Palace Project / Queer History / Trans History

In 2021, the Collaboratory conducted the Pussy Palace Oral History Project (PPOHP), preserving 36 interviews with patrons, organizers, and allies of the Pussy Palace — an exclusive sex party and bathhouse event for queer women and trans people in Toronto. Interviews address not only the infamous, September 2000 police raid, but also radical sex/gender cultures in turn of the 21st century Toronto.  A desire to connect broader publics with this rich archive of oral testimony […]

Bringing Publics to the Palace: User Experience Design and Digital Exhibition Prototyping with Peter Luo

September 2, 2022
by Elio Colavito
Pussy Palace Project / Traversing Temporalities

Collect, archive, and publish.  These are the three phases of an oral history project. You can break it down into smaller processes and objectives, but those smaller categories can be collapsed into these three categories. Record your interviews, archive them, and publish an article that makes use of the collected material. The most community-engaged (and generously funded) projects, especially in the digital age, have broadened the idea of what it means to publish public history […]

Can I Say This?

August 5, 2022
by Elio Colavito
Pussy Palace Project / Traversing Temporalities

Can I say this? Is it a betrayal? I’ve found myself asking these questions a few times since fellow oral historian, Alisha Stranges, and I wrapped up the interviewing phase of the Pussy Palace Oral History Project (PPOHP). Interviewing queer and trans elders, especially those that were part of such a radical chapter of Toronto’s LGBTQ+ history, was one of the most amazing experiences afforded me as both a scholar and a young queer person. […]