Connecticut Explored and our podcast, Grating the Nutmeg, have featured many of the heritage trails that mark the important histories and sites of Connecticut’s people. Preservation Connecticut has undertaken a survey of LGBTQ+ heritage sites across the state. Now, Grating the Nutmeg and Preservation Connecticut have teamed up to bring you a three-episode podcast series that pairs new research on LGBTQ+ identity and activism with accounts of the Connecticut places where history was made. The episodes include a thriving vegetarian cafe-bookstore run by lesbian feminists in a working-class former factory town, a transgender medical researcher working on an urgent public health issue in the center of Connecticut politics, and a gay, Jewish, best-selling children’s book author in affluent Fairfield County.
In this episode, Dr. Alex Ketchum, author of Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses, published by Concordia University Press in 2022, reveals the history of women-owned restaurants in the 1970s and 1980s that had a feminist mission. In a first-ever overview of feminist cafe subculture, Ketchum’s book details the role eateries played in social justice movements, including women’s and LGBTQ+ liberation, and food justice. And we will highlight Bloodroot, the almost 50-year-old lesbian-feminist bookstore, collective, and vegetarian restaurant in Bridgeport.
Dr. Ketchum is Assistant Professor at McGill University's Institute for Gender, Sexuality, Feminist Studies, and the Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab, co-editor of Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and creator of The Feminist Restaurant Project: thefeministrestaurantproject.com
Follow Dr. Ketchum on her social media pages- bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aketchum22.bsky.social @aketchum22.bsky.social
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.alexketchum/ @dr.alexketchum
To find out more information on Bloodroot Restaurant, check out these sources:
Restaurant Website
Public Broadcasting Interview with the founders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtxLyIqYhxQ
Documentary Trailer “A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2K7RAeBf4
This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was supported by Preservation Connecticut, preserving the state’s heritage for 50 years and a Quick Grant from CT Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, programs, and collaboration with other organizations. CTH is supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sour
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