In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, we follow the astonishing life of Eve Adams — the butch, Jewish, immigrant anarchist who opened Eve’s Hangout, a tea room in 1920s Greenwich Village that became one of the earliest proto–lesbian bars in the United States. Drawing on Jonathan Ned Katz’s groundbreaking research, Jack Jen Gieseking, Katz, and Julie Enszer trace Eve’s friendships with Emma Goldman and meeting Mae West; her bold self-published book Lesbian Love (about many of her exes, so delightfully gay); and the policewoman who entrapped her, triggering a sensational raid, trial, and her deportation.
We track Eve from New York to Chicago, LA, and back.Through speakeasies, slumming cultures, rent parties, tea rooms, and censorship battles, this episode unearths how Eve Adams helped shape queer public life long before lesbian bars existed — and why her story still electrifies us a century later.
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Credits
Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking
Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom
Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo
Assistant Editor: Mel Whitesell
Social Media: Audrey Wilkinson
Interns: Michaela Hayes and Sophie McClain
Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen
Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/
CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.
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