Moby Dyke: Krista Burton with Beth Lisick

Lesbian bars have always been treasured safe spaces for their customers, providing not only a good time but a shelter from societal alienation and outright persecution. In 1987, there were 206 of them in America. Today, only a couple dozen remain. How and why did this happen? What has been lost—or possibly gained—by such a decline? What transpires when marginalized communities become more accepted and mainstream? In Krista Burton‘s insightful and hilarious travelogue Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America, she attempts to answer these questions firsthand, venturing on an epic cross-country pilgrimage and in the process, examining her own personal journey. In conversation with writer/performer Beth Lisick, and held at Wild Side West, which is featured in the book’s opening chapter.