Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 4
Dublin Core
Title
Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 4
Subject
Communities (LGBTQ)
Community centres (LGBTQ)
Drag
Description
Kristina Boerger discusses dry culture within the LGBTQ communities and her personal experiences that influences her decisions during her youth in social settings
Creator
Kristina Boerger
Date
2021-04-16
Contributor
Liv Borawski
Rights
In Copyright
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Sound
Coverage
New York City, New York
Champaign, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Duration
00:04:02
Transcription
Kristina Boeger: You know, I, I since, grew into a huge aesthetic and political appreciation for dry culture. I just think first of all, you got to recognize what revolutionary people these have been on our streets, always, and the kind of disruptive power that they present to upset are the patriarchal head or, you know heteronormative the patriarchal heteronormative. I absolutely adore, adore drag culture, I was not much of a bar person like I said, I wasn't I didn't, I didn't drink a whole lot in college. And frankly, I was just more busy you know, I was either studying music or making music or practicing music, or I was going to you know house parties in this very live culture, graduate and undergraduate of political thinkers and activists international group of of really just, interesting people and I was you know courting a lot of women having a lot of sex I think that's more. I don't know, just that that's that was such a rich, the cultural
intellectual life of radicals on campus at the time was so rich. That, you know, bar life didn't call me except every once in a while you know felt really good to go, let's you know, let's go to Chester Street and dance it out but almost never. Yeah.
Liv Borawski: So, would you be able to speak more about Chester Street because I know yesterday you talked about how like, you never really went there because it was also more of like a known as a quote, like quote on quote like male bar. So could you speak a little bit more about that as well?
Kristina Boeger: Yeah, I mean it was more of a male hang out, I mean back in the day there were some cities that actually continued supported active, lesbian bars where it was mostly women. Those have all but disappeared there might be one or two left in New York City. Um, but uh, you know I enjoyed that atmosphere, but that's just that's just Chester Street was just not as much that and I think if I'm very honest too, I think that the bar served the city. And, I think that my menu at the time was really political activism and feminism as informed by university studies and so it was. Um, I'm not from a working class background most of the people I was with are not from a working class background when I was headed into the professions. Not into the working class, and I think I might have perceived that some of these bar environments were more working class environments and there wasn't as much overlap of sensibility or aesthetic or whatever. That might have been my sense at the time, my judgment at the time I'm not sure. But mostly I just don't go to places where it's so loud you can't even talk, and where you just, you know, drink a lot dance. It also didn't play my favorite kind of dance music, I mean, I enjoy dancing but it's not the kind that I enjoyed so there wasn't really a reason. There was no pole. For me, yeah.
Liv Borawski: Yeah, and I think that speaks a lot like you said. So what I'm assuming like you never felt like isolated by your own community because you had some so many other places to go.
Kristina Boeger: I never felt isolated. I never felt isolated. I felt isolated when I was growing up, and. But the minute I went to college I said that is the end. The world is my oyster and nobody is going to put me in a closet and nobody's going to make me feel like there is a space where I don't belong. Absolutely not. You know it's not like I didn't from time to time in a space encounter hostility or unwelcome or threat of course I did, of course it did. But I didn't let that keep me from circulating as widely as I wanted to. No, absolutely not and that's why I don't. No, absolutely not. And that's why I don't have a lot of sympathy with what you say that there are you know people who just want to stay in their own little enclave because they feel so isolated at the same time you said you have such a progressive place. What's really going on here? Come on people.
intellectual life of radicals on campus at the time was so rich. That, you know, bar life didn't call me except every once in a while you know felt really good to go, let's you know, let's go to Chester Street and dance it out but almost never. Yeah.
Liv Borawski: So, would you be able to speak more about Chester Street because I know yesterday you talked about how like, you never really went there because it was also more of like a known as a quote, like quote on quote like male bar. So could you speak a little bit more about that as well?
Kristina Boeger: Yeah, I mean it was more of a male hang out, I mean back in the day there were some cities that actually continued supported active, lesbian bars where it was mostly women. Those have all but disappeared there might be one or two left in New York City. Um, but uh, you know I enjoyed that atmosphere, but that's just that's just Chester Street was just not as much that and I think if I'm very honest too, I think that the bar served the city. And, I think that my menu at the time was really political activism and feminism as informed by university studies and so it was. Um, I'm not from a working class background most of the people I was with are not from a working class background when I was headed into the professions. Not into the working class, and I think I might have perceived that some of these bar environments were more working class environments and there wasn't as much overlap of sensibility or aesthetic or whatever. That might have been my sense at the time, my judgment at the time I'm not sure. But mostly I just don't go to places where it's so loud you can't even talk, and where you just, you know, drink a lot dance. It also didn't play my favorite kind of dance music, I mean, I enjoy dancing but it's not the kind that I enjoyed so there wasn't really a reason. There was no pole. For me, yeah.
Liv Borawski: Yeah, and I think that speaks a lot like you said. So what I'm assuming like you never felt like isolated by your own community because you had some so many other places to go.
Kristina Boeger: I never felt isolated. I never felt isolated. I felt isolated when I was growing up, and. But the minute I went to college I said that is the end. The world is my oyster and nobody is going to put me in a closet and nobody's going to make me feel like there is a space where I don't belong. Absolutely not. You know it's not like I didn't from time to time in a space encounter hostility or unwelcome or threat of course I did, of course it did. But I didn't let that keep me from circulating as widely as I wanted to. No, absolutely not and that's why I don't. No, absolutely not. And that's why I don't have a lot of sympathy with what you say that there are you know people who just want to stay in their own little enclave because they feel so isolated at the same time you said you have such a progressive place. What's really going on here? Come on people.
Interviewer
Liv Borawski
Interviewee
Kristina Boeger
Location
Virtual
Citation
Kristina Boerger, “Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 4,” Omeka, accessed May 18, 2024, https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/items/show/254.