Queer Liberation and Nightlife Reading List
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Further Reading

A collection of book covers of books of queer nightlife.

The history of queer liberation is intrinsically linked to the history of nightlife and the special site of the queer bar. Presented in conjunction with Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon, this reading list presents a collection of books on these intertwined trajectories.

In addition, a reading room containing free access to selections from this list is located adjacent to Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon where we invite you to browse, read, charge your phone, or just relax.

Many of these titles are also available for purchase in the Walker’s collectible design store, Idea House 3. Open during gallery hours as well as online 24/7.


Queer Nightlife by Kemi Adeyemi, Kareem Khubchandani, and Ramon H. Rivera-Servera

Feels Right: Black Queer Women and the Politics of Partying in Chicago by Kemi Adeyemi

Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 by Nan Alamilla Boyd 

There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life by Jafari S. Allen

No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988-1999 by DJ Stretch Armstrong & Evan Auerbach

Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit by Marlon M. Bailey

Black Trans Feminism by Marquis Bey

Dis…Miss Gender? by Anne Bray

Assembling a Black Counter Culture by DeForrest Brown, Jr 

Queer Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging, Form by Tyler Bradway and Elizabeth Freeman

New York: Club Kids by Walt Cassidy (Waltpaper)

HomoCore: The Loud and Raucous Rise of Queer Rock by David Ciminelli, Ken Knox

Urban Nightscapes: Youth Cultures, Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power by Paul Chatterton and Robert Hollands

Transgender Rights by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter

In the Limelight: The Visual Ecstasy of NYC Nightlife in the 90s by Steve Eichner and Gabriel Sanchez

Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation by Robert W. Fieseler 

Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene by Gerard H. Gaskin

Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution by Amin Ghaziani

Temporary Pleasure: Nightclub Architecture, Design and Culture from the 1960s to Today by John Leo Gillen

Area: 1983-1987 by Eric Goode, Jennifer Goode

Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton

Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader by Michael Hames-García and Ernesto Javier Martínez

Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence by Christina B. Hanhardt

Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940 by Chad Heap

The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After by Lucas Hilderbrand

Blacktino Queer Performance by E. Patrick Johnson and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera

Night Fever : Designing Club Culture 1960-today by Mateo Kries, Jochen Eisenbrand, Catharine Rossi, Katarina Serulus, and Jörg Heiser.

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983 by Tim Lawrence

Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 by Tim Lawrence
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House by Audre Lorde

Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor by Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta

Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric by Madison Moore

Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin by Joseph Plaster

Can the Monster Speak? Report to an Academy of Psychoanalysts by Paul B. Preciado

Wild Things: A Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story by Lynette Reini-Grandell

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR): Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness by Marlon B. Ross

Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture by Siobhan B. Somerville

Club Kids: Underground Culture by Raven Smith

Queer Twin Cities by Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project

Land of 10,000 Loves: A History of Queer Minnesota by Stewart Van Cleve

THE FUN: The Social Practice of Nightlife in NYC by Jake Yuzna