Paradise and Shangri-La

One of the threads that interested the weekly Dyke TV group most was the reoccurring presence of Northampton, which was (and still is) often referred to as a Paradise City for lesbians. In nearly all the segments that highlight our town we saw visions of progress rather than struggle, these were the segments that featured lesbian mothers, the election of out and proud city council members, and the passage of domestic partnership ordinances. Northampton also happens to be the place where the entire digital collection of Dyke TV exists, alongside 12 years worth of the show’s paper records.

Province town, called a “Shangri-la” by a woman interviewed on Dyke TV in episode 186, who came of age in New York in the 1940’s, represents a similar progressive vision, where lesbians live and work and frolic alongside gay men.

These episodes look at these little New England towns as safe places, queer hot spots and places where queer history tends to coalesce outside of struggle.