Lesbian Brussels Tour curated by L-Tour (Lesbiennale)
Starting point: Rainbow House
Language: English (possible in French)
— reservations can be made by emailing : lens.marian@l-tour.be
About the tour:
Discover cosmopolitan Brussels in all its lesbian-coloured glory… This tour will take you along cafés, bars, meeting rooms and other places where “women loving women” got together, whether to socialise and have fun or to change the world. Successes and milestones on the path to equality – in Belgium, Europe and worldwide – will be presented in an original way in order to highlight our voices and struggles, who can no longer remain invisible throughout the historical/herstory discourse.
The Black Swan, the Madame and Jeanneke will have no more secrets for you. La Pergola is a lesbian café that lasted for decades as from the 1930’s, where the lesbian who founded our first Belgian ‘homosexual’ association (1953) used to hang out.
You will uncover Brussels and its numerous lesbian and rainbow frescoes, and also the European area, with ILGA (the European and worldwide LGBTQI biggest lobby), and better, we will speak about ILIS, at the forefront of EL*C.
We will go back to 1976, where the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women took place, when the first worldwilde Lesbian Front was also created during this event.
And also between the Grand-Place and the Central Station, you will come along bookshop Artemys, created during the eighties, ‘The Place To Be’ for the Belgian lesbians and ‘womon loving womon’ coming from everywhere all over the world. It was nothing less than the only lesbian-profiled bookshop in Europe, and one of the longest lasting lesbian and feminist bookstore in the world.
Presentation by Marian Lens, sociologist and pioneering lesbian activist.