This story was produced through Our Stories, Our Power, a community journalism program from Windy City Times and E3 Radio that gives emerging storytellers a platform to report stories for and about their communities.
As a bisexual woman trying to date in Chicago, actress and event producer Celina Jane Atangana found herself bored at a singles mixer. Her favorite hostess for sapphic events had recently gone on hiatus, so Atangana resorted to attending events for straight singles.
Although these hetero-centric events felt disappointing, they inspired Atangana to create events of her own. She created an Instagram account, StarlightSapphic.Chi, and announced that events were coming soon—and it took off from there.
“[The] post immediately started gaining traction, and I didn’t even have an event planned yet,” Atangana said.
Atangana said the early response to Starlight Sapphic points to a broader gap in Chicago’s queer nightlife: While spaces for sapphic women exist, few are designed with Black women and other women of color at the center.
In response, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) sapphic women across Chicago have been creating their own digital and physical spaces to build community and fill that gap.
CaSera Heining, also known as DJ Ca$hera, saw similar demand when she began launching events for Black and queer audiences. She said her first “Honey” party sold out—and every one since has, too.
“It was just so beautiful to see, because it was like people that I hadn’t seen in so long at a party, people I had never seen before at a party. I feel like at a certain point in Chicago night life, you start seeing some of the faces over and over again. It was so many people in that room I had never seen before,” said Heining.
Building spaces where none existed
Though these events often sell out, organizers say access remains uneven across the city—particularly along geographic lines. Many of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ nightlife hubs, including Northalsted and Andersonville, are located on the North Side, while many people of color live on the South and West sides.
That divide has shaped who can easily access these spaces—and who cannot, organizers said.
Renauda Riddle, owner of the lesbian bar Nobody’s Darling in Andersonville, said that reality is driving her plans to open a second location on the South Side.
“We opened up a space to make bipoc queers, and just BIPOC people feel safe and seen. And you know they have to drive so far. They have to drive all the way from the south side or the west side. So we want to make sure that we have something in their neighborhood that they are able to come to and enjoy,” Riddle said.
Event organizer and curator Pfozjera Cooper has had a similar experience organizing sapphic events. She said the demand is there, but safety and accessibility can limit attendance.
“I think we want to be outside, it’s just getting outside is a little difficult…I don’t know if it’s [because] we’ve had a lot going on in the city in the last year, honestly, with ICE and everything, and I think that that plays a giant factor in it and making sure that we’re creating these safe spaces,” Cooper said.
At the same time, organizers say financial realities can complicate where these events take place.
Atangana said that her events typically perform better financially when they’re hosted on the North Side.
“It’s harder to do events in the south and west side, I’ve tried to do some in the south and west side suburbs as well. And that’s just something that’s important to me…but this is basically a one woman show, so sometimes I do have to cater up north for financial reasons,” Atangana said.
More than nightlife
Winter Heckard, a host with the Garden Of Collective, said she had to put herself out there as a familiar face before she started regularly seeing other Black women in those spaces. The Garden Of Collective is a sapphic events collective with a physical space located in Ravenswood.
Heckard said that being in such a prominent role as a Black trans woman is important for representation in the sapphic community and that she’s been able to successfully create events that bring together people who share more identities with her.
“I just wanted to make sure that I represented the Black sapphics, and they felt that by seeing me, that they felt that there’s a space for them as well…So it means being a bridge for my community,” Heckard said.
For many organizers, that work extends beyond representation—creating new economic opportunities within the community.
DJ Ca$hera recently launched a party series called Cash and Company (or C&C), where she hires her female friends to DJ alongside her and professional dancers to compete in dance battles. She also serves as a concourse DJ for the Chicago Sky.
“Women’s basketball, inherently, mostly women follow it. A lot of queer women follow it or are also players. So I was just like, ‘dang, it’d be cool if they had a woman DJ’,” Ca$hera said.
Ca$hera said that she cried tears of joy when she received the news that she’d been selected for the role.
“It felt like I was being seen, like, y’all see me. That’s one of the best feelings about it…I’m just like, hell yeah, they’re bringing in the girls now,” Ca$hera said.
Riddle also uses the bar program at Nobody’s Darling to introduce customers to spirits and other products from BIPOC- and women-owned brands that may have less access to major marketing and distribution.
“It’s so many different people of color [that] own these amazing spirits and because they don’t have the marketing and the money behind them sometimes to really get them in known spaces,” Riddle said.
Nobody’s Darling gained national recognition in 2022 when it was named a finalist for a James Beard Award. Riddle said she hopes that recognition showed other aspiring BIPOC and women business owners that opening a successful space of their own is an achievable goal.
“The world saw that these two women who are not rich came together and decided to create this space and it’s doing really well and thriving. They’re excited, and that gets them motivated to say this is something that’s a reachable goal for them. And I think in that way, we’ve definitely impacted a lot of human beings that look like us all over the world,” Riddle said.
Atangana said the connections formed at her events motivate her to keep producing them.
“I like when people DM me and they’re like, ‘Hey, I met my girlfriend at your event and now we’re celebrating five months’. Like, I want more success stories,” Atangana said.
DJ Ca$hera said that being a part of people’s happiest moments and milestones is what motivates her to keep going and doing bigger and better things.
“I couldn’t tell you the last time that I went out to a gig and I didn’t have somebody stop me at one point and be like, ‘Thank you for throwing these events. Your events feel like home to me.’ … That’s one of the best compliments I can ever receive,” Ca$hera said.
About Our Stories, Our Power: Our Stories, Our Power is a six-week community journalism program led by Windy City Times and E3 Radio that trains emerging storytellers in reporting stories for and about their communities. The program is made possible by a grant from Press Forward Chicago, with support from Columbia College Chicago.
Interested in supporting a future cohort of Our Stories, Our Power? Contact Jake Wittich, managing editor of Windy City Times, at jake@windycitytimes.com.