Thais Rocha Shares Journey in Creating "Dani's Queer Bar" in Boston's Back Bay
"Being a sapphic woman is not a themed night; it's just what our community is." Today’s woman dreamer, Thais Rocha shares her incredible innovative journey to creating Boston's only Lesbian Bar: Dani's Queer Bar in Back Bay, Boston with Women Who Win contributor Serena Arora. In this profile, Thais describes the need for this institution, and her vision behind it. A place where “everyone is welcome”, we are excited to share this new spot in Boston in honor of Pride Month!
By Serena Arora
As a queer woman, I long for a community and a vibrant nightlife, primarily sapphic women. However, when I discovered that Thais Rocha and Tiamarie Michaels were creating a "queer woman haven," I couldn't resist reaching out to Rocha for an interview in great excitement and glee.
Rocha began our conversation by detailing she has a surfeit of experience in event planning; she spent an abundant amount of her youth going out to different clubs and venues and feeling frustrated by the music, the themes, and the need for more representation in other places. So she decided to create space for queer women in Boston through her 'Sapphic Nights' events. The nights include monthly Yacht Parties, lesbian/queer dance parties hosted at the House of Blues, Holiday Events, and more! However, Rocha grew tired of certain aspects of lack of control in the event planning with venues and managers. She recounted how various people had treated Sapphic Nights as a themed night or something that can taint a bar's image. However, Rocha expressed, "Being a sapphic woman is not a themed night; it's just what our community is."
These experiences motivated Rocha to create Dani's Queer Bar, where she can house all her events and allow them to grow and sprout into more fruitful ideas. Dani's Queer Bar is not a stopping ground for simply drinking and partying; it is a home for queer women to connect and feel safe to be themselves with one another. It's about more than just the nightlife, though, Thais explained, as they are also brewing up more day events for women.
The crazy part is not even the lack of lesbian bars in Boston but the lack of lesbian bars in America. Thais described through her research by listening to the podcast "The Lesbian Bar Project" that there are only 27 lesbian bars in America now. However, there are over 1000 gay male-centered and straight-centered bars and clubs in the US. So as we know as a community, "WE need it." Still, Rocha and Michaels are breaking barriers of financial restriction, fears, and the difficulties of being taken seriously as a female businesswoman and creating that space to be the 28th lesbian bar in the country. Along with Back Bay's lesbian bar, a femme bar also opened in Worcester called 'The Femme Bar,' which makes it clear we are taking strides in Massachusetts to create real change.
Thais wanted to highlight that though Dani's Queer Bar is a woman-centered space, "it is for everybody: lesbians, bisexuals, queer people, nonbinary, trans. It's not a straight place nor a gay male-centered space; come by! It's whatever label you want it to be at the end of the day."
Regardless of what you identify, Rocha wanted to communicate that they don't tolerate any "erasure or bi-erasure; everybody is welcome."
Rocha closed off the interview by spreading her wisdom; she encourages people who "have any ideas to do something, to JUST DO IT! You will be told "No," you will get some mean comments and some great comments, but it's worth it." Rocha gets countless requests for event ideas and tries to manage and accommodate them all, but sometimes she needs help to do everything. Therefore, she cheers on any young entrepreneur or budding event planner to stop allowing the fear of failure to get in their way and even offers her shoulder to lean on for support and advice. Not only is this advice great for everyone, but specifically for women who sometimes shrivel up and make themselves smaller when they don't have spaces made for them. Rocha works through action, creates space for herself and others, and encourages all women to do so. She said, "The city is huge, and there's not much to do; if you want to see something go out and do it."
Check out Rocha's event website and Instagram:
https://lgbtqnightlifeevents.com/sapphic-nights
https://www.instagram.com/sapphicnightss/