On 17 October, the historic walls of Churchill College in Cambridge opened to a vibrant gathering that blended love, anger, and memory. Organized by current undergraduate and award-winning poet Amy Walpole, the evening was billed as a night of lesbian celebration, yet it quickly unfolded as a potent act of cultural preservation and activism.
The event, presented under the banner Rebel Dyke Futures, set out to archive and narrate the euphoria of Chain Reaction, a legendary lesbian club night that pulsed from 1987 to 1993. By weaving poetry, photography, and community-driven conversation, Amy reshaped a standard Cambridge lecture hall into what participants described as a desperately sought-after dyke utopia.
Recreating the spirit of Chain Reaction at Churchill College
Poetry, photography and a night-long archive
Walls once reserved for academic lectures were draped with large-format prints captured at the original Chain Reaction nights, each image echoing the raw energy of the 1980s underground scene. Beside the visuals, archival material supplied by the Bishopsgate Institute offered flyers, ticket stubs, and handwritten set-lists, allowing visitors to handle fragments of history. Amy contributed original poems that riffed on the club’s rebellious ethos, inviting the audience to experience the past not as static record but as living performance. The combination of visual and verbal artefacts turned the space into an interactive museum where every glance sparked a narrative.
Intergenerational dialogue: panel with Karen Fisch and Tabs Benjamin
A second pillar of the night was a panel discussion that linked the original Rebel Dyke generation with contemporary queer activists. Karen Fisch, an original Rebel Dyke and now Master of Ceremonies at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, shared anecdotes from the club’s early days, while Tabs Benjamin, founder of the queer-run collective Butch Please, framed those stories within today’s climate of rising transphobia and lesbophobia. For many queer students in the crowd, the conversation acted as an urgent history lesson, directing them toward essential media such as Stone Butch Blues and the 2021 documentary Rebel Dykes. Tabs summed up the gathering’s purpose with a rallying cry: “when we meet together, we draw strength from each other, so that we can continue to survive and continue to fight for the right to be whoever we want to be.”
From memory to future: fundraising for Dorothy’s lesbian bar
Beyond remembrance, the night held a concrete aim: to support a new permanent FLINTA space on Rainbow Street in South-East London. Lesbians Molly and Beth are spearheading Dorothy’s, a trans-inclusive bar that seeks lasting financial and political protection—something historic queer venues have often lacked. Throughout the exhibition, attendees were invited to add their hopes and demands to a communal scrapbook, many of which called for “dyke spaces everywhere” and highlighted the dual role of such venues as sites for both daytime organising and nighttime celebration. All proceeds from ticket sales and donations were channeled directly into Dorothy’s community crowdfunding campaign, embodying the event’s mantra of turning recollection into tangible support for future queer infrastructure.
When the lights dimmed and the last page of the scrapbook was filled, the atmosphere resonated with a palpable sense of solidarity. Participants left not only with memories of a recreated club night, but also with a renewed commitment to protect and expand queer spaces beyond the digital sphere. In a city where queer venues are increasingly under threat, the evening at Churchill College proved that archival work, artistic expression, and collective fundraising can converge to forge resilient, intersectional communities.
