‘Mielno, Our Polish Lesbos’
‘Mielno, Our Polish Lesbos’

Summary/Abstract: The article examines two cases: a 1988 camping trip to the Polish seaside town of Mielno – known as ‘the first lesbian convention’ – and the 2023 play Lesbian Sunset, directed by Olga Ciężkowska2, which re-enacts this event. Staging recent queer herstory in the theatre can be considered a form of engaged research that – as Maria Kobielska has written – can illuminate ‘a grey area’ of memory culture. The example of Mielno offers an opportunity to revisit the history of the final years of the Polish People’s Republic and the period of political transformation from the perspective of non-heteronormative women, whose experiences have remained largely absent from the dominant historical narratives. An analysis of the contemporary performance demonstrates how taking a queer position can be a starting point for reimagining a fragment of late 20th-century local history.

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