Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
In an area with no gay or lesbian bars, Evelyn Fleetwood is carving a space where LGBTQ+ people can share nightlife with each other: Queeraoke.
Fleetwood goes by “‘Evie” among friends — but “DJ Goddess” when hosting her LGBTQ+-centric karaoke nights. She started holding the events at local businesses in the Burlington-Winooski area back in January after struggling to find dedicated LGBTQ+ bars.
“We don’t have a lot of adult queer traditional party spaces,” she said. “If you’re a lesbian who wants to go get drunk with like 20 other lesbians and hang out … it just doesn’t exist as a form of daily entertainment here.”
Burlington’s 135 Pearl had a 22-year run as the city’s dedicated queer bar before closing in 2006. Winooski briefly had its own in 2017 before it closed after controversy around its name.
In 2022, VTDigger reported that Vermont had among the highest rate of LGBTQ+ people in the United States, according to one study, and that people ages 18-24 in that community make up the largest group in Vermont.
There are several queer-focused events held regularly in the Burlington area, including at Wallflower Collective and Radio Bean. And several bars in the area are go-tos for the LGBTQ+ community, Fleetwood said.
To shore up a sense of belonging she felt had waned, Fleetwood hosts a mixer at the Archives every Wednesday from 7-10 p.m.
“We just walk in there with like 20 people, and we just sit there and drink drinks and be really gay,” she said.
If you want LGBTQ+ spaces in your town, she said, you should do just that — show up somewhere with your friends and ask the owners to do events.
People have been grateful for Queeraoke, Fleetwood said.
“I didn’t think I’d get the impact that I did. I didn’t think that people would actually be hitting me up being like, ‘Hey, thanks for holding a space for us,’” she said.
Fleetwood now hosts the karaoke event near the Winooski circle twice a week. People can find her at Four Quarters Brewing every Tuesday from 7-10 p.m. and at Standing Stone Wines every Saturday from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Williston resident Russel Berger and a group of friends have been going to Queeraoke at Four Quarters almost every week since it started there back in March. Berger said having a weekday karaoke space dedicated to queer people was perfect because he works on the weekends.
He also feels like there aren’t a lot of spaces for queer people in Burlington — at least with “as friendly a crowd as this is,” he said last Tuesday.
The crowd at Four Quarters Queeraoke was indeed a lively one. Fleetwood, acting as DJ Goddess, put a QR code on a projector screen onstage, inviting people to sign up to sing.
They could choose a song and a stage name and, when their turn came, head up to the stage to perform anything from “Before He Cheats,” by Carrie Underwood, to a rap about Minecraft. The crowd didn’t hesitate to sing along and cheer each other on, whether or not they knew the performer.
Most of the singers were soloists, but Berger and friend Anna Cataldo of Shelburne performed a rousing duet of “Shallow” from the film “A Star is Born.”
Four Quarters is a family joint, so songs must be clean until 8:30 p.m., when the vibes change to what Fleetwood jokingly calls “Goddess after dark.”
She said Queeraoke at Standing Stone Wines is geared more toward the adult crowd and starts later.
“We are raunchy from the beginning,” she said, “so sing what you want.”