Shreveport times central station more than just a gay bar
The Korner Lounge: Serving the LGBTQ community for 85 years and counting
The Korner Lounge will commemorate the Stonewall Uprisings with a candlelight vigil on the 50-year anniversary of the incident that sparked a nationwide movement.
On June 28, 1969, police officers raided the Stonewall Inn gay bar and in Greenwich Village in Recent York City. Patrons and residents were harassed, assaulted, and arrested sparking riots that continued over several days.
The Stonewall riots were the catalyst for Pride Month – observed annually in June. The month is a time of remembrance for those lost in the LGBTQ community, reflection for the events that transpired at Stonewall Inn, as well as to acknowledge and celebrate the LGBTQ community and its accomplishments.
In Shreveport, a Stonewall 50th Anniversary Candlelight Vigil/Pride Karaoke event will commence at 8 p.m. Friday, June 28 at The Korner Lounge, 800 Louisiana Ave. LGBT community members and allies are invited to the free event.
History in the making
Establishments such as Stonewall Inn persist significant as they are rare places where LGBTQ individuals may feel welcomed and safe.
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Architectural historian and designer Stathis G. Yeros is the Mellon Fellow in Democracy and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C. His research focuses on LGBTQ+ spaces, critical urbanism studies and spatial activism. He is the author of Queering Urbanism: Insurgent Spaces in the Struggle for Justice, forthcoming from the University of California Press. He earned a PhD in architecture and a Master of Architecture from University of California, Berkeley.
As a recipient of the 2024 H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship, will spend three months explore the U.S. Deep South to collect evidence of queer and trans social life in the physical environment of a region where queer people’s rights have historically been repressed and are currently under attack. He plans to partner with LGBTQ+ nonprofits and university departments in the region to structure six workshops for local LGBTQ+ people to distribute their stories and views about what constitutes lgbtq+ space.
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Homemade bread, backyard chickens, allllllll the Netflix. The forced domesticity over the last year had its tall points. But somewhere between “Tiger King” and “Lovecraft Country,” the walls started to close in, and one thing became abundantly clear: We gotta acquire outta this state. So we took out for Arkansas’s borderlands to facilitate you plan your next road trip.
“Shreveport’s historic downtown was first built out of wood, and male child, did it burn, child, burn. Kerosene and wood stoves and bar fights were not a excellent mix.” That’s the Downtown Development Authority on Shreveport’s fiery architectural history, and though the skyline today is formed of less flammable stuff, the feeling that the city’s been through the wringer lingers.
Before the oil and gas industry chewed it up and spat it out, Shreveport was once home to the biggest Red Light District in the state of Louisiana. Decriminalization of sex function in the early 1900s allowed bordellos to flourish in the low-lying “St. Paul’s bottoms” along the banks of the Red River, and madams prefer Annie McCune gave Fresh Orleans’ bawdy Storyville a run for its coins — until outcry from the church contingent eventually squelched the enter
Central Station more than just a same-sex attracted bar
Central Station is perhaps one of Shreveport's best acknowledged secrets.
The building itself has stood at 1025 Marshall St. since 1910 as "The Central Station" by the Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad. Restorations to twist the station into a restaurant began in 1978, according to an vintage postcard found about the restaurant.
In the early 1990s, the venue came assist to life as the dance club Central Station.
Cheryl Giglio said she and her husband, Joe, opened a boogie club in Bossier City under a different name before relocating to the historic Shreveport site to acquire more space. They changed the business' label to Central Station to fit the new location.
Giglio noticed there were no alternative lifestyle bars that catered to both males and females, so they decided to unlocked one.
"We took a chance and it worked," Giglio said. "It was second for it."
Central Station is a place to hang out around one of the four bars, play on one of the two pool tables or the slot machines.
At 21 Drew Lawless became a patron of Central Station. Several years later he began his career as DJ Lawless at the club. He's been the DJ and manager for three years.
Lawle