Sundays at Cafe Tabac: PODCAST Live Recording with Karen Song + Sara Elise

Sundays at Café Tabac is an upcoming documentary feature film about the ‘90s explosion of lesbian visibility, nightlife and activism told through their intersection at the eponymous, legendary East Village, NYC party. This project also includes a podcast element, sparked by the documentary's filming journey, during which poignant and impactful coming out stories were conveyed through personal narratives. The newly recorded coming out stories of our intergenerational LGBTQ+ family for the SACT podcast series, collectively represent vital accounts of our history.

Join us for a live-audience recording of SACT's upcoming podcast episode, featuring a conversation between the film's director, Karen Song, and multidisciplinary creative, Sara Elise, where we will hear Sara's compelling coming out story, discuss her latest memoir, and her visionary efforts in creating inclusive queer spaces. Prepare for an engaging Q&A session and book signing afterward. Limited copies of will be available for purchase, but you can guarantee your signed copy by pre-ordering for pickup at the event. To pre-order: Send $28 via Zelle to @Supamakenzi or CashApp to $SaraElise333 with “Your Name + Book + CT” in the comment field. The night will begin with a short presentation about the SACT project. More about the project can be found at www.cafetabacfilm.com and @cafetabacfilm

SACT is thrilled to see original CaféTabac party creators Sharee Nash and Wanda Acosta featured and duly celebrated at this Addresses Project's portrait exhibit at Citylore. Wanda, NYC lesbian nightlife legend, is also a SACT film producer and podcast host.

About the presenters:

SARA ELISE is a multidisciplinary creative, splitting her time between Brooklyn and The Catskills, New York. She works primarily in the hospitality, well-being, and food industries and is the cofounder and designer of Apogeo Guest House, a boutique hotel concept space in Nicaragua that centers QTPOC, as well as the founder of Harvest & Revel, a NY-based sustainable event catering + design company.

She is the author of A Recipe for More, her debut book released with Harper Collins in May 2023.

Sara Elise has been featured in , , , , , , , Bon Appetit and , , , , and , among other publications. And was named one of .

She has been invited to speak and host workshops at places like Brown University and Squarespace and has modeled for brands like Sephora, Mercedes Benz, Bombas, Instagram, MCM, AG Jeans, Madewell and more.

As an autistic Black & Indigenous femme, she spends much of her thoughtspace contemplating pleasure + pain, collective joy + healing, otherness, embodiment, remembering + reclaiming, self-destruction, and growth— and how inextricably those concepts are linked. To that end, Sara Elise has deep interests in ritualization, BDSM, relationship dynamics, and the development of decolonized personal awareness and well-being.

With all of her work, she aims to challenge our collective reality by first reimagining and then creating alternative systems and spaces for Black & Indigenous people of color and LGBTQIA2S+ people to thrive.

You can join her community-making at @SaraElise333 on Instagram, and find more of her writing at saraelise.substack.com.

KAREN SONG is a queer Korean-American filmmaker from New York with a background in theater, photography and music videos. Projects she is in the process of writing include a narrative short about a queer surf community, "Seoul on Fire"—a scripted episodic set in Korea, and other scripted narrative features which firmly center and make visible women, queer and diverse communities. She is in post-production on “Sundays at Café Tabac,” a feature documentary she is directing and producing about ‘90s lesbian nightlife, media visibility, and activism told through the lens of the legendary eponymous party in NYC’s East Village, and is its podcast co-host. She is an avid surfer and is a contributing host of Swell Season Surf Radio podcast.

She has also directed and produced various short form projects including branded content, documentaries, music videos, experimental shorts and commercials on-location around the globe and in-studio. Clients and collaborators include American Express, Mini Cooper, VICE Media, Meshell Ndegeocello, The LOFT LGBTQ+Center, LA LGBTQ+Center, Aubin Pictures, Red Bull Media, Disney Channel, Momentum Agency, Equinox Fitness, Tonal Fitness, Verizon, Genius Media and many others.

About the Exhibit

What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from The Addresses Project presents twelve portraits by photographer Riya Lerner, selected from a larger multi-disciplinary project entitled , created by Gwen Shockey with Riya Lerner, featuring lesbian and queer individuals who have dedicated their lives to creating and holding space in New York City from the 1950s to today. The exhibit is on view through June 30th at the City Lore Gallery.

For more info: https://citylore.org/about-the-gallery/current-exhibition/

Host or Publisher City Lore