The Grocery Store Revolution Lesbian Pulp and the Secret Shelf of Desire
Release Date: 11/04/2025
Thank You for Listening: A Reflection on Culture, Memory, and Building Beyond the Table
Beyond The Table
Hello, I’m Amanda. Welcome to Beyond the Table stories of culture, memory, and meaning. In this short episode, I wanted to pause and say thank you. Beyond the Table launched in October, and this moment is an opportunity to acknowledge the listeners who showed up quietly, consistently, and with care. This episode reflects on what it has meant to build this show, the importance of attention and listening, and the gratitude that comes with creating something rooted in culture, memory, and meaning. This is not a recap, but a moment of appreciation and reflection as the year winds down. Tomorrow,...
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Christmas in the Black South: Food, Faith, and the Quiet Meaning of Home
Beyond The Table
In this Christmas episode, we explore Christmas in the Black South a tradition shaped by food, faith, memory, and the enduring pull of home. Looking beyond commercial narratives, this episode traces how Christmas became a moment of rest, gathering, and continuity in Black Southern life. From the historical roots of holiday pauses during slavery to the lasting significance of Watch Night services, Southern foodways, and returning home, we examine how culture transformed constraint into tradition. This is a story about kitchens and churches, sound and memory, migration and return, and the quiet...
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Erased: The Life and Murder of Philip DeVine
Beyond The Table
In December 1993, three people were murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska: Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert, and Philip DeVine. While Brandon Teena’s story became nationally known, Philip DeVine a twenty-two-year-old Black man was nearly erased from public memory. This episode centers Philip DeVine’s life, presence, and death, and examines how race, media framing, and popular culture shaped which victims were remembered and which were forgotten. In this episode, we explore: • Who Philip DeVine was and why he was in the home • The events of December 31, 1993 • How the legal system documented all...
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The Black Mall: A Cultural History of Buying, Belonging, and Becoming
Beyond The Table
In this episode, we explore the rise and fall of the Black mall one of the most important and overlooked cultural spaces in late twentieth-century America. From segregation-era restrictions to the emergence of malls as Black social hubs in the 1980s and 1990s, this episode traces how Black consumers reshaped retail, identity, and community across generations. We take you through the history of restricted access, postwar suburbanization, the migration of Black families into new commercial spaces, and the cultural energy that made malls feel like community centers, fashion runways, and social...
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Fifteen and Fearless: The Murder of Sakia Gunn
Beyond The Table
In May 2003, fifteen-year-old Sakia Gunn, a Black lesbian girl from Newark, was murdered in an act of homophobic violence that most of the nation never heard about. This true crime episode centers her humanity, her courage, and the community that refused to let her story disappear. In this victim-centered true crime episode, we explore: • Newark’s queer youth culture in the early 2000s • Who Sakia was before the violence • The events of that night and the immediate aftermath • The media’s lack of coverage • The community response and marches • How Sakia’s death shaped...
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Echoes of the Feast: A Thanksgiving History of Food, Culture, and Tradition
Beyond The Table
Echoes of the Feast: A Thanksgiving History of Food, Culture, and Tradition is a cinematic, time-traveling journey through the real story of the American Thanksgiving meal. This episode moves across centuries to reveal how each dish on the table came to be — shaped by Indigenous agricultural knowledge, colonial hardship, national mythmaking, Black culinary traditions, migration, and modern reinvention. Through immersive soundscapes and historical narration, the episode traces: Indigenous harvest practices of corn, beans, squash, wild turkey, and maple sugar The reality of...
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What’s Cooking? (2000): The Thanksgiving Film About Family, Food, and Identity
Beyond The Table
To mark the film’s 25th anniversary, this episode revisits What’s Cooking? (2000) a groundbreaking multicultural Thanksgiving film directed by Gurinder Chadha. Four families. Four kitchens. One holiday lived through Black, Latin, Vietnamese, and Jewish identities including one of the earliest and most tender portrayals of queer family truth in early 2000s cinema. Amanda explores why this film was ahead of its time, how it reflected the real America long before Hollywood embraced intersectionality, and why its message still matters today. Continue the Thanksgiving Arc, if you...
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Living Colour: Sound, Rage & Revolution
Beyond The Table
In this bonus episode of Beyond the Table, we explore the power, defiance, and cultural impact of Living Colour the groundbreaking Black rock band that reshaped the sound and politics of late-20th-century rock. From Cult of Personaility to Desperate People to Funny Vibe and Which Way to America, we examine how their music confronted racism, capitalism, and identity while redefining what Black artistry in rock could be. We also look at Corey Glover’s solo album Hymns especially “One” and “Little Girl” and how his vocal storytelling deepens the band’s emotional...
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Thanksgiving Everywhere
Beyond The Table
Before there was an American Thanksgiving, there was gratitude spoken in every language under the sun. In this immersive episode, Beyond the Table travels across continents and centuries to explore how people around the world give thanks through food, ritual, and community. From the yam festivals of West Africa to Caribbean Harvest Sundays, Indigenous harvest ceremonies, and modern diaspora feasts — Thanksgiving, Everywhere reveals that gratitude isn’t bound by borders or myth. Written and produced by Amanda Clemons, this story-rich soundscape blends history, memory, and music to remind us...
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November Trailer — Stories of Gratitude & Belonging
Beyond The Table
This November, Beyond the Table explores stories of gratitude and belonging where culture, memory, and meaning come together in sound. Hosted and produced by Amanda Clemons, this special preview invites you to pull up a seat for a month of reflection, creativity, and connection. New stories every Tuesday.
info_outlineIn the 1950s, you could find them between the canned goods and the cigarettes paperbacks with neon covers and whispered stories of women who loved women.
Before Pride marches or queer bookstores, there was pulp: printed on thin paper, sold for a quarter, and hidden in plain sight.
In this cinematic episode, Amanda explores the rise of lesbian pulp fiction the grocery store paperbacks that became lifelines. Featuring the stories of Women’s Barracks, Spring Fire, Beebo Brinker, and the readers who turned shame into survival.
References & Resources Mentioned:
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Women’s Barracks (1950) — Tereska Torrès
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Spring Fire (1952) — Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker)
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Odd Girl Out and Beebo Brinker Chronicles — Ann Bannon
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Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction — Jaye Zimet
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Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold — Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis
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Archives:
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Lesbian Herstory Archives (Brooklyn, NY)
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ONE Archives at USC Libraries (Los Angeles, CA)
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Documentary:
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Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1992, National Film Board of Canada)
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New episodes drop every Tuesday.
For questions email beyondthetablecast@gmail.com.