‘We want to tell the true history’ of Ketchikan, Red Lantern owners say
Business partners expand burlesque performance into a boutique that focuses on sexual health, wellness and community space.
Tripp J Crouse / Spruce Root
The business partners and co-owners behind The Red Lantern are growing their burlesque performance show into an adult boutique that offers community space for events, wellness classes and rental opportunities, plus sex-positive products. In the process, Jillian Piazza and Jacquelyn “Jackie” Pope hope to highlight some of the history of Ketchikan.
“It is far and above my home, I love this place in the community,” said Jillian, who grew up in Ketchikan. “I've worked at the New York Cafe for the last eight years. That really formed that sense of community for me and dropped me into it, and I love it to this day.”
Jackie, who grew up in California, moved around the West Coast and abroad, eventually settled in Ketchikan, and is currently Ketchikan regional director at Southeast Alaska Independent Living, and has previous experience working with domestic violence nonprofits.
Seven years ago, the two began working together at the New York Cafe in Ketchikan. They realized they shared a background in dance and performance, and saw it as an opportunity to do something similar and create a space in Ketchikan for people to perform and show the history of the community.
Out of that grew their shared interest in burlesque and developing a space that could host regular shows.
“Not only do we want to have a show that's entertaining and fun, and for pleasure, and all those things, but it's really important to us that it is in line with health and comfortability and self-expression and all of those things as well,” Jillian said. “We want to create a space that is very communal and used by anyone, and everyone to get to share in any kind of way that they want to.”
The Red Lantern is a lending services client of Spruce Root, a Native Community Development Financial Institute, that offers small business lending and technical assistance to current and prospective small business owners in Southeast Alaska.
“We definitely want to create a space that cultivates healthy relationships and as a way of maybe having seminars, partnering with the different nonprofits around town to maybe help find adaptive sources for good sexual health as well,” Jackie said.
Jillian worked at an adult toy store and gift shop in Ketchikan.
“That stemmed a lot of ideas about how people deal with sex and talk about sex,” she said. “We both saw a need for this type of thing.”
Jackie said that after talking with people around town, they realized the need for more access to sexual health products. A nurse practitioner also mentioned a need for space to have seminars on different health topics.
“We started seeing our storefront also becoming a venue space for that,” she said.
Jillian said they will carry educational and pleasure-focused products, maternity bras, perfumes and massage candles. Their aim is to help make pleasure, wellness and health accessible to everyone in ways that are sex-positive, body-positive and gender-affirming.
“We are constantly an open place to get to talk and ask questions and learn,” she said. “We will have books like ‘Period Power,’ which is the history of periods and why sex matters. And we really strive to have high-quality products as well.”
Jackie and Jillian also want to acknowledge the female entrepreneur spirit that grew out of Ketchikan’s post-contact history as the Yukon Gold Rush lead to extensive prospecting for gold, silver and copper in the region near the turn of the 20th century, and later the Prohibition era, a period from 1920 to 1933 in which constitutional law prohibited the production, transportation and sale of alcohol.
“A lot of historical Creek Street was all the brothels and saloons. Sex was prominent here. Our town boomed over it. It really grew our town,” Jillian said. “We had just these incredible entrepreneurial women that chose that and it was like the first (time) that you see women really taking charge of their lives and being individuals. That's something we very much want to promote.”
“We are both queer and a part of the LGBTQ community,” Jillian said. “We want a safe space for not just women, people of all types. And just continue to grow and learn together and share together. That's our core value.”
Jillian and Jackie hope to have a soft opening in December, but already are planning a fundraiser and holiday burlesque show on December 16, as well as giving some gift cards and other handouts to promote their business.
“We are really appreciative of how much the town has come around with us,” Jackie said. “This would not have happened without the support from our fellow town members.”
Follow The Red Lantern on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redlanternak/
Find out more about Spruce Root’s business support and lending services at www.spruceroot.org.