Boston's longest-running lesbian night is also Phoenix readers' repeated pick for best. Dyke Night at Jamaica Plain's Midway Café continues to attract lesbians, dykes, butches, bisexuals, femmes, trannies, queers, and everyone in between from Boston and beyond every Thursday night. The impetus for Dyke Night, produced by artist/activist Kristen Porter since 1998, wasn't originally to provide lesbians with a good time -- although that was surely part of it. The roots of Dyke Night were based more in social change than in party grrrls, as Porter wanted to created a gathering place to plan, promote, and support lesbian activists, causes, and events. And that intent still holds: 25 percent of the evening's proceeds get donated to LGBT causes. The Midway epitomizes Jamaica Plain's open arms, especially on Thursdays.

Jamaica Plain is also the new home to the other Phoenix readers' pick for best lesbian night. The all-woman Amazon Poetry Slam used to take place the last Sunday of the month at Ryles in Inman Square. It recently relocated to the Milky Way. Ren Jender, who hosts the weekly slam, wanted to create a place where women could slam without harassment from audience members, judges, or fellow slammers, a place where women could be sexually explicit in their slams without getting any grief. The Amazon Slam has always been by and for women: men are welcome to watch, but not recite. And anyone who's seen an Amazon Slam knows that it's racy and rhythmic, provocative, energized, electric, smooth, and always sexy.

Midway Café, 3496 Washington Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-9038; Amazon Poetry Slam at the Milky Way, 405 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-3740.