2022 Issue 5 Sept/Oct Focus - Mid-South magazine

Faith + Spirituality
THIRD
PLACES
by Tiffany Day
In the HBO show Somebody Somewhere, the beloved
character Joel introduces the main character, Sam, to
“Choir Practice.” Simultaneously place, community, and
event, Choir Practice is a weekly, nighttime variety-show-
esque gathering of mostly queer folx and misfits at a
local church. Joel’s involvement as an active member of
the church is their “in” to using the space; the name is
a cover for their gathering. It’s through Choir Practice
that Sam forms a deeper friendship with Joel and a new
friendship with trans soil scientist, professor, and Choir
Practice master of ceremonies, Fred Rococo. It's here
that Sam starts singing again, and it’s where she (re)
discovers a sense of place, belonging, and community in
her Kansas hometown as she figures out her life after the
loss of her sister.
Choir Practice is reminiscent of countless other queer
spaces, societies, and clubs in history, of those spaces
that become a haven for their regulars. It’s a perfect
example, too, of the sociological concept of a “third
place:” a space where one gathers for purposes of
community and social life that is sufficiently separate and
distinct from the primary spheres of “first place” (home)
and “second place” (work).
The sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term in his
1989 book The Great Good Place, , and in it he expounds
a third place’s characteristics: it exists on neutral ground,
it’s a social leveler—giving its patrons equal standing,
the primary activity is conversation, it’s accessible and
accommodating, it has friendly regulars and a low profile,
the mood is playful, and it’s a home away from home.
Third places, the “great good places,” offer their patrons
novelty and perspective, raise spirits, and provide friend
groups. They help fulfill humans’ needs for belonging.
Coffee shops, clubs, parks, barber shops, bookstores, gay
bars, nail salons, farmers markets, rec centers, churches,
synagogues are all examples of possible third place spaces.
Oldenburg writes about these spaces because he thinks
there’s a “problem of place in America,” that our sprawling,
barren-street suburbs and poorly designed cities make it
difficult to establish and access third places, that American
life has struggled to adapt and create other forms of
“integral community” to replace what was lost with the
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