Hiv and Aids Kin: the Discotecture of Paradise Garage

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Hiv and Aids Kin: the Discotecture of Paradise Garage HIV AND AIDS KIN: THE DISCOTECTURE OF PARADISE GARAGE Ivan L. Munuera Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/thld/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/thld_a_00717/1611039/thld_a_00717.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 RUSHIN’ IN THE SKY: 1 Series I. Internal Files: CELEBRATION, CONFUSION, Fundraising: Gay Men’s Health Crisis. 1982-1984. AND MOURNING TS The National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce Records, “Rushin’ in the sky, flyin’ high, trippin’ on the moon 1973-2000: Series I. Cornell …, here in me, sexualityyy”—the lyrics of Cerrone’s University Libraries. Archives hit “Trippin’ on the Moon” reverberated at Paradise of Sexuality & Gender. 2 One of the first news Garage, a nightclub located at 84 King Street in items that called AIDS “gay Lower Manhattan, New York, on the night of April cancer” or “gay plague”: 8, 1982. Paradise Garage was also known as “Paradise Lawrence K. Altman, “Rare Gay-Rage” because the queer community that Cancer Seen in 41 Homosex- uals,” The New York Times, https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00717 frequented the club was extremely politically active. July 3, 1981; Matt Clark and In fact, that night the club was hosting April Marianna Gosnell, “Diseases Showers, a party organized by GMHC (Gay Men’s That Plague Gays,” Newsweek, Health Crisis1) to fundraise in support of initiatives 21 December 1981, 51-52; and Michael VerMeulen, “The Gay intended to confront a new epidemic called the Plague,” New York Magazine, 2 “gay cancer” or the “gay plague” by the media. May 31, 1982, 52-78. This “gay cancer” or GRID (Gay-Related Immune 3 “Current Trends Pre- Deficiency) had already affected more than 300 vention of Acquired Immune New Yorkers; by spring, half of them would be Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS): Report of Inter-Agency 3 dead (Fig. 1). Recommendations,” Morbidity GRID was renamed AIDS (Acquired Immune and Mortality Weekly Report Deficiency Syndrome) during the summer of 1982 32, no. 9 (March 4, 1983): 101-3. and was described as a syndrome “at least moderately 4 Altman, “New Homosexual Disorder Worries Health predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity, Officials,” The New York Times, occurring in a person with no known case for May 11, 1982. diminished resistance to that disease”4 and “a rare 5 Lawrence K. Altman, and rapidly fatal form of cancer”5 manifested as “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals” Kaposi’s sarcoma and/or the infection PCP (pneu- 6 Lillian & Clarence de la mocystis carinii pneumonia). Before 1981, cases Chapelle Medical Archives. of Kaposi’s sarcoma were so infrequent that the NYU Cancer Registry. cancer struck just two out of every three million 7 Altman, “Rare Cancer Americans. Indeed, the NYU Cancer Registry archives Seen in 41 Homosexuals.” show only three cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma for the whole of the 1970s.6 In July of 1981, there were at least 41 cases, a number that increased every day.7 This uncommon form of cancer later became one of the AIDS-defining illnesses and probably the most visible sign of the disorder given the apparition of purple-colored tumors on the skin. In the confusion of the early 1980s, when AIDS was still an unknown medical affliction, nightclubs like Paradise Garage provided spaces for information and collective discussion. At the time, the United Munuera L. Ivan © 2020 133 THRESHOLDS 48 KIN States government, along with the mainstream media and several health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sought to identify and confine potential risk groups, which came to be known as the 4Hs8—homosexuals, heroin addicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians—a list the CDC provided on March 4, 1983.9 Members of these groups were ostracized and deprived of considerations typical during the outbreak of an epidemic: protocols of announcement, transparency in information, research, and measure-taking. Gary Bauer, assistant to President Reagan, told Face Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/thld/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/thld_a_00717/1611039/thld_a_00717.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 the Nation that the reason the president did not utter the word “AIDS” publicly until a press conference 8 During the first years of Issues, Policies and Programs held in late 1985 was that the administration did the HIV and AIDS epidemic, (Washington DC: Intergovern- the words “group” and not perceive the epidemic as a problem until then. mental Health Policy Project, “community” were often George Washington University, AIDS was not yet considered serious because by mixed, referring to the same 1987). the mid-1980s “it hadn’t spread into the general part of the population affected 13 Similar forms of neglect population”10—as if the patients infected were not by HIV and AIDS. Nowadays, have persisted even after this part of the US population, as if they held some the Centers for Disease date, considering the history Control and Prevention (CDC) of stigmatization that people other citizenship, as if they were another kind of has defined “group”—as in living with HIV and AIDS faced, kin. Nevertheless, by 1985, already 20,000 Americans “control group” or “test as will be explained later in had died from the disease—an epidemic according group”—as a segment of the this paper. to the CDC’s own definition of that term: when population affected by specific 14 Tim Lawrence, Life and conditions, a definition that Death on the New York Dance `the number infected rises above the level expected does not link the individuals Floor, 1980-1983 (Durham 11 in a given population in the same area (Fig. 2). to a greater context outside and London: Duke University The epidemic was finally considered serious in of the study. These individuals Press, 2016), 328. 1987, when the Assistant Secretary of the Department share common characteristics but they do not necessarily of Health and Human Services, Robert E. Windom, share common values. The declared in a memorandum that word “community,” however, suggests a link in a much AIDS is the number one health priority … The magnitude broader sense—local, state, of the problem is illustrated by the fact that over regional—even when the 40,000 Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS, individuals are taken out of of whom half have died. It is estimated that 1.5 million the context of a study. These Americans are already infected with the Human individuals share common Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and that many of these values in a given geographical persons will eventually develop AIDS or a related area. In this sense, the words illness. In addition, every State [of the United States] “group” and “community” are 12 has reported AIDS cases (Fig. 3). used in this paper following the CDC recommendations, As the government of the United States neglected but also with a historical sense. to respond to the epidemic, and did not even Territorial connotations, national definitions, and other publicly account for the actual dimension HIV/AIDS community-based associa- 13 had reached until 1987, parties like April Showers tions are used to describe provided a space for information and discussion groups. Information provided for those affected. François Kevorkian, the DJ that by the CDC. played “Trippin’ on the Moon” at Paradise Garage 9 “Current Trends Pre- vention of Acquired Immune on April 12, 1982, expected the club-goers to engage Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS): in a sheer collective celebration that night. Even Report of Inter-Agency though the audience danced to the beats of this Recommendations,” 101-3. intergalactic sexual-liberation anthem, they also 10 Jan Zita Grover, “AIDS: Keywords,” in AIDS: Cultural interrupted the music constantly, screaming “this Analysis/Cultural Activism, 14 is an emergency, people are dying left and right.” eds. Douglas Crimp and Leo These cries were accurate. A significant percentage Bersani (Cambridge, MA: of the people who attended the party succumbed MIT Press, 1988), 23-24. 11 Information provided to the epidemic in the years following, including by the CDC. Michael Brody, the proprietor of Paradise Garage; 12 AIDS: A Public Paul Popham, one of the founders of GMHC; Keith Health Challenge: State 134 HIV and AIDS Kin: The Discotecture of Paradise Garage Fig. 1 Poster for April Showers, April 8 1982, Paradise Garage. Gay Men’s Health Crisis records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library/GMHC. Courtesy of GMHC. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/thld/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/thld_a_00717/1611039/thld_a_00717.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 135 THRESHOLDS 48 KIN Haring, the artist behind the graffiti that decorated Fig. 2 Temporal distribution of diagnosed cases of the club; and Larry Levan, another DJ at Paradise the immune suppression in New York City. March 1982. New York City Municipal Archives. Garage and its undeniable star. In what could be read as an inflection point in the way Paradise Fig. 3 AIDSGATE, The Silence = Death Project, 1987. Garage performed as a site for collective activism, Courtesy of Avram Finkelstein. now tinged by sadness and fury, Kevorkian never played the song again (Fig. 4). While nightclubs are commonly perceived as dark, autonomous interiors filled with purely hedo- nistic sounds, that night speeches punctuated the music, turning the club into a political space. Stories about hospitals that refused to treat those affected Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/thld/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/thld_a_00717/1611039/thld_a_00717.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 by the disease, funeral directors who declined to embalm the bodies of AIDS victims, and emergency medical technicians who ignored calls in so-called gay neighborhoods found in Paradise Garage a place where they could be collectively responded to. The club-goers also shared information about upcoming street actions and demonstrations to engage the governments of New York and the United States, as well as the addresses of lawyers for those seeking legal counseling.
Recommended publications
  • EDM (Dance Music): Disco, Techno, House, Raves… ANTHRO 106 2018
    EDM (Dance Music): Disco, Techno, House, Raves… ANTHRO 106 2018 Rebellion, genre, drugs, freedom, unity, sex, technology, place, community …………………. Disco • Disco marked the dawn of dance-based popular music. • Growing out of the increasingly groove-oriented sound of early '70s and funk, disco emphasized the beat above anything else, even the singer and the song. • Disco was named after discotheques, clubs that played nothing but music for dancing. • Most of the discotheques were gay clubs in New York • The seventies witnessed the flowering of gay clubbing, especially in New York. For the gay community in this decade, clubbing became 'a religion, a release, a way of life'. The camp, glam impulses behind the upsurge in gay clubbing influenced the image of disco in the mid-Seventies so much that it was often perceived as the preserve of three constituencies - blacks, gays and working-class women - all of whom were even less well represented in the upper echelons of rock criticism than they were in society at large. • Before the word disco existed, the phrase discotheque records was used to denote music played in New York private rent or after hours parties like the Loft and Better Days. The records played there were a mixture of funk, soul and European imports. These "proto disco" records are the same kind of records that were played by Kool Herc on the early hip hop scene. - STARS and CLUBS • Larry Levan was the first DJ-star and stands at the crossroads of disco, house and garage. He was the legendary DJ who for more than 10 years held court at the New York night club Paradise Garage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Decline of New York City Nightlife Culture Since the Late 1980S
    1 Clubbed to Death: The Decline of New York City Nightlife Culture Since the Late 1980s Senior Thesis by Whitney Wei Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of BA Economic and Social History Barnard College of Columbia University New York, New York 2015 2 ii. Contents iii. Acknowledgement iv. Abstract v. List of Tables vi. List of Figures I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………7 II. The Limelight…………………………………………………………………12 III. After Dark…………………………………………………………………….21 a. AIDS Epidemic Strikes Clubland……………………..13 b. Gentrification: Early and Late………………………….27 c. The Impact of Gentrification to Industry Livelihood…32 IV. Clubbed to Death …………………………………………………………….35 a. 1989 Zoning Changes to Entertainment Venues…………………………36 b. Scandal, Vilification, and Disorder……………………………………….45 c. Rudy Giuliani and Criminalization of Nightlife………………………….53 V. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………60 VI. Bibliography………………………………………………………………..…61 3 Acknowledgement I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Alan Dye for his wise guidance during this thesis process. Having such a supportive advisor has proven indispensable to the quality of this work. A special thank you to Ian Sinclair of NYC Planning for providing key zoning documents and patient explanations. Finally, I would like to thank the support and contributions of my peers in the Economic and Social History Senior Thesis class. 4 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of city policy changes and the processes of gentrification on 1980s nightlife subculture in New York City. What are important to this work are the contributions and influence of nightlife subculture to greater New York City history through fashion, music, and art. I intend to prove that, in combination with the city’s gradual revanchism of neighborhood properties, the self-destructive nature of this after-hours sector has led to its own demise.
    [Show full text]
  • 5197-Edge13 MARCH 2006
    The Strokes boxing clever In this Issue: e Ministry of Sound, Singapore e Virtually Frank Sinatra e Kanye West & Chris Rea e Icebar & Living Room W1 Issue 13 March 2006 The Martin Experience www.martin-audio.com right at the cutting EDGE THE EDGE An earlier than usual edition of The Edge this spring sees us publishing our biggest-ever issue in time for the NSCA Exhibition in Las Vegas. It’s a win-win situation as this then enables us to reach visitors at the hugely influential Pro Light+Sound Frankfurt at the end of the month, with arguably the most important edition of The Edge we have yet published. Rich in coverage from North America, we are also proud to bring you some groundbreaking stories from around the world. In the hierarchy of pro audio installs little causes as much excitement as projects undertaken by Steve Dash (Integral Sound) and Austen Derek (Aurateq) — particularly to any of us old enough and fortunate enough to have experienced the original Richard Long sound system at Paradise Garage nearly 30 years ago. Therefore your first port of call should be to page 6 where the new 3,360-capacity Ministry of Sound in Singapore is awash with Martin Audio components specified by these master technicians. On the domestic front we have been kept busy covering The Strokes (with Capital Sound), Chris Rea (with RG Jones) and the new ‘Virtual’ Frank Sinatra season (with Autograph Sound) who have used our equipment as their main PA arrays at the London Palladium. Working from reclaimed archives, the show has presented a major restoration and time-coding challenge as the Sinatra voice is ‘synced’ to a live 24-piece orchestra and 35mm footage appears on nine different moving projection displays.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 "Disco Madness: Walter Gibbons and the Legacy of Turntablism and Remixology" Tim Lawrence Journal of Popular Music S
    "Disco Madness: Walter Gibbons and the Legacy of Turntablism and Remixology" Tim Lawrence Journal of Popular Music Studies, 20, 3, 2008, 276-329 This story begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, debilitated and virtually blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In between Walter Gibbons worked as a cutting-edge discotheque DJ and remixer who, thanks to his pioneering reel-to-reel edits and contribution to the development of the twelve-inch single, revealed the immanent synergy that ran between the dance floor, the DJ booth and the recording studio. Gibbons started to mix between the breaks of disco and funk records around the same time DJ Kool Herc began to test the technique in the Bronx, and the disco spinner was as technically precise as Grandmaster Flash, even if the spinners directed their deft handiwork to differing ends. It would make sense, then, for Gibbons to be considered alongside these and other towering figures in the pantheon of turntablism, but he died in virtual anonymity in 1994, and his groundbreaking contribution to the intersecting arts of DJing and remixology has yet to register beyond disco aficionados.1 There is nothing mysterious about Gibbons's low profile. First, he operated in a culture that has been ridiculed and reviled since the "disco sucks" backlash peaked with the symbolic detonation of 40,000 disco records in the summer of 1979.
    [Show full text]
  • Nj's Lgbt Powerlist
    THE 2018 INSIDER OUT 100 NJ’S LGBT POWERLIST WE'VE COME A LONG WAY! Message from the Editor 2018 LGBT POWER Welcome to InsiderNJ’s OUT 100 Power List, a first-of-its kind-tribute to influential LGBTs in New Jersey politics. This list was a reader’s idea. My editor Max Pizarro and my General Manager Pete Oneglia green-lighted the idea so long as I promised to make it amazing. These Power Lists mean a lot to people. Making it amazing seems like the least I could do given this opportunity. P.O. Box 66 Verona, NJ 07044 [email protected] www.InsiderNJ.com WE’VE COME A LONG WAY, HAVEN’T WE? When I acquired HIV as a teenager back in 1992, you’d be hard pressed to name a single politically influential LGBT person anywhere in America, let alone 100 from a single state! Nobody was talking about gay marriage. There were no workplace protections back then, no gays in the military. What Max Pizarro we did have was a hostile government and an equally hostile Catholic Church driving our nation’s Editor-in-Chief AIDS policy. Which might explain why the life-saving AIDS “cocktail” was still years away, something [email protected] I blessedly wouldn’t need until 1998. Many listed below played a huge role taming the AIDS crisis and then delivering a raft of pro-LGBT laws in its wake. This list also includes the next generation of LGBTs already making their mark on the New Jersey political landscape. They’ve snatched the baton in a purposeful manner befitting a generation raised to dream bigger than mine ever could.
    [Show full text]
  • Year of Publication: 2006 Citation: Lawrence, T
    University of East London Institutional Repository: http://roar.uel.ac.uk This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription. Author(s): Lawrence, Tim Article title: “I Want to See All My Friends At Once’’: Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco Year of publication: 2006 Citation: Lawrence, T. (2006) ‘“I Want to See All My Friends At Once’’: Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco’ Journal of Popular Music Studies, 18 (2) 144-166 Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-1598.2006.00086.x DOI: 10.1111/j.1533-1598.2006.00086.x “I Want to See All My Friends At Once’’: Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco Tim Lawrence University of East London Disco, it is commonly understood, drummed its drums and twirled its twirls across an explicit gay-straight divide. In the beginning, the story goes, disco was gay: Gay dancers went to gay clubs, celebrated their newly liberated status by dancing with other men, and discovered a vicarious voice in the form of disco’s soul and gospel-oriented divas. Received wisdom has it that straights, having played no part in this embryonic moment, co-opted the culture after they cottoned onto its chic status and potential profitability.
    [Show full text]
  • Municipal Equality Index Equality Municipal a NA Municipal Equality Index Equality Municipal a NA Municipal Equality Index Equality Municipal a NA
    1640 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20036-3278 16401640 RhodeRhode IslandIsland Ave.Ave. N.W.N.W. Washington,Washington, DCDC 20036-327820036-3278 FRONT DESK: (202) 628-4160 TTY: (202) 216-1572 Municipal Equality Index TOLL-FREE: (800) 777-4723 FFRORONNTT D DESK:ESK: (202)(202) 628-4160628-4160 FAX: (202) 347-5323 A NATIONWIDE EVALUATION OF MUNICIPAL LAW TTTTYY:: (202)(202) 216-1572216-1572 MunicipalMunicipal EqualityEquality IndexIndex TTOLL-OLL-FFREE:REE: (800)(800) 777-4723777-4723 FAX:FAX: (202)(202) 347-5323347-5323 AA NNAATIOTIONNWIDEWIDE EVAEVALULUAATIOTIONN OFOF MUMUNNICIPICIPAALL LALAWW 2013 20132013 2013 Municipal Equality Index Municipal Equality 2013 2013 Municipal Equality Index Municipal Equality 2013 2013 Municipal Equality Index Municipal Equality 2013 A N A TIO N WIDE EVA LU A A N A N TIO N A A OF MU TIO TIO N N WIDE WIDE N ICIP A EVA EVA L LA W LU LU A A TIO TIO N N OF MU OF MU HRC-cover.indd 1 11/13/13 8:25 PM N N ICIP ICIP A A L LA L LA W W HRC-cover.indd 1 11/13/13 8:25 PM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Frequently Asked Questions An Introduction HOWABOUT WER ETH TEH ESEAUT HOR HOWTH EAR MEEI T HTEEAM SCORES CANWe O oweNLY many CITIES thanks IN toST JessieATES 4 TheA Municipal Letter from Chad Equality Griffin, PresidentIndex wouldof the Human not Rightshave Campaign been possible Foundation without the valuable 5 A Letter from Rebecca Isaacs, Executive Director of the Equality Federation Institute CITIESCathryn CH OakleyOSEN? is Legislative Counsel, CATheLCUL 2013ATED? MEI is a project that WITSheffield,H GOOD Sam LA Anderson,WS GET LimorGOOD Finkel contributions made by state and local advocates.
    [Show full text]
  • Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce
    asbury park CITY GUIDE Welcome to Asbury Park, a small hip city and resort town located on the ocean in central Monmouth County, New Jersey! This Guide has everything you’ll need to SHOP, DINE and STAY. If you grew up or vacationed here years ago you probably have wonderful memories. If you haven’t visited in a while you will be proud and amazed to rediscover the city that everyone falls in LO VE with today. MAIN STREET Main Street and the west side have long-featured ethnically diverse bakeries, markets and restaurants with international aromas from El Salvador to Sicily and beyond. Long-time favorite music venues are here as well as retail shops and resources for home renovations. You will find everything from rehabilitated bicycles to fine architectural millwork. asburyparkchamber.com FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING IN ASBURY PARK AsburyFirst.com APBoardwalk.com APVibeDowntown.com CityofAsburyPark.com The Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce office is located at 1201 Springwood Avenue, Unit 104 732.775.7676 [email protected] Our seasonal visitor center is located from May to Sept on the AP Boardwalk at 3rd Ave. BOARDWALK Anchored by Asbury Park Convention Hall and The Casino building, the Asbury Park Boardwalk is one of America’s original destinations to people watch. Today the AP Boardwalk offers boutique shopping, fun and food for kids of all ages as well as fine and casual dining with stunning views. A mile of beach and surf awaits you. DOWNTOWN Shop downtown at nationally renowned home decor shops, antique centers, and vintage clothing stores.
    [Show full text]
  • Danny Tenaglia Rides the White Horse Danny Tenaglia
    return of the king Danny Tenaglia rides the white horse Danny Tenaglia a few years ago Danny Tenaglia was the It’s crunch time king of New York, the untouchable “DJ’s DJ.” for Tenaglia Then the city’s club scene fell apart. Now the man who embodies house music in the uS is back with a residency at Space ibiza Words Todd Burns Photos adam Weiss he room iS dark. The moved in, the neighborhood was just music is loud. There’s that. a neighborhood. a place where a disco ball overhead his brothers became friends with local and Danny Tenaglia is bouncers and convinced them to let at the controls. he’s their kid brother in because he was just put on Pink “just dying to see a disco ball”. Tenaglia Floyd's ‘on The run’. pulls out a picture. “This was me in “i saw roger Waters 1976 in at a place called The miami play Dark Side of the moon at Lounge in Williamsburg,” he proudly TCoachella recently. it was awesome!” proclaims. mixmag points out the he gushes. mixmag is standing in front mustache. “it was the 70s, you know. of him, in-between four speakers once and i was trying to look more mature.” housed at Vinyl, the legendary New Now, Tenaglia is bald underneath his York club where Tenaglia started his Be ever-present baseball cap. Today, the received a call from Twilo to play a on the roof. When his kids took over, Yourself party, and we’re listening to cap is white and logoless, accompanied guest spot with Frankie Knuckles.
    [Show full text]
  • Nostalgia, Utopia, and Desire in the New York Lesbian Bar
    Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar Senior Capstone Projects 2019 “It’s your future, don’t miss it”: nostalgia, utopia, and desire in the New York lesbian bar Zoe Wennerholm Vassar College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone Recommended Citation Wennerholm, Zoe, "“It’s your future, don’t miss it”: nostalgia, utopia, and desire in the New York lesbian bar" (2019). Senior Capstone Projects. 897. https://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone/897 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Window @ Vassar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Window @ Vassar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “It’s Your Future, Don’t Miss It”: Nostalgia, Utopia, and Desire in the New York Lesbian Bar Zoe Wennerholm April 26, 2019 Senior Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies ________________________ Advisor, Lisa Brawley Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………….3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter 1: History: A Brief Review of Lesbian Bars in the 20th and 21st Century American Urban Landscape……………………………………………………………………………9 Chapter 2: Loss: Lesbian Bar Closings and Their Affective Reverberations………………29 Chapter 3: Desire: The Lesbian Bar in the Queer Imaginary……………………………….47 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….52 References Cited……………………………………………………………………………55 Appendix 1: Interview with Gwen Shockey…………………………………………………60 Appendix 2: Timeline of New York Lesbian Bars…………………………………………73 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Lisa Brawley, whose guidance and encouragement always came at exactly the right time. My heartfelt thanks also goes to Gwen Shockey, whose enthusiasm and willingness to speak with a naïve young dyke made me feel understood and inspired.
    [Show full text]
  • Work Carried on at a Punishing Rate at the Paradise Garage. ''I Went in There with Michael Brody, His Lover Fred, and La
    365 of 522 *** Work carried on at a punishing rate at the Paradise Garage. ‘‘I went in there with Michael Brody, his lover Fred, and Larry Levan,’’ says Nathan Bush. ‘‘We had sledgehammers, and we gutted the place ourselves.’’ The owners of Chameleon had put down additional concrete and a parquet floor, all of which had to go. ‘‘We broke it up and dumped it outside. I went there quite a few nights a week after work. After a while Michael had construction guys come in to do the job.’’ Brody, meanwhile, main- tained the ground floor as a parking lot. ‘‘He worked there during the day. I’d come by and we’d go upstairs. Different walls were going up and areas were being created. You could see the space being transformed little by little.’’ 7145 Lawrence / LOVE SAVES THE DAY / sheet The Paradise Garage officially opened in January 1978 to an ominous seasonal greeting: a snowstorm delayed the delivery of some sound equip- ment from Kentucky, and as a result the thousand-plus crowd was left standing in line for more than an hour in subzero temperatures. ‘‘I re- member being there that morning and asking Michael, ‘Do you think you’ll be able to open tonight?’ and his eyes just filled up with tears,’’ says Mel Cheren. ‘‘There was a downstairs area where you parked cars, and he could have brought the people in there to keep them out of the real cold, but there was so much confusion he didn’t think of it. The open- ing was a complete disaster, and it took Michael a couple of years to win those people back.’’ Others, however, have a less cataclysmic memory of the night.
    [Show full text]
  • ©2009 Edgar Rivera Colón ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
    ©2009 Edgar Rivera Colón ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GETTING LIFE IN TWO WORLDS: POWER AND PREVENTION IN THE NEW YORK CITY HOUSE BALL COMMUNITY by EDGAR RIVERA COLÓN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Anthropology Written under the direction of Professor Louisa Schein And approved by __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Getting Life in Two Worlds: Power and Prevention in the New York City House Ball Community By EDGAR RIVERA COLÓN Dissertation Director: Dr. Louisa Schein This dissertation project is an ethnographic study of the House Ballroom community in New York City. The House Ballroom community is a Black and Latino/a queer and transgender alternative kinship system and dance performance circuit. Specifically, it follows the lives of HIV prevention workers who are deeply embedded in House Ballroom social networks. Based on four years of anthropological fieldwork, I document the way that these community activists fashion meaningful lives in the meeting point between the Ballroom world and the HIV prevention not-for-profit organizations in New York City. It is also an ethnography of the productive failure of the gay and lesbian movement's inability to include working class Black and Latino/a queer communities in developing a political infrastructure to combat HIV/AIDS in New York City. My informants have helped to develop an alternative civil and political infrastructure by combining material and symbolic resources found in the HIV prevention not-for-profit ii organizations and the House Ballroom community.
    [Show full text]