In the '80s and '90s, these spaces birthed dance icons, genres and subcultures. Why do so few remain? madison moore charts their decline and lifelong impact. In the scholar E. Patrick Johnson's 2021 essay Remember the Time: Black Queer Nightlife in the South, he recalled the fading age in question with fairy-tale enchantment: "Once upon [...]
In Los Angeles, a new wave of warehouse parties is reshaping the city’s queer underground nightlife. Presenting a deliberate alternative to the mainstream gay bars and circuit parties where white, cisgender men and commercial interests have historically dominated, gatherings like Signal Underground, Por Detroit and Take It Outside are overcoming prohibitive costs and a [...]
Described as a music-centric bar night for “hot dykes* to meet, mingle, and make out”, (lip) service has found its calling in Berlin, hosting hundreds-strong events with an emphasis on community and inclusivity Functions is our interview series profiling parties from across the world. This month we meet: (lip) service. Berlin is famous for [...]
Kevin Aviance is one of the most iconic ballroom artists of all time, still leading the movement today. From Diana Ross to Kevin JZ Prodigy, he charts the history of a genre shaped by New York's queer underground. Kevin Aviance almost never made it in the ballroom scene. In the early '90s, when the [...]
Kevin Aviance is one of the most iconic ballroom artists of all time, still leading the movement today. From Diana Ross to Kevin JZ Prodigy, he charts the history of a genre shaped by New York's queer underground. Kevin Aviance almost never made it in the ballroom scene. In the early '90s, when [...]
Published from 1989-1993, the LGBTQIA+ magazine THING platformed artists like Frankie Knuckles, Larry Heard and Deee-Lite. A new anthology will celebrate the late, great THING, an LGBTQIA+ magazine that operated at the heart of Chicago's house scene in the early '90s. The new, 460-page book compiles all ten issues of THING for [...]
The legendary house DJ crafts an expertly balanced dance floor odyssey. Honey Dijon started her career nearly 25 years ago in her hometown of Chicago. From house music's inception, she lived and breathed the genre—and took any DJ gig she could get (even going so far as saying she would DJ out of a [...]
The run of four podcast celebrates Welsh LGBTQ+ venues Memories From The Dancefloor, a podcast that explores and LGBTQ+ clubbing scenes and history, is returning for a second season. The relaunch of the podcast this month coincides with this year's Pride Month, and the second run features four episodes. Over the course of this latest [...]
With his new podcast, Queerly Beloved, Northern Irish DJ Cormac explores what it means to be a queer artist in dance music today. Interviewing contemporary figures about their histories of queer discovery, the Panorama Bar and fabric regular continues an intergenerational conversation surrounding the life-affirming moments, communal experiences and enduring challenges of LGBTQ+ expression. Alongside [...]
Uganda passed a draconian anti-LGBTQ law in March, sending the county’s queer community into turmoil and marking another brutal step in the homophobic and transphobic backlash sweeping the globe. Marke Bieschke speaks to some of the musicians affected about the new realities they face, how their art has changed, and what we [...]