“I want you to teach me how to be fabulous,” pleads Macaulay Culkin inhabiting the role of infamous club kid Michael Alig in 2003’s cheeseball Party Monster. In response, Seth Green’s James St. James spits back, “We have nothing in common,” picks up his metal lunchbox/purse, and changes his mind, quoting William Blake: “The road … Continue reading
Living in New York, you get used to loss–not necessarily just the loss of beloved people, but of establishments. These bars, clubs, dives and cafes, particularly queer and queer-friendly spaces, are not just favored locations to grab a bite or a beer, but they’re where communities and even, worlds are built and thrive (even if temporarily). Continue reading
As most of you dearest Filthy Dreams readers know, today, June 12, is the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people who were namely LGBTQ and Latinx. Given our ongoing engagement and belief in the significance of nightlife for the queer community and communities of color, it … Continue reading
Stumbling, bleary-eyed, back into the outside world, the morning after clubbing isn’t exactly the magic hour. Or at least, not typically. But, Richard Renaldi’s photographic series Manhattan Sunday not only merely captures the still-awake but not-yet-hungover post-clubbing period of 5, 6 or even 9AM, but it also glamorizes it. Continue reading
Who would have thought that tossing orange and peach roller-skate wheels across a concrete floor to a disco tune could be so powerful? That a seemingly simple gesture could have such complex conceptual and political consequences? Continue reading
“Dancing’s total freedom be yourself and choose your feelin’ come on get up wanna see some swingin’, swayin’, movin’, groovin’, slidin’, glidin’, rockin’, reelin’, come on get up everybody dance” –Sylvester “Dance (Disco Heat)” In Fiona Buckland’s captivating and almost criminally under-read Impossible Dance: Club Culture and Queer World-Making, Buckland analyzes the queer worlds created … Continue reading