A couple of weeks ago, Resident Advisor published an article entitled, “America’s Gay Techno Underground,” prominently featuring some of our favorite promoters/DJ collectives, including Honey Soundsystem (Minx will be playing alongside them, Steffi, and the Black Madonna on Saturday, April 16 in San Francisco) and Detroit’s own Macho City.
These parties are a throwback to our music’s heritage. Dance culture was created in the underground, in old warehouses and backroom clubs. In Detroit, we had clubs like Heaven, the Factory, the Gas Station, and Cheeks to name a few, and DJs like the legendary Ken Collier.
Collier brought a sense of community and belonging to his parties, and it was a place to not only dance, but be free. He set the stage for so many of us after him, and his legacy carries on with us on dance floors today. As Stacey Hotwaxx Hale said in an article for Red Bull Music Academy, “Ken Collier was the Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan of Detroit.”
Now that dance culture has proliferated mainstream culture, it’s heartening to know that there is a new resurgence back to our roots being spearheaded by the queer community, who are following in the footsteps and legacies of their foremothers and forefathers, and yet expanding boundaries along the way. As the RA article notes, “Thanks to Honey Soundsystem, Macho City and the parties they helped inspire, queer people in North America are once again becoming a dominant force in the music they helped to create so many decades ago.”
We hear that.
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