Wendy Stuart will be hosting TriVersity Talk! this Wednesday at 7 PM ET with featured guest David Kennerley.
TriVersity Talk! is a weekly web series with featured guests discussing their lives, activism and pressing issues in the LGBTQ Community. With TriVersity Talk!, the goal is to laugh and learn.
TriVersity Talk! Is part of TriVersity’s ICARE Initiative. ICARE stands for Increasing Community Awareness through Relevant Education. ICARE Programs are generously funded by The Greater Pike Community Foundation.
Journalist and LGBTQ archivist David Kennerley invites readers to remember the mayhem from the golden age of queer nightclubs in New York, with his new book, GETTING IN: NYC Club Flyers from the Gay 1990s. The foreword is by none other than Michael Musto, nightlife guru and dishy columnist since the 1980s.
The 1990s in New York City was a heady time for clubgoers, especially those with a queer bent. Massive dance clubs like the Roxy, Palladium, Limelight, and Tunnel drew fiercely passionate crowds. But the plucky smaller venues like Splash, Crowbar, Pyramid, and Sound Factory Bar were just as vital. Kennerley ventured into these now-legendary clubs. And when it was time to leave, promoters handed out flyers for the next week’s parties. Most people tossed them on the sidewalk, but he saved each and every one.
GETTING IN spotlights over 230 of the most eye-popping, culturally resonant examples from his collection. The invites are not only visually stunning –– depicting flamboyant Club Kids, shirtless hunks, and sassy drag queens –– but tell a story of a unique moment in history when the LGBTQ community was reeling from the AIDS crisis and nightspots provided a refuge. GETTING IN is the first book to showcase and analyze queer nightclub invites from this era.
The 232-page, coffee-table-style book features essays and quotes from 40 denizens from the decade, including drag doyennes Lady Bunny and Linda Simpson, DJs Larry Tee and Susan Morabito, Club Kids Goldy Loxxx and Ernie Glam, photographer Sean Kahlil, and go-go boy Mark Allen.
What’s more, the book includes maps showing club locations and a timeline depicting years open. To provide sociopolitical context, there’s a detailed timeline of LGBTQ landmark events in the 1990s. Highlights include artist Keith Haring’s death from AIDS complications, the first lesbian kiss on network TV, an historic March on Washington for LGBTQ rights, the election of NYC nightlife enemy Mayor Giuliani, ACT UP demon-strations, and the FDA approval of lifesaving “drug cocktails” to treat HIV/ AIDS.
The club-invite hoarder always knew he wanted to share his collection, which had been languishing in old Gap shopping bags for more than two decades. After being rejected from various publishers and agents, who declared his book “too niche,” Kennerley refused to let his dream die. True to the can-do spirit of the ’90s, he quit his copywriting job and set up his own boutique publishing firm, Daken Press LLC, recruiting art directors Frank Gargiulo and Tom Kidwell, copy editor Jay Blotcher, proofreader Trent Duffy, the Art Works printing service, a legal expert, and a social media whiz.
“With GETTING IN, the goal was far beyond simply showcasing eye-popping images,” Kennerley said. “The aim was to document and celebrate the bygone clubs, clubgoers, and unsung artists who created these neglected mini-masterpieces. This is a vital chapter in LGBTQ history that must be preserved.”
GETTING IN is published by Daken Press LLC, New York. Hardcover, 232 pages, full-color, premium matte paper stock. Pub date: August 30. $59.00. Currently available for pre-order at GettingInClubBook.com at an introductory, online-only discounted price of $49.00.
David Kennerley is a journalist and historian specializing in LGBTQ culture. For two decades, he has been an Arts & Entertainment reporter for Gay City News, the NYC-based LGBTQ newspaper and website. Examples from his ephemera collection were shown in the “Letting Loose and Fighting Back” exhibition at the New-York Historical Society honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. He currently lives in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan and occasionally still goes clubbing.
Michael Musto has been a savvy, snarky chronicler of the NYC nightlife scene for nearly four decades. The openly gay pop-culture and political pundit is best known for his weekly Village Voice column, “La Dolce Musto,” which ran from 1984 to 2013. His byline has appeared in countless publications ranging from Out magazine to the New York Times. A frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Logo TV, he currently writes for Queerty.com, thedailybeast.com, Chelsea Community News, and the reboot of the Village Voice.
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