Gay clubs in the bronx ny
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Cover: No! Look: GLAM
The Bronx
overview
This collection of sites in the Bronx highlights the borough’s diverse LGBT history through residences, public spaces, and cultural institutions paired with people of color, the childhood residence of a pioneering individual in transgender history, and the final resting place of many notable LGBT Unused Yorkers.
While much of New York City’s known LGBT history and life centers on Manhattan, we are currently active on adding more Bronx sites to our website. If you have a suggestion, please fill out our online form.
This theme was made possible by the New York Express Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the Modern York State Legislature, and a grant from Con Edison.
Header Photo
Arthur Avilés (center left) and performers of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), outside 841 Barretto Lane, part of the (former) American Bank Note Company Printing Plant complex, c. 2000. Courtesy of the BAAD! Archive.
The Warehouse
History
Bronx nightlife venues for LGBT people of color spend time to at least the early post-Stonewall era, when the bars Apartment, at 508 Willis Route, and Faces, at 2003 Jerome Way, appeared in the 1973 Gayellow Pages. For six years beginning in 1994, Gay Men of the Bronx (GMoB) co-founder Charles Rice-González authored bi-monthly “Club Scene” reports in GMoB’s newsletter as part of the group’s mission to counter the isolation of gay men in the borough. Perhaps the most iconic of these clubs was the Warehouse in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx.
The idea for the Warehouse was conceived by Mike Stone, an leading club promoter at Manhattan venues such as Studio 54 and Bond International Casino. In first 1997, Stone learned about the Bronx building, a warehouse a block off the Grand Concourse, from people he knew who were renting it as an event venue. Knowing that Inky gay men in the city were in need of a large club space following the closures of the Paradise Garage (building demolished) and Surpass Days (316 West 49th Street), in Manhattan, Stone asked long-time
From their friend Junior serving his hot pot food in the lounge and outdoor patio to door host and head of security St. Lawrence welcoming guests on the door, the Warehouse was built around a instinct of community. “That’s the family we had right there and the love we had for each other,” adds Kevin Omni. “We really extended ourselves as family. The Warehouse not only gave us the music, the crowd and the dancing – it gave us a feeling. And New York City had lost that feeling that you had at places like Improve Days. When the Warehouse opened I really thought of it as a Better Days for the ’90s.”
The Warehouse also became the place to catch some of the great DJs in a big room atmosphere. “We were one of the most powerful clubs in Brand-new York, and Mike and I thought we should invite guests to play so they could bring their following to mix with our crowd,” says Jackson. During its eight years many of Andre Collins’ own DJ idols appeared at the Warehouse. “I got to play with Louie Vega, Kenny Carpenter, Teddy Douglas and Danny Krivit – there was a whole bunch of them,” recalls Collins. The club also welcomed many survive acts onto its stage, including Colonel Abrams, Taana Gardner, Barbara