New York is an amazing city. It played a significant role in shaping the person I am today and continues to hold real importance in my life. I’m excited to be able to share with you some of my favourite spots in the city. These are nightlife destinations - or specific events - that really embody New York’s sense of openness and diversity, along with some more chilled places to check out.
I was in my late teens, early twenties when I moved to New York. I left Chicago because all my friends were leaving, they were artists and DJs. I was ending a relationship and I thought that, since they were leaving, it was time for me to leave too. I moved to New York and slept on a friend's floor for three months until I found my own apartment. It was a typical New York story.
It’s a place where I was able to find work and where I was able to express my art - and still very open for you to discover sexual orientation and gender identity and politics.
New York was like an underground network of people coming together to support, nurture, create art and give you guidance. That was very important for marginalised people, because it was a place for artists to discover who they were and to meet like minded people and do art for art's sake. It was also a way for marginalised people, especially for trans people, to be able to work in clubs as dancers, or performers, or DJs, or bartenders without having to resort to sex work, or whatever work people would have to do for survival.
New York is still a great melting pot. It is a place where people can meet each other, make, create, collaborate and participate. This kind of openness will always be a laboratory for creative people to come together, especially for marginalised people.
Le Bain @ The Standard
The Standard, High Line, 848 Washington St, New York, NY 10014, United States
The reason I support Le Bain is because it's in the Meatpacking District, which is one of the most commercial districts in Manhattan and it still supports underground dance music and underground DJs. There's everything from queer parties, to what Susanne Bartsch does. But then also they do things with Louie Vega and Tony Humphries which is the soulful end of the city. It's really a cross-pollination of musical expressions in Manhattan which still supports the underground.
Ladyfag presents: Holy Mountain
251 W 30th St, New York, New York 10001
I worked with Ladyfag for many years, she's really the modern-day Pied Piper of nightlife. She really supports bringing colour and vibrancy and marginalised queer artists and club kids together. One of the things I love is that it still reflects the diversity of New York, there are different rooms for different people and it reminds me of what the Palladium was like in the 80s. I love it, just one big club of different vibes and expressions in one place, it's like a playground, an amusement park of nightlife.
On the bill, there’s everyone from Michael Magnan, who's the local hero, to The Carry Nation, I’ve played there, Azealia Banks has performed there. It's an amazing place. One of the great things about Ladyfag is that not only does she bring in international talent but she supports local New York artists which is really great.
I also do a party with her called Battle Hymn which is at the Flash Factory where I have a residency, she's had everyone from The Martinez Brothers, to Danny Krivit. It’s one of the best parties in New York.
2 Bridges
75 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002
I was blown away because 2 Bridges was like most things in New York - it was a culmination of different things: great books and great music. Not only dance music but all kinds of music; cassettes, poetry, zines, art and to me we so desperately need these arteries of creativity.
One of the things that I love about going to a physical record store is coming across music that I never would have looked at. It’s important having a community and meeting different artists with different musical expressions, otherwise you won't get turned on to new sounds. This place is amazing because they have all different artists: techno, house, leftfield, lo-fi and hi-fi and all different genres of music. There are cool record labels from local New York artists that you can't find digitally. They’re really underground records.
Club Cumming
505 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009, USA
There used to be a club in the early 80s called Jackie 60 in the Meatpacking District that combined performance art, drag art, music and everything which was from the area.
Alan Cumming’s club is a continuation of that theatricality of nightlife, which has big spaces for artists expressing themselves in a non-commercial, non-commodified way. It's the underground so there are club kids, fashionistas and theatre queens. It’s a hodgepodge of dress codes.
718 Sessions with Danny Krivit
74 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11201
Battle Hymn and 718 Sessions are a reflection of the multi-generational, multi-sexual nights that still carry on the tradition of the Paradise Garage. 718 Sessions are a true New York party and the essence of what New York should be.
For me, Danny is an extension of everything that I love about music, coming from his disco background and being a part of the Paradise Garage, The Loft and all of the things that I really hold dear in my heart. My favourite time in history is NewYork City between 1978 and 1992, that's when nightlife and culture were at its most vibrant. The fact he continued that tradition in New York and the fact that I'm able to connect to that is really amazing. It just sounds as fresh and modern as ever, the parties in New York are culturally diverse, multi-generational; it's a place where anyone can go and it's about the music, dancing, celebrating and joy.
It's disco classics, R’n’B, - it could be something from the 60s, to something from today. It’s one of the only few places I go to dance.
Funkanova
75 E Broadway #206, New York, NY 10002, USA
Funkanova is the most amazing vintage clothing store. I love the founder Sarah Ellison-Pratt, she's amazing, she used to be a stylist for ASAP Rocky. She's culturally engrained and she has her own unique style and she's a bit hippy and a bit mystical.She has the best vintage shop in New York, which is in the new hot spot the Chinatown mall.
She buys the craziest shit. She goes to Japan and finds kimonos and she'll buy things from the 70s, she doesn't choose anything that you would see in a fashion magazine which is what I really appreciate. It's not commercialised and it's not about labels and it's not about looking like someone else, it's really about being your own true spirit and expressing your personality through clothing. It has nothing to do with fashion, it's all about style. You can just find the most amazing one of a kind pieces there. She had a Grace Jones concert t-shirt thatI’d never seen in my life, next to an amazing kimono, next to weird brass jewellery from the 70s. She has an amazing eye and excellent taste.
Honey Dijon is one of the heroes of Night Visions – a partnership between LADbible and Smirnoff that celebrates inclusivity in nightlife culture. Check out the series here.
