Gay clubs in the bronx

Closed: The gay nightlife scene in the Bronx goes out of business

Every Friday evening at the Bronx’s only homosexual bar, a queen of the evening held court.

Specializing in Whitney Houston, Kelly KaBoom also keeps Beyoncé and Ariana Grande on serious rotation. As Identity’s resident drag musician, she danced and lip synced in 4-inch heels, shimmering costumes and wigs — “the bigger, the better.” Kelly KaBoom, also famous as JyQuan Reede outside the club, did medleys, took requests and always staged “a reveal,” a dramatic costume change mid-set.

“The crowd that comes in — they’re recording, they’re screaming your name,” says Reede. “I love entertaining people; seeing people smile and contain a good time.”

But in mid-February, Reede learned there would be no more “Lit Fridays with Kelly Kaboom” at Identity in Woodlawn Heights. The block closed permanently, vanishing the Bronx with no LGBTQ nightlife space — again.

“We had so many LGBTQ places in New York, but most of them got shut down,” says Reede, a North Bronx resident who’s been doing drag for 20 years. “For us to have one that was local in the Bronx, it was superb . When things originate to change up, it’s just love, ‘What i

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 Recent Yorkers.

While much of New York City’s known LGBT history and life centers on Manhattan, we are currently functional 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 Declare Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the Unused 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 Avenue, part of the (former) American Bank Note Company Printing Plant complex, c. 2000. Courtesy of the BAAD! Archive.

From their friend Junior serving his hot pot diet 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 sense 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 Urban area had lost that feeling that you had at places like Better Days. When the Warehouse opened I really thought of it as a Enhanced Days for the ’90s.”

The Warehouse also became the place to listen some of the excellent DJs in a massive room atmosphere. “We were one of the most powerful clubs in Fresh York, and Mike and I thought we should invite guests to act so they could transport 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 perform with Louie Vega, Kenny Carpenter, Teddy Douglas and Danny Krivit – there was a whole bunch of them,” recalls Collins. The club also welcomed many live acts onto its stage, including Colonel Abrams, Taana Gardner, Barbara

The Warehouse

History

Bronx nightlife venues for LGBT people of color date to at least the early post-Stonewall era, when the bars Apartment, at 508 Willis Avenue, and Faces, at 2003 Jerome Avenue, 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 influential club promoter at Manhattan venues such as Studio 54 and Bond International Casino. In early 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 Black gay men in the city were in need of a large club space following the closures of the Paradise Garage (building demolished) and Better Days (316 West 49th Street), in Manhattan, Stone asked long-time