Welcome to Bushwick Nightly, our bi-weekly nightlife column highlighting intersectional parties with spotlights on queer and PoC Djs and crowds!
You know what they say at the start of fall: “If it ain’t cold, don’t fix it.” That’s what they say right? Well, we say that we have another slate of parties to go to.
Friday, September 6
Yaeji Presents: Elancia, The 1896, 10 p.m.
Here at the Bushwick Nightly, there’s nothing we love quite so much as native queens returning to their home rave spaces to give back to the community that shaped them.
Yaeji is a Brooklyn-based, Queens-born, Korean-raised electronic artist whose work has stemmed from hip-hop, bass, house, and R&B vocal traditions to create a futuristic sound that appeals to both fans of bleeding edge electronica and those who were living for her remix of Drake’s Passionfruit, which helped elevate her to the kind of stardom that brings you to Coachella.
A self-coined raver as well as an artist, Yaeji attributes much of her work to the feelings she had when first moving to Brooklyn and bouncing around our local rave scene. Tonight, she’s curated this tribute to the hyper-local scenes that raised her by highlighting a number of institutions whose parties represent community-building and ego-boosting events.
Expect sets from members of the soul party Soul Summit, QTPOC party Papi Juice, late night techno ravers Sublimate, fast and freaky house ravers School of Hard Trax, and more. All of it will be at a super large warehouse, underground-vibes space The 1896 for a rave night that will feel like another world, while fully supporting this one.
Saturday, September 7
Bushwig, Various Locations, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday
Alright, people, it’s Bushwig weekend. Bushwig is an award-winning queer and drag event that began in our humble neighborhood way back in 2012. Showing just how queer AF we are (not to mention creative), and showed the rest of the world that Bushwick was a place to watch for world-class talent, intellect, and attitude.
The event is not only a drag performance and competition, it’s also a massive two-day dance party that highlights creativity and community. The event features an indoor stage with a raging dance party and an outdoor performance space. There’ll be swag for sale, food to inhale between numbers, almost 200 drag queens and musical guests like DJ Justin Cudmore, bottoms, and more.
It’s gonna be wild, there will be looks for days and days and days and days and… It’s a seminal Bushwick event and one that will continue to provide pride for our neighborhood and the queer community this weekend and for years to come. Tickets and info here.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
Discwoman Five Year Anniversary, Bossa Nova Civic Club, 10 p.m.
Discwoman is a legendary collective of female-identified electronic artists which started as a two-day festival in 2014 by Frankie Dacaiza Hutchinson (not a DJ), Emma Burgess-Olson aka Umfang, and Christine McCharen-Tran, three femmes who set out to dismantle the boys club that was (ok, still is, but we’re working on it!) the techno scene in New York and pretty much every other corner of the world that the scene touches.
In the five years since, the collective has made a huge impact on the sound, the community, the vibe, and the events of underground-style electronic music and have shaped Bushwick. Discwoman operates not only as a party and a collective, but also a platform, a booking agency, and, of course, an ideal to which we all aspire (for both our own ideal party-going moments as well as a more equal and representative scene community). Come celebrate their fifth year (and maybe even try to snag some hard-to-get apparel) at Bossa Nova Civic Club with femme artists from outside of their label like NYC-femme extraordinaire Juliana Huxtable, Shannon F aka Light Asylum, and Discwoman repped Bergsonist.
Wednesday, September 11
House of Vogue at House of Yes, 10 p.m.
Vogue and ballroom is a culture based on expression traditionally for queer, marginalized communities of color. Stemming mostly from the Bronx, the style of dance, drag, and music was popularized early on by Madonna, highlighted for documentary viewers in “Paris is Burning,” and mythologized in “Drag Race,” and now the main story in “Pose.”
In 2017 DJ Mike Q and the collective Qween Beat decided it was time to bring the party back to the community and partnered with House of Yes to hold a monthly series to spotlight the ballroom culture for its own community in a way that it hadn’t consistently been available for over a decade.
By bringing the ball to House of Yes the community is able to gather in a safe — albeit new — space and both foster the community and help it to grow with love and respect. Participate in or respectfully spectate this incredible show of the houses of vogue as they perform in contests all night long with DJ Mike Q providing a soundtrack steeped in R&B and old school house.
Cover image courtesy of @Bushwig.
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