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Court held every Friday night at the Bronx’s only gay bar, Queen of the Night.
With her Whitney Houston specialty, Kelly Kaboom keeps Beyoncé and Ariana Grande in heavy rotation. As the resident actress dances in 4-inch heels, sparkly costumes and wigs, and wears lips – “The bigger, the better.” Kelly Kaboom, also known outside the club as Jiquan Reed, made medals, took questions and always did a “reveal,” in the middle of a dramatic costume change.
“The crowd that came — they’re filming, they’re screaming your name,” Reedy says. “I love entertaining people; seeing people smile and have a good time.
But in mid-February, Reddy learned that “Lit Fridays with Kelly Kaboom” on the Woodlawn Heights identity would no longer exist. The bar is permanently closed, leaving the Bronx with no LGBTQ nightlife scene – once again.
“We used to have so many LGBTQ places in New York, but most of them were closed,” said Reede, a North Bronx resident who has worked in drag for 20 years. “It was great for us to have our location in the Bronx. When things started to change, ‘What’s going on?’ As it is said.”
There were gay bars like Identity. On the decline For a decade, LGBTQ businesses across the country have been slowly shrinking. New York City’s thin nightlife scene lives on, if a little thinner than it used to be, but its wealth is not evenly distributed across the boroughs. Manhattan has the majority of the city’s 60-some gay bars and clubs, with a fair amount in Brooklyn and a handful in Queens. Staten Island has none, which is not surprising given its small, historically conservative and suburban population. And now, the same can be said for the Bronx.
Despite being extremely liberal and urban, the Bronx couldn’t sustain a gay bar for more than two decades.
Since 2004, the county has acquired and shuttered at least four gay bars, keeping only one or two at a time. It’s the last ID, owned by Irish restaurateur Aidan Loughran, who says the city’s population in September has boosted business activity.
“It’s tough when you’re up against Manhattan,” Loughran said. “It’s a struggle for us here on ID, because I think most people in the Bronx would prefer to go to the city.”
Before Loughran, there was Audrey de Jesus. In the year In 2006, the Hunts Point businesswoman founded Nina’s Lounge, a Bronx gay bar in a country club section. He died two years later. She tried again, then again, with the same result. Her fourth attempt was completed in 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
De Jesus remembers one gay bar in the district during her ten years in business: Victor and Victoria, which had a relatively impressive lifespan of four years, according to De Jesus.
“We need something, because the Bronx is underutilized,” said De Jesus, who recently had a blast with a lesbian couple on her block. “They were like, ‘Why do we always go to Manhattan to hang out and drink? Why can’t something like this happen in the Bronx? And I said, ‘Yeah, I know, I’m working on it,”’ she says.
De Jesus, who regularly met with children struggling with LGBTQ identity, spent dry and forbidden “teen nights” in bars in the Bronx. She believes some Bronxites are less accepting of different identities, and it’s important for young people to have a place where they feel safe.
“I’ve probably been stereotyped a couple of times, but not in your face like now,” said De Jesus, who is lesbian. “It seems that we are taking a step back because of the current ignorance and violence. You know, people are being killed for who they are.”
De Jesus’ Bronx bars closed due to problems with neighbors, landlords and liquor licensing. Still, she hasn’t given up on her dream venue: an inclusive, event-oriented environment with burlesque shows and a place for people of all identities.
But now she’s looking for Harlem instead.
“I just – I want to find the right place,” she says. “I shouldn’t be acting this way.”
When Identity opens in June 2021, Bronx native James Hammond hangs out there twice a week. That summer, Kelly hosted the second annual Pride Project at the bar, featuring Kaboom and another drag performer named Misty Mountain. As much as Hammond was there, he wasn’t impressed by his identity.
Hammond and de Jesus both noted that the bar position was a handicap. On East 233rd Street, Mannett’s small storefront sits between residential buildings and a flooring company, across the street from a sprawling cemetery – just north of Woodlawn Cemetery, an hour’s public transit ride from areas as far south as the Bronx.
In these unlikely surroundings, Kelly KaBoom performs every Friday from 11pm to 2am, bathed in colorful light. The place vibrated with music. Neighbors used to a quiet block have complained about noise and unruly patrons and made repeated 311 calls.
Hammond said that over time, prices have increased, cover charges have appeared and the facility’s residents have lost touch with the community in a statistical region. more poor than the other districts. And LGBTQ people are more It is likely According to Legal Services NYC, to have lower income than their non-LGBTQ partners.
“The Bronx is a tough place to do business,” Hammond said. “That’s why we’re losing these things. I think until someone lives in the Bronx and understands not only LGBTQ life, but specifically the culture in the Bronx, an authentic LGBTQ space is not established.
The Bronx wasn’t always the nightlife desert it is today.
Charles Rice-Gonzalez, founder of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), remembers local community building in the ’90s. While working as an operator at the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, a queer information hotline, he found and joined a seminal group called the Bronx Gay Group. “I loved being in the same neighborhood with all my gay friends,” says Rice-Gonzalez, recalling group trips to places like the Bronx Zoo. “The AIDS fair was there, so we created a place for people to gather.”
Rice-Gonzalez frequented several Bronx gay bars over the course of the decade. He remembers bouncing from place to place, meeting strangers and making friends with other queers, ending nights at a diner as the sun rises. He said the reason gay bars don’t stick in the Bronx may not be unique to the borough. The Bronx is characterized by homophobia, but Rice-Gonzalez, in her 14 years at BAAD! A pride flag was flown outside the previous location in Hunts Point, she said.
“There is no such thing as isolation,” says Rhys Gonzalez. “I mean one of the reasons people went to bars was to meet people, and now you can put an application on your phone to meet people around you.”
Reid, the impersonator, says it’s hard to get a gig as a drag queen in New York, especially in Manhattan. Before “Late Friday,” Kelly Kaboom had been sleeping for five years. Reedy said he will always be grateful to have her back as the “Queen of Identity” for a year and a half, the Bronx’s ultimate gay bar.
“I’m glad to be a part of a little piece of history now – I’m glad my show is out there,” said Reedy. “But I miss it. I miss you so much.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes for more coverage.
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