Mother

Overview

The building at 432 West 14th Street, where Mother occupied part of the ground floor and part of the basement, a queer nightlife venue from 1990 to 2000: first as Bar Room 432, home to Julie Tolentino's Clit Club, then as Mother after Chi Chi Valenti and Johnny Dynell took over the lease, in 1996 according to the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project (two sources say 1994), with Jackie 60, Click + Drag and Martha@Mother.

The building at 432 West 14th Street, a former market building built in 1887 (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project), operated as Bar Room 432 from 1990 to 1996 in the Meatpacking District. The Historic Sites Project says Julie Tolentino, introduced to the space by a downtown choreographer whose husband co-owned the bar, held the first party there as a queer venue, Clit Club, on July 27, 1990; Jocelyn Taylor (jaguar mary) co-founded it and Aldo Hernandez was its first DJ. Climax Books and Feeld describe it as a Friday-night party, and Feeld says staff handed out information on HIV, AIDS and STDs. The gay male party MEAT began on Friday, August 17, 1990, and later ran weekly on Saturdays through February 1994 (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project). Jackie 60, co-founded by Chi Chi Valenti, Johnny Dynell, Kitty Boots and Richard Move, began in November 1990 at Nell's, moved to Bar Room 432 in March 1991 and ran on Tuesdays (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project). Valenti and Dynell took over the lease and the management of Bar Room 432 and renamed it Mother. The NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, Jackie 60's own site, Out and Wikipedia's Johnny Dynell entry place this in 1996; Wikipedia's Jackie 60 entry and DJ History say 1994, and Wikipedia's Jackie 60 entry names the seller as Anthony DePalma. The record does not settle the year. The Historic Sites Project says the venue occupied part of the ground floor and part of the basement; it says MEAT opened a small area in the basement as a safe space for sexual hook-ups, and ties the no-camera policy to Clit Club. New parties ran under the Mother name; the Historic Sites Project names Martha@Mother and Click + Drag, and Wikipedia's Johnny Dynell entry adds Long Black Veil, a weekly vampire-themed club. Click + Drag was a weekly party produced by Rob Roth, Kitty Boots, Valenti and Abby Ehmann from 1996 through the summer of 2000, then monthly until late 2001 (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project). Martha@Mother was a monthly tribute to Martha Graham by Richard Move, begun in 1996. Jackie 60 continued, and its own site describes Verbal Abuse (a monthly midnight poetry soiree), Jackie's Playhouse theatrical productions, and INTERJACKIE, a club website launched in 1995. Wikipedia's Chi Chi Valenti entry says she and Dynell created Night of 1000 Stevies in 1991, and the Bowery Boys reported in 2007 that it was still held each May. The Bowery Boys say Jackie 60 was designed to recall the late-1970s Mudd Club spirit and stood outside the universe of the 1990s mega-clubs. Wikipedia quotes its stated community as 'dominant women, poets, gay men and lesbians, free-thinking heterosexuals'. The Bowery Boys name Bleak House night and Klingon Women night among its themes, and Out quotes Valenti saying the club 'takes three or four days a week of work.' The crowd included Debbie Harry, who worked behind the bar and danced go-go; Marc Jacobs; and Mick Jagger, who was, by multiple accounts, barely noticed. Out quotes Valenti: 'There was never a marketing plan or a target audience.' Dynell's DJ sets leaned into house and eclectic dance music, refusing even high-profile requests to tailor his programming. Mother closed in June 2000 when the building was sold and redeveloped (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project); Jackie 60's own site also gives June 2000. Jackie 60 itself ended on December 28, 1999 (NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project; Jackie 60's own site), which the Jackie 60 site says drew 'a thousand celebrants'; the two endings are separate events, and Wikipedia's Jackie 60 entry dates the end of Mother's operation to December 28, 1999. Rob Roth previewed his project 'Night Paving: The Aural History of Jackie 60 & Mother', described as an audio installation, at the Museum of Arts and Design on June 26, 2015 (MAD event page, a pre-event listing). Wikipedia's Chi Chi Valenti entry says Blondie's 2011 song 'Mother' is about the club.