Gay club memphis

Cars pull into the parking lot at the corner of Park Avenue and Pendleton Street where Club Memphis sits, painted orange on both sides. Three lights cast angled shadows on the mural on the front of the building. Club patrons dance and vogue as part of a Kiki Ball at Club Memphis. On the last day of September, people attend the annual All Shade Kiki Ball hosted by The Headliners, a collaborative of community-based organizations, health care providers, and community stakeholders gay on raising awareness of health disparities in the black LGBTQ community.

A Kiki Ball is a social gathering and competition combining dancing, modeling, performing and memphis creative outlets in a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community. The club competition included titles for best-of face, vogue, sex siren, realness and club. Men and women open the doors to reveal a 3, square-foot-place bathed in blue tinted light.

In the center is a disco ball and glittering paper stars hanging from the stage. Malcolm Smith, a party attendee and semi-regular to Club Memphis, began to dance with four of his friends at a table. One man stood twisting and turning, twerking, jumping and voguing and ended by pointing to the person beside him.

The next gay responded with their own dance and made it more elaborate, adding an extra step or flourish. The moves got bigger and the group had to move to the dance floor. But the party on September 30 was not all about sequins and serving moves. The club also hosted free HIV testing.

Club patrons lounge near Club Memphis dance floor awaiting vogue dance competition. Voguing is a dance style where performers imitate fashion model poses normally seen on runways. Smith, 25, said he has attended events at Club Memphis with friends before, but he is not from Orange Mound, rather South Memphis, which is closer to Downtown.

As more people began to dance and drink, the music got louder. Laughter and conversations created heat from new activity and a few people headed to a smaller room in the back of the club to receive free HIV testing. Club Memphis owner Ashaki Blair serves a drink to a patron.

I waitressed.

Orange Mound club serves the black LGBTQ community

I worked at a strip club. Nothing was ever easy for me. No loans, no credit. In the beginning, people gave me things like speakers, chairs … it was a blessing all around. Growing up, Blair said she witnessed the evolution of the space from a fish market in the s to a club called The Chateau in the late s.

I was only 16 years old. As she experimented with different ideas for where to take the business, including having teen nights on Tuesdays, reggae night on Fridays and hosting viewing parties for sports on Sundays, Blair said Club Memphis began to attract more LGBTQ customers.