MEAT (90's New York City Queer Dance Party)

MEAT — New York City Vintage 1990s Club Tee

MEAT. New York City. Subtlety was never on the guest list.

Held weekly at 432 West 14th Street in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, MEAT was a 1990s underground party created by Aldo Hernandez, bringing together queer nightlife, art, music, and a healthy disregard for good behavior.

And what better neighborhood for a party called MEAT? During the 1990s, the Meatpacking District was still a wonderfully gritty landscape of warehouses, loading docks, actual meatpacking businesses, and after-hours establishments. The luxury boutiques, expensive restaurants, and designer hotels were still years away.

It was also one of New York's most fascinating queer playgrounds. The neighborhood attracted leather men, drag queens, artists, club kids, sex workers, and assorted nocturnal creatures who preferred their nightlife a little less polished and considerably more interesting.

MEAT belonged to that particularly exciting moment in 1990s downtown Manhattan when the boundaries between gay nightlife, underground art, fashion, and sexual subculture were gloriously blurry. A party flyer could be a piece of artwork, an outfit could be a political statement, and an ordinary night out could turn into something completely unexpected.