A House Is a Temple: How Dance Music Culture Became a Refuge in the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

"A club can be a temple, a place of refuge, a home, for all who enter." - Kenyon Farrow

A blurry picture of people at the club. A bright teal light is to the right side. The picture is predominantly blue with splashes of pink and yellow lights.

    A House is a Temple by Kenyon Farrow explores the many ways clubs, bars, and house music was a safe space for Black queer people during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Farrow goes onto explain how clubs are viewed by others looking in rather than experiencing. Clubs during the HIV/AIDS epidemic functioned as a space for healing and community, for example, fans and artist of house music were able to raise funds for HIV related causes.

    "When people died, these spaces sometimes held parties that were memorials to the departed." (Farrow, p. 123)

    Reading this passage made me tear up. People who are important to a community passing away, but being remembered by those that care for them is an emotional experience. Even reading about experience that are not your own can be emotional.