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Chicago’s DIY Club Scene Offers A Collaborative Queer Community
House music DJs and drag queens work together to create welcoming, inclusive spaces.
It’s early for clubbing standards — 10 p.m. in the Lower West Side of Chicago — and still warm out for November. Short skirts, spandex, and pulsating bodies begin to dominate the space. We are at Juniors for TRQPiTECA, a curated event that celebrates house and techno music, performance artists, and video art in a queer-friendly, dance-positive environment in the Pilsen neighborhood.
TRQPiTECA, which first began in 2015, is produced by La Spacer and CQQCHIFRUIT, two queer Chicago DJs who host the event on the last Friday of every month. Tonight several queens are performing and a runway competition will follow which features local designers and those who create their own wearable designs. A pinata shaped like Donald Trump hangs above our heads.
Primarily influenced by the dance music of tropical cultures, La Spacer, whose off-stage name is Natalie Mercedes, was interested in creating an event like TRQPiTECA because “as a queer woman that loves house and techno music,” spaces like this weren’t as prevalent in nightlife culture when she was starting out as a DJ. La Spacer goes on to say that she “felt like the club/dance scene in Chicago was just a…
