One of the city’s most exciting, most creative Black queer dance clubs in the 1980s.
Opened in 1986, Club LaRay was located at 3150 North Halsted in Chicago. The club, which was open from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. (5 a.m on Saturdays), featured two bars, a dance floor, and the “stairway to nowhere,” a staircase that ended at the ceiling. Owned and managed by Ray Hill, the popular house music dance club closed in 1989.
The building itself was an old vaudeville theater. Parts of the original décor remained through the renovations, like the “stairway to nowhere.”
Grace Jones’ “Seduction Surrender” and “Slave to the Rhythm” performed by Aja at Club LaRay.
Watch More Videos
Media Burn has preserved several videos that document Club LaRay’s early drag performances as well as the hundreds of Chicagoans living it up on the dance floor throughout an entire night’s DJ set. Enjoy some of the best House music mixes you’ll find anywhere.
Club LaRay Talent Show (June 30, 1987) – A talent show and drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing. 1987, 246 min. Watch the video at mediaburn.org/videos/club-laray-talent-search-6-30-87.
Club LaRay Talent Show (December 9, 1986) – A drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing. 1986, 291 min. Watch the video at mediaburn.org/videos/club-laray-talent-show-12-9-86.
For a full list of videos, go to mediaburn.org/?s=Club+LaRay.
Media Burn is a nonprofit dedicated to video’s overlooked histories and its most fiercely independent voices, from the 1960s to today. Since its founding in 2003, Media Burn has saved more than 10,000 videos, which are available to watch and share for free at mediaburn.org.
