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I still have such fond memories of 'Mother' nightclub, and was happy to find this site.

I was a 20-something girl from Long Island, living in the East Village in 1998 and enthralled with the creativity and grit. I met a young lad who introduced me to 'Mother', and every Saturday night we'd head there for--what seems now--some of the most liberating times of my life.

Was some of it illicit? I think yes. I won't discuss that aspect (and that aspect was due to us, not the club). But mostly it was amazing to be surrounded by such 'alternative' people, everyone--i imagine--so thrilled to have a place to go and be whatever the hell they wanted to be! The music was awesome, the place was small and packed, i could dance or just meet people, or just watch, and then we'd go home at 5 and sleep the rest of the day. No cares!

Even though i wasn't as 'out there' or alternative as many of the people at that club, my slightly-shy persona was elated at the time spent in a place where you weren't judged, and you could just 'be'. And the people at Mother were (generally) so kind, so welcoming. So unlike the icky meatmarket atmosphere of traditional dance clubs. I know you can't really compare the two, but it was exhilarating to be in a place focussed on art, self-expression, integrity. Community. Acceptance.

I've since moved on to another state, and to a less 'alternative' lifestyle, but I look back with longing and love at the 'liberation' that NYC afforded me back then. I know that some of Mother's performance shows are still performed elsewhere, and I hope everyone is still having magical nights, not quite of this world.
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Proving the distance between west 14th Street and T Magazine is just a well earned reputation..............



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If anyone understands the allure of these garments — and their, if you will pardon the expression, historical underpinnings — it is Chi Chi Valenti, who was running around town in her underwear years before Courtney Love showed up on Oscar night in a vintage white satin slip and a tiara.

Valenti was the proprietor of the nightclub Jackie 60 on West 14th Street, back in the day when the meatpacking district trafficked in meat, not Margielas and Manolos, and, as she tells it, “So many afternoons, popping home from the Mudd Club or Berlin in a bias-cut satin nightgown and five-inch Charles Jourdans, I felt just like the protagonist in the Busby Berkeley sequence ‘Lullaby of Broadway’ — you know, the one who bumps into the milkman doing his rounds just as she’s coming home from her night of being ‘a daffodil who entertains, at Angelo’s and Maxie’s.’ ”

Oh boy, do I remember MOTHER!  Being a "working girl", I did not get out much, but Saturday nites in the 90's you would find me at 14th Street, stumbling in & out of LOVE with Falon, Sabrina, Brianna, Randella, Karin Singh (with Grandpa), etc. and the handsome bouncer, who alwaysmade sure I got a cab to take me home safely!  Oh, his name was STEVE!

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