Club Kids

The group, which Alig estimates included up to "750 in the early 90s at different levels",[7] comprised (among others), its creators – Michael Alig; "Julie Jewels" and Michael Tronn, who helped organize the early "Outlaw Parties";[8] and Alig's mentor/friend/rival James St. James (born James Clark). Others were the following:

• Walt Cassidy (artist) (Waltpaper), New York Club Kid and Author of NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS by Waltpaper[32]
• Michael Musto, Village Voice columnist and partygoer alongside the Club Kids
• James St. James, Co-founder of the Club Kids movement and author of 'Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland', a 1999 memoir of James' life as a Manhattan celebutante and club kid, as well as Michael Alig's murder of Andre "Angel" Melendez. The memoir was later retitled Party Monster, after the 2003 motion picture of that name starring Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloë Sevigny, and Marilyn Manson.
• Nelson Sullivan, videographer and host of cultural gatherings and events[33]
• Tina Paul, photographer
• SKID (Harvey Ferdschneider and Bill Carney), photographers
• Michael Fazakerley, photographer
• Catherine McGann, photographer for Village Voice
• Stephan Lupino, photographer
• Alexis DiBiasio, photographer
• Misa Martin, photographer
• Adolfo Gallela Photographer
• Linda Simpson, photographer, drag personality, creator of My Comrade
• Gregory Homs, Artist and Graphic Designer

Alig moved to NYC from his hometown—South Bend, Indiana—in 1984 and began hosting small events. In 1987, he supplanted Andy Warhol as a leading New York partier; in an Interview Magazine article, Alig said: "We were all going to become Warhol Superstars and move into The Factory. The funny thing was that everybody had the same idea: not to dress up but to make fun of people who dressed up. We changed our names like they did, and we dressed up in outrageously crazy outfits in order to be a satire of them—only we ended up becoming what we were satirizing."[34]

The Club Kids' aesthetic emphasized outrageousness, "fabulousness", and sex. Gender was fluid, and everything was DIY. In Musto's words: "It was a statement of individuality and sexuality which ran the gamut, and it was a form of tapping into an inner fabulousness within themselves and bringing it out."[35]

As the group's influence grew, they spread from the back rooms of lesser-known clubs to venues such as Area, Rudolf Piper's iconic Danceteria, and the Palladium. From there, Alig and his gang went on to virtually run Peter Gatien's club network, including the notorious Club USA, Palladium, Tunnel, and The Limelight, a large Chelsea club in a deconsecrated church. To draw crowds into these venues, Alig and the Club Kids began holding guerilla-style "outlaw parties", where, fully costumed and ready to party, they would hijack locations like Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, ATM vestibules, the old High Line tracks before their conversion to a park, and the New York City Subway blasting music from a boombox and dancing until the police cleared them out. Alig even "threw a party in a cardboard shantytown rented from its homeless inhabitants",[21] whom he paid with cash and crack cocaine.[8] He ensured that such events always happened in the vicinity of an actual club to which the group could decamp.[36][34] At the height of their cultural popularity, the Club Kids toured the United States (throwing parties, "certifying" those clubs for inclusion in the Club Kids network, and recruiting new members[8]), and appeared on several talk shows, including Geraldo, The Joan Rivers Show, and the Phil Donahue Show.[37][38][39]

As the decade of the 90's began, the front line of the Club Kids became occupied by a younger group of dynamic personalities that were discovered and mentored by Alig, such as Waltpaper (Walt Cassidy (artist)), Jennytalia (Jenny Dembrow), Desi Monster (Desi Santiago), Astro Erle, Christopher Comp, Pebbles, Keda, Kabuki Starshine, Sacred Boy, Sushi, Lil Keni, DJ Whillyem, Aphrodita, Lila Wolfe and Richie Rich. Many of these primary Club Kids lived together communally in large triplex apartments, and at the Chelsea Hotel and Hotel 17.[1][32]

Prominent music personalities, such as Bjork, then singer of the band Sugarcubes, were frequently seen hanging out with the Club Kids.[32] With Techno and the incoming rave scene, fashion began to soften into an ambiguous gender-fluid style, which melded references to the Club Kids with skate, indie, hip-hop, and grunge. Brands began casting street models and club personalities in shows, campaigns and music videos. Actress Chloë Sevigny emerged from the group at this time, and frequently modeled together with Waltpaper (Walt Cassidy (artist), Jennytalia, DJ Whillyem, and Karliin Mann for brands like JYSP Johnson, Calvin Klein, Jean-Paul Gaultier and in various editorials that showcased Rave vs. Club Kid style for magazines, including Paper (magazine), Max (magazine), Project X (magazine), Interview (magazine), Details and High Times.[1][32]

The beginning of the movement's decline was marked by an event on Sunday, March 17, 1996, when Alig and his roommate Robert "Freeze" Riggs killed former Limelight employee and reputed drug dealer Andre "Angel" Melendez. After nine months, Alig and Riggs were arrested.[37][40] The group dissipated in the mid-1990s after Mayor Rudy Giuliani's "Quality of Life" crackdown on Manhattan's nightclubs.[35]

Many of the members of the Club Kids distanced themselves from Alig, as details of the murder were released and branded by the press and through documentaries such as Party Monster. Waltpaper (Walt Cassidy (artist)) stated in Interview magazine, "I would say a lot of the community felt our experience of the time was hijacked by that 'Party Monster' narrative," he says, "That's not the New York I knew. That narrative doesn't include the creativity, vibrancy, and cultural impact that I experienced." For his 2019 book, NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS, Cassidy weaves a far more optimistic narrative where a bunch of misfits made a wonderland by being themselves.[32]

• Blitz Kids
• Leigh Bowery
• New Romanticism, Blitz kids
• Raves
• Zippies

• St. James, James (1999). Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85764-2.
• Bailey, Fenton; Barbato, Randy (Directors) (1998). Party Monster: The Shockumentary (documentary film). Picture This! Entertainment.
• Cassidy, Walt (2019). NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS by Waltpaper. Italy/New York: Damiani. ISBN 978-8862086578.

• Official website at michaelaligclubkids.com