Club Heaven, a primarily Black LGBT club, gave life. But it was not alone. Explore the venues, promoters, and DJs of the City’s historic club continuum.
Tweeter from Club Heaven Sound System, c. 1980s. Purchased and serviced by Audio Lite on Detroit’s West Side, the speakers inside Club Heaven created a space for primarily gay and black youths to express themselves through dance in the 1980s and ’90s. Ken Collier became the “Godfather of Techno” behind the DJ booth of the club, situated at the corner of 7 Mile and Woodward. Heaven is gone and Collier died in 1996, but this tweeter remains a symbol of their shared legacy. Photo: Jeremy Deputat / Text: Carleton Gholz
Updated 12 October 2020
Since its founding in 2012, Detroit Sound Conservancy has been committed to preserving the memory of Detroit’s contributions to global dance culture. In 2017, this commitment deepened with the gift of the Club Heaven Sound System. As part of our community engagement and eventual activation of the system, we have organized source materials below from our collections and online that begin to tell the breadth of Detroit’s “underground” (predominantly Black, queer, and not celebrated outside of its community ecosystem during its heyday) musical story in a local, national, and international context, from the days of disco to the rise of the Movement Festival.
If you have any questions, edits, or additions, please contact us at info@detroitsound.org or call direct at 313 757 5082.
Venues
Click here to see an interactive map of Detroit’s based on scholar Tim Retzloff’s work documenting gay bars in Detroit.
Back Street (formerly Escape)
Bookie’s
Cheeks
The Chessmate
Explore our programming around The Chessmate.
Club Heaven
Downstair’s Pub
Eagle
Famous Door
Gas Station
Iron Hinge
Latin Quarter
Menjo’s
Motor
Music Institute
Off Broadway East
Shelter
Studio 54
Temple
Timesquare
Todd’s
Waymans
Woodward
Zippers
DJs, Performers, Pools, and Promoters
A partial list of local DJs, performers, and promoters who were seminal to the formation and flowering of Detroit’s underground dance culture.
Advanced Music Promotions
Duane “In The Mix” Bradley
Patrick Burton
Gregory Collier
Hear an interview with Collier here.
Ken Collier
Hear an interview with Collier here.
John “Jammin'” Collins
Dance Detroit (formerly Disco Pool Detroit)
Link to our Dance Detroit Collection page.
Photo of DJs Morris Mitchell and Butch Duncan at Movement 2011. Photographer Carleton Gholz. Courtesy of Carleton Gholz Collection.
Butch Duncan
Lee Eckinger
Al Ester
Scott “Go Go” Gordon
Hear an interview with Gordon.
A photograph of DJ Stacey Hale performing during our Dance Detroit Reunion in 2015.
Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale (Professional website)
Melvin Hill
Michael Huckaby
Jerry Johnson
Jason Kendig
John Kryston
L’Uomo
Midwestern Dance Association
Jeff “The Wizard” Mills
Morris Mitchell
Listen to an interview with Mitchell here.
Nancy Mitchell
Steve Nader (1955-2011)
Chad Novak
Tony Peoples
Dawn Porter
Enola Porter
Aaron Carl Ragland
Steven Reaume
Larry Saunders
Kevin Saunderson
Mike Servito
Zana Smith
Adriel Thornton
From Stonewall to Heaven event at LGBT Detroit 2019. From L to R: Damon Percy, LaToya Ross, DJ Cent, Erica Carter, and Cornelius Wilson.
Cynthia “DJ Cent” Travis
Hear an oral history with Cent.
True Disco
United Dance Music Association
Voom
Elton Weathers
Renaldo White
Dale Willis
Darryl Wynn
Houses and Personalities
Erica Carter
Charles
Dior
Escada
LaToya Ross
Bartenders
Dennis Ashby
Media
Between the Lines
Cruise
Gayly Speaking
Kick!
Metra
Outpost
Tempo
Detroit Sound Conservancy At-Large Board Member Lee Simmons (1960-2020) with the Club Heaven Sound System at LGBT Detroit’s event space in 2019.
National Alumni
A partial list of DJs and performers beyond Detroit who were seminal to the formation and flowering of Detroit’s underground dance culture.
Frankie Knuckles
Larry Levan
Tee Scott
