Yale is offering a class in clubbing. Where can we sign up?
A junior seminar called “Dance Music and Nightlife Culture in New York City,” has drawn attention from global hotspots like London, Toronto and New York. According to the syllabus, the class seeks to answer the age-old question: “Why do we go out at night?”
While we’re still certainly searching for answers, students in the American Studies seminar “Dance Music and Nightlife Culture in New York City” are working til the world ends to find an answer. The seminar is taught by American Studies graduate student Madison Moore GRD ’12, whose dissertation “looks at iterations of glamour in fashion, nightlife, and music,” according to his website. Seminar sessions include topics ranging from “The Scene of Harlem Cabaret” to the “The Birth of the Mega Club.” There’s even a class on “Getting Past the Velvet Rope,” a class Cross Campus could probably use.
On the schedule are special guest lectures from DJs and a field trip to New York’s hottest clubs, including the Boom Boom Room. Simonez Wolf, the mastermind behind the “Red Egg pop-up clubs,” was recently a guest in the class, and he apparently has plans to bring the pop-up scene to Yale for a night. We’re so down.
Moore told Fox News that the class is “not just about getting drunk. It’s about the history of it, the Harlem cabarets, understanding race, gender, sex, Prohibition and the law.” The class includes readings from Langston Hughes and Prof. George Chauncey, with some sessions jiving to in-class audio samples. Potential final paper topics include naked parties, a concert at Toad’s, a drag show at 168 York Street.
As this all makes clear, we need some help Bluebooking next semester.