Come to Starlite Oral History days: This Sat and Sunday

Getting the many histories of the Starlite Lounge well documented is critical to the struggle to defend this landmark of cultural history. Please come down this weekend, and let friends and family know that we will be recording stories about the Starlite Lounge throughout it’s long history here in Crown Heights. Particularly of interest is the earlier era of Starlite, before the civil rights and liberation movements of the 60s and 70s.

If you have photos or other historical material, please think about coming to Starlite or calling 212-363-0166 or 239-822-3550 to make sure we get a strong record of this half-century-old cherished landmark.

Volunteers also needed: Please call us if you would be able to help out by doing a short volunteer shift at the oral history and photo portrait station we will have set up in the bar all weekend.

Oral History Days and Starlite Portrait photos:
This Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 8pm
Spread the Word!

Dear Starlite Supporters:

On behalf of the Save the Starlite Lounge Campaign, we want to thank you for spending time with us during your Sunday afternoon in support of the Starlite Lounge. Your presence and contributions that day were not only helpful and thoughtful, but nourishing. It really let us know that the Starlite is so important to you all; that the fight is not just the Starlite family’s.

We wanted to remind you that TONIGHT is the Community Board meeting. The board will be voting on a resolution in support of fair negotiations between the property owner and the Starlite Lounge. We would like to have supporters participate in the Public Session portion of the meeting by making a brief statement in support of Starlite in front of the board.

The meeting will be held at:

St. Gregory’s RC Church
991 St. Johns Place (corner of Brooklyn Avenue)
(btw Nostrand and Kingston stops on the 3-train)

The meeting begins at 7pm, but we will be meeting at the 6:45pm at the meeting location and will be sitting together as a group. Please join us and be seated with “the stars.”

This Sunday March 7th from 4pm to Oscar-time = Craft-Nite for Starlite. Come make stars and other useful things with us here at the Starlite. Bring glittery shiny things, cardboard, your hands, your freinds. Call 347-742-0547 for more details.

Starlite Community Mtg: Sunday Feb 28th at 4pm

If you are interested in getting involved (on any level) in the campaign to Save the Starlite Lounge, please try to come out to our first Open House and ‘Save the Starlite’ Community Meeting, at the bar on Sunday February 28th at 4pm.

There we will get to hear from the Starlite family about the amazing 50-year history of this cherished community hub, and the current struggle to keep it open.

Video from last Tuesday’s speakout

Thanks to everybody who spoke about what the Starlite has meant to them over time, and to all the neighbors who stopped by and gave testimony as well!

Community Speakouts every Thursday!

Stop the Eviction of Starlite Lounge
When: This Thursday 6pm
Where:  Starlite Lounge 1084 Bergen St at Nostrand

This Thursday, February 18th at 6pm outside of the historical Starlite Lounge community members will speak out against the bar’s pending eviction – including “Starlite Elders.” Come hear about the cultural, spiritual and historic heritage of this cherished Brooklyn meeting place from Starlite’s long-standing patrons.

For the last five decades, the Starlite Lounge has been a safe haven to members of our community and a space of significant historical relevance for New York City residents. This incredible run in Crown Heights is now being threatened as .  Despite a promise from the previous owners for a new lease, the building where Starlite is housed was sold without notice to Starlite.  Starlite was recently served with eviction papers without being given an opportunity to negotiate a lease with the building’s new owners. The proposed closing has brought together a diversity of community members to fight against this unfair eviction of an openly gay-friendly establishment in the heart of Brooklyn.

NYTimes article – Jan 22 2010

A Brooklyn Bar and Haven Teeters on the Edge of Extinction

Starlite Lounge's clientele changes according to the time of day and week.

By Susan Dominus

The Starlite Lounge in Brooklyn is one of those institutions that have been around for so long, neighbors no longer stop to notice how incongruous their presence really is.

Why shouldn’t there be a bar in Crown Heights that is popular with white and black, gay and straight people, where gentrifiers and locals with long lineage drink the special punch next to one another on bar stools, where young, beautiful club types sweat it out to house music alongside 50-something veteran party organizers and standard-issue retirees who happen to live down the block? Doesn’t every place have one of those?

Most do not, and Crown Heights may not for long.

Gothamist Article – 11/10/09

Property Sale Might Doom Brooklyn’s Oldest Gay Bar

Brooklyn’s oldest gay bar may be forced to close following the sale of its Crown Heights building. The Starlight Lounge — which also claims to be the city’s first black-owned gay bar — might be evicted because the new owner of the property apparently wants the building “empty.”

Starlite Lounge manager Tim Leviticus told Gothamist that the future of the watering hole at the corner of Bergen Street and Nostrand Avenue is uncertain at best. “Without us knowing, the old landlord sold the building — not even giving us the right to purchase it,” he said. “We haven’t met the new owner yet, but we’ve heard he wants the building to be empty.”

The Starlite Lounge has been a Crown Heights fixture since the 1960s, serving gays and non-gays. In recent years, the venue has become a destination for neighborhood folks looking for a casual daytime hangout, as well as revelers who frequent the dance parties and karaoke nights, according to Leviticus. “No one in the neighborhood is happy about it because this is the only place where they can come to relax,” he added.

Rumors of the possible closure have already hit the Brooklynian messageboards, where commenters have called it “terrible news” and “a real loss for Crown Heights.” “i would be soo so so so sad to see them leave,” another poster wrote. We haven’t succeeded in getting through to the new owner of the building or the previous landlord, but when we do we’ll follow-up

Crown Heights Refuge at Risk – Gay City Paper

Crown Heights Refuge at Risk

Starlite Lounge, gay-friendly redoubt since 1959, faces eviction by new landlord

BY SAMANTHA STARK

Fridays are Lady Jasmin’s night at the Starlite Lounge in Brooklyn. The resident drag queen at this Crown Heights mainstay performs Jennifer Hudson and old-school R&B songs with gusto — sometimes crying, doing backwards summersaults, and hurling her silver stilettos across the stage.

“You gotta see the show,” the regulars at the self-described “oldest black-owned non-discriminating bar in New York” tell the young hipsters who seem to be venturing through the doors these days.

Since opening in 1959, the Starlite Lounge on Nostrand Avenue and Bergen Street has served as a modest safe space for gay, lesbian, and transgendered people of color and their friends in Central Brooklyn. Older gay and straight neighborhood residents throw birthday parties at the Starlite, and gather at the bar after funerals. More recently arrived condo-dwellers pack the house for Thursday night karaoke.

But a recent change in the building’s ownership may force the Starlite Lounge to end its half-century run.

Video of 2/2/10 Starlite Rally

Thanks to Krissy Mahan / Dykeumentary for the inspiring and informative video!