Author | Greg Farrell
It all started when Baby Radel brought me to BathSalts. My eyes were completely open to a new experience that would slowly shape my life. I was mesmerized by the visuals I would witness, and I knew I had to photograph it. My first photograph ever at BathSalts was a picture of Macy Rodman, Baby Kween, and Baby Radel. I became addicted to a place where I could learn more about myself, and photograph beautiful images of some of the most amazing people I have ever met. I want to say thank you for all the opportunities that BathSalts has given me, including creating the video Drag Dreams, becoming the director of photography for Macy Rodman’s video titled Eat Ur Makeup, and creating monumental experiences in my life that can never be replaced. Below is a photo story for the BathSalts in Memorium and please come to BathSalts final show 6/29 The Last BathSalts, starting at 8:00pm at Don Pedro (90 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn).
“When BathSalts is over, I will miss everyone who comes out for it, because we’ve collected a very specific subset of whackos and I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to find them all under one roof ever again.”- Macy Rodman
Interviews with Macy Rodman, Severely Mame, Diane Dywer, Baby Radel, and Alexis Blair Penney
Macy Rodman
How did BathSalts impact your life?
BathSalts has completely changed my life in so many ways that I probably can’t even fully appreciate yet. When I started the party I was 22, had just dropped out of school, and trying to get a music career going. I was feeling very lost and decided to do something that felt really natural and unpretentious, and in doing so I really opened up the channels of artistic communication for myself. It has surrounded me with the most amazing people who share my sensibilities about art and personal politics and put me in a family full of so much love and acceptance that I didn’t know to be possible. BathSalts has been a crash course in performance and improv, it’s been a master class in creating something out of nothing, and it’s been an eye opening testament to the importance of personal exploration.
What is your favorite memory of BathSalts?
When I think of BathSalts, it comes to me in a timeline of feelings more than specific memories (possibly because many of these memories were created while completely wasted at ungodly hours). I love thinking about the early days when it was just me, Lucy Balls, James Beggan, and Emily and Randy the bartenders talking about the fucked up numbers we wanted to do to nostalgic music from our childhoods. I love thinking about a very green Severely Mame (literally, her hair at the time was a neon shade of chartreuse) coming in one night from a bad date, getting wasted, and engaging in some strip karaoke. I love thinking about how free people have felt to rub food all over themselves, light things on fire, ruin their makeup and outfits, and bring the most insane props week in and week out.
How do you think BathSalts affected the Brooklyn community?
I can only hope that BathSalts effect on the Brooklyn queer community is a sense of lightheartedness and humor that actually goes beautifully with addressing the most intimidating and dark societal woes.
What will you miss about BathSalts?
When BathSalts is over, I will miss everyone who comes out for it, because we’ve collected a very specific subset of whackos and I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to find them all under one roof ever again.
How will you keep the BathSalts legacy alive?
BathSalts will be survived by the rowdy, sloppy spirit that anyone with a sense of humor can tap into. It’s a cheap, glamorous, stream of consciousness insanity that can infect anyone at any time. Just be careful not to eat any faces.
Severely Mame
How did BathSalts impact your life?
BathSalts gave me a the start to my week every week for the last three years. It gave me a space to really get comfortable on a stage, learn to host a show and think outside the box of what people will normally think a drag show should be. I’m also so lucky because I have made some fantastic friends.
What is your favorite memory of BathSalts?
My favorite memory of Bathsalts, well I don’t have any of those, because I don’t usually remember much of a Bathsalts the next day.
How do you think BathSalts affected the Brooklyn community?
Bathsalts was a safe space for us. It was a bar for us. It was a show where anything goes. People could find themselves on stage, even when it was completely terrible or amazing.
What will you miss about BathSalts?
I’ll miss the family time we got with this strange group of Freaks.
How will you keep the BathSalts legacy alive?
Macy and I will still be producing parties but it won’t be the weekly insanity you’ve gotten for the last three years.
Diane Dywer
How did BathSalts impact your life?
BathSalts is a beautiful community of performers, and has been a space to have fun- and for me… a place to try new ways of performing.
What is your favorite memory of BathSalts?
I don’t have a favorite performance…there have been so many!!! One of my favorite memories of BathSalts was when the lights went out at Don Pedros and a bunch of people used the flashlights on their phones to light up the stage.
How do you think BathSalts affected the Brooklyn community?
I don’t know…I think I am too old to have any sense of that.
What will you miss about BathSalts?
I will miss salty talk. Really one of my favorite things ever (and, of course, the pig).
How will you keep the BathSalts legacy alive?
I am not sure what you mean by that, so many special things that happen in NYC will have an impact on people in different ways because the party has been going for three years. I have seen many different scenes and people come and go. so many performers have felt that it was a space where you could do anything, try anything, share anything…it will live on through the performers most affected by the experience.
Baby Radel
How did BathSalts impact your life?
I think Bathsalts sheltered me. It’s home for me, It’s made me realize words I was yet to spell, it taught me that it’s so okay to fuck up and there’s nothing you can’t do.
What is your favorite memory of BathSalts?
My favorite memories at bathsalts were with Baby Kween. We had the most fun and ice teas, like two of the most gorgeous girls raising hell. We made fashions from materials we found in the garbage people put out through the week, duct taped our shoes on, and belted and danced to Decptacon by Le Tigre week after week. One time I slammed into her like a seal during Decptacon and in pictures it looks like she broke her leg and that still makes me laugh, that same night we also worked the door and roaches were feeling our oats. Those were the days man.
How do you think BathSalts affected the Brooklyn community?
I think it made a lot of people upset across the street at least, it brings out such a rowdy loud crowd.
Alexis Blair Penney
How did BathSalts impact your life?
Bathsalts brought me back to drag life. I had given up on ever feeling a part of a drag community again. I had already been enmeshed in so many and I felt like my time was done. Bathsalts blew that idea wide for me.
What is your favorite memory of BathSalts?
Oh Goddess so many. The night the lights went out but the sound stayed on was life changing. Just brought me back to the craziest illegal warehouse parties I’ve ever been to but also felt like the seams opening wide between the American Dream and the idea of the New York experience and what is the reality between those things. Macy screaming Lady Gaga while we all screamed along and lit her with our phones. So wild. So punk.
How do you think BathSalts affected the Brooklyn community?
I’m not sure I can really answer this because I don’t have a palpable sense of the community separate from Bathsalts. I was kind of in my own world before I met them.
What will you miss about BathSalts?
I will miss just having a sure fire weekly place to feel myself and see incredible performance and interact with amazing weirdos but I’m excited to see where they all end up next.
How will you keep the BathSalts legacy alive?
I mean I have been a part of a lot of insane long running parties throughout my life so I dunno. I will always remember and talk about it and I have a huge slurry of photos from Bathsalts, but I also know how fleeting nightlife memories can be. I think we will all remember this shit for a long time though and I will probably write about it a lot eventually.
