after hours with rayceen pendarvis
episode details
After Hours is a fun, historical debrief and game show, where we ask some of the most prominent Queer D.C. icons for their hottest gossip and wise advice. This episode we are joined with the legendary Mother of the D.C. Community, Rayceen Pendarvis. Learn about Rayceen’s childhood growing up in Ward 5, what a typical night out looked like for Rayceen, Rayceen’s favorite bars, and more. You don’t want to miss Rayceen’s advice on fashion, life, and more in this episode!
You can find a transcript for the episode below or in pdf format here.
If you want to learn more and stay up to date on all things Queering the District Podcast, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Find Rayceen Pendarvis on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.
Have a story to share? Think we missed something? Give us a call, and bare it all after the beep at 202-753-6570.
Special thanks to the Rainbow History Project, the DC Public Library, and the countless other academics and historians, whether featured in these episodes or not, who helped inspire and guide us through this process.
Audio editing by Madalyn Reagan
Videography by Sam
Video editing by Madalyn Reagan and Sam Joachim
transcript
ABBY: Hey baby, thanks for tuning into our first After Hours episode. This interview is offered in two formats: audio or video. So, hop over to YouTube to watch a video version of this episode. Either way, thank you for listening and enjoy!
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Being Queer in D.C. means, to me, everything. It is a part of who I am, It’s the essence of who I am. I’m many things, but being Queer is a celebration of my right to be, my right to exist, my right to take up space, so I'm here, and all of those who can't take it get over it.
(Funky, music with horns starts playing and then fades into the background)
ABBY: Well, hi everyone. Welcome to After Hours. It's a fun historical debrief and game show, where we ask some of the most prominent Queer D.C. icons for their hottest gossip and advice. We're joined here today by the legendary Mother of the D.C. community, Rayceen Pendarvis. Thank you so much for joining me today.
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Aww, thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here today.
(Music ends)
ABBY: Our listeners just got their first dose of Queer D.C. bar history from our last episode, which is available wherever you stream podcasts. In our conversation today, we want to give our audience a different perspective, a more personal reflection and representation of early Queer life in D.C. And Rayceen, I'd love if we could start today by discussing your childhood in D.C., where you grew up in the district, and how you really became involved in the Queer community here.
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Well, I am a native Washingtonian born and raised. I was born at Freedmen's Hospital, which is on the historical Howard University campus. I love saying that. I'm a sixth generation Washingtonian as well.
Growing up was an amazing experience. My earlier years were spent off of U Street, which was the Black Broadway. So those earlier days, coming, and my family, and my aunts, my uncles, because they came through a wonderful time of that community, when it was bubbling and filled with joy, you know. And as a young child, there was a woman named Odessa Madre.
ABBY: We talk about Odessa in our first episode.
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: And I was a young child, and I would come into the beauty shop with my mother, and they would run numbers for Miss Odessa, and everybody would come in, and I would ask Mom, “why is that, somebody's saying, 2347776911," or something like that, you know, those kind of things. And my mother said, “I'll talk to you later about it,” but I started putting stuff together. You know, you watch people, and you watch it.
And she would, she was revered in the community, and she was an out lesbian woman, big and burly, and she did not take no, you know, like she didn't take it, nothing off of nobody, and everybody respected her in the community.
And, you know, those were the communities that within our own community, Shaw community, the Howard Community, the Eckington community, the Brentwood community, areas that were predominantly Black, we all lived and existed all together.
So that was a great time growing up, you know. So when you talk about Odessa Madre, I remember her as a youngster, and she always had a flair about her. You know, she always had this, you know, a little something about her. I wish I would have gotten to know her a little better. But, you know, because of what she did, you know, I couldn't get to know her that much.
ABBY: Yeah, you don’t want to mess with her.
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: You know, it is what it is. But, you know, growing up things like that, you know. So those were great times.
(Funky music fades in and fades to background again)
ABBY: In the late 60s, early 70s, like being Queer openly was kind of a dangerous thing to still do. And I think when we're listening and hearing about this history, we're like, how did y'all even gather? How did y'all even find each other? I mean, I can open up my phone and Google all these different social groups that I can go and join here in D.C. But how did you find each other within, like this chaos of what was going down in D.C. during that time?
(Music ends)
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Oh, my goodness. Well, word of mouth was how we got, we didn't have those things. We didn't have cell phones. We had pay phones on a corner so, and all you needed was a dime or a quarter. So you would have to call somebody say, “girl, meet me here. Girl, meet me there.”
It was the word of mouth, and it was clubs that people went to. You know, the Brass Rail was my first experience, the original Brass Rail. After hour joints, I had experience, but those were, everybody kind of partied at the after hour joints. But, the first Queer bar was definitely the Brass Rail, the original Brass Rail, that was an experience within itself. It was like Alice looking through the looking glass.
(Sparkle sound effect)
ABBY: Right.
(Slow pop beat music starts in the background)
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: You know, I would see these very tall women enter and mysteriously flow down the streets and, you know, and just a colorful crowd coming down, and everybody would go into this three-story building, and I'd be like, what's going on there? I think that's my tribe.
So when I first found out about it, through my best friend, who's gone to glory, Daryl Lewis. We called him Diva. He took me there, and he was like, I'm gonna take you somewhere. And he took me there, and I was like, this is it. This is it.
ABBY: Well, it's wonderful that you bring up the Brass Rail, because we actually in our next historical episode, which is coming out next week, we're gonna talk all about the Brass Rail and hear all your crazy stories about the Brass Rail. So, I'm so excited that you brought that up.
(Music ends)
Now to help paint a better picture of what Queer life in D.C. was, we've written an outline called Rayceen’s Night Out, but we left out the juiciest details for you to fill in.
(Jazzy piano music starts to play)
And so we're gonna have you read it over, ruminate, and then we'll fill it out together, okay? And then at the end, we'll do a dramatic reading of your night out on the town.
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Oh, my night out on the town. How fabulous darling.
(Music swells, Rayceen laughs while reading the outline)
Oh my goodness. Okay, okay.
(Music ends)
ABBY: Go ahead and give us your dramatic reading of Rayceen’s night out.
(Funky dance music starts to play in the background)
RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Oooh, child picture this. It was a Saturday evening in the early 80s, and I was getting ready to go out. I lived in Brentwood back then and still do today. Now, let me tell you, it was fabulous.
I remember standing in front of the mirror wearing my favorite off the shoulder top. It was red. It made me feel cunty. I always wore high water jeans because I was a perfect size nine, and I never left the house without a purse. Must have a purse, keys, little lip gloss, maybe a brick, (Abby laughs), or a weapon, girl must always, safety first.
To get to the bar, I usually took, I would usually walk, or we would take the bus and beat the streets. That night I remember riding all being fun, and I passed by the White House, and we would do cartwheels in front of the White House on our way. The spot we were headed to was called The Buck Stops Here that was a restaurant during the day and a nightclub at night, in the evening.
The spot we were headed to was definitely called the Buck Stop. It was located in downtown Washington, and it had beats of life. When I would walk in, the first thing I noticed was the corridor. It was all about the corridors. Everybody had a corridor. Tracks had a corridor. The Buck Stops Here had a corridor. Everybody had a corridor. It was always like walking the runway.
The crowd was full of colorful people. And I remember someone wearing shoulder pads, looking like a woman, feeling like a man. That night, I met up with Daryl, Leon, and Diva, child, who always brought the good, the bad, and the ugly energy.
Oooh. We ordered ginger ale. They had cocktails. I ordered ginger ales, and I sat in the back, people watching and catching up. It was always love when the DJ would play, Give Me [Tonight] by Shannon, that was when everyone would hit the dance floor. Someone came up to me and said, “Girl, your hair is sitting!” I would just laugh, and someone would get drunk or fall on the floor. We didn't leave until the bewitching hour, and on our way home, I remember thinking I got my life. (Rayceen laughs)
ABBY: Amazing! A round of applause. (claps)
RAYCEEN: Ooh, child.
(Music ends)
ABBY: That was stunning. That was perfect.
So what do you think we missed? Is there anything we missed from your nights out? I know that, would The Buck Stops Here be your only stop, or would you make multiple stops?
RAYCEEN: Oh, honey, we would make multiple stops, child. Child, in one night, we would go to about five different bars or sometimes ten.
ABBY: Wow.
RAYCEEN: One New Year's Eve, we went to 20 different parties.
ABBY: 20?!
RAYCEEN: We started at six in the afternoon and got home at six in the morning.
ABBY: Oh, my God.
RAYCEEN: Oh, that was the best night I ever had, all on public transportation. How about that?
ABBY: Really?
RAYCEEN: We started, we started, oh, my god, we started. Where did we start? We started down on the U Street corridor, and then we went to somebody's party.
And it was like, oh, so and so's having a party go down there. So we went to that party. We went to the Bohemian Caverns, we went to a couple different clubs, and went to a couple little side spaces.
And then somebody said, “child somebody saw everybody,” don't you know that we would hop on the bus on U Street and ride back all the way over to Eastern Market and went to another club over there, a couple little clubs over there. Then we rode the 30 bus downtown, and then we got downtown, and then rode up 14th Street.
It was fabulous. Those were the nights, child. Oh, honey. That was one New Year's I would never forget. And we would meet up with a different group of people. Every time we started out four, by the time the night was over, it was about 40 of us.
ABBY: Oh, my gosh.
RAYCEEN: And we would pick up people along the corridor, “where you going?” “Oh, girls, so and so is having a party. Well, go, go with me, oh Rayceen. They like, go, you go.” And I would go to, you know, I could always get in, you know, somebody would let me in.
ABBY: So you know how to party is basically what we’re saying.
RAYCEEN: Oh, child, I lived, but in a good way. And mind you, I didn't drink and I never did drugs. That's why I'm still here.
So, you know, somebody, I was the person who, if we went to the party and people got drunk, I would hold people's purses.
ABBY: You would take care of them.
RAYCEEN: Yeah, I would take care of them.
(Funky music fades in)
ABBY: You were the mother.
RAYCEEN: Yeah, I was the mother. Somebody had to be the sane one, child.
(Music swells then fades out)
ABBY: Now that we've illustrated the perfect night out, there are some rules that always come with what a person should do when they're at the bars, what a person should do when they're at the club, and so we have our segment that's called yay or nay.
(Game show music plays and then ends)
ABBY: Going out to the bars all by yourself.
RAYCEEN: I would do that.
ABBY: You would do that. Did you do it often?
RAYCEEN: No, not often. But I never had a problem going anywhere by myself. I always knew someone would be there. You were always meeting someone.
ABBY: Right.
RAYCEEN: So that's why I never worried about going out by myself, because you would, that’s before cell phones, so you would get on the phone call the Queen, say, “girl, meet me at the spot.”
ABBY: What about wearing sweatpants to the club?
RAYCEEN: never, never
ABBY: You always gotta show up, always gotta come in a fit.
RAYCEEN: Yeah, I always, always, I had to be cute. I had to, today I'm very toned down because I'm coming from class. So, yeah, I would never wear sweats, but I didn't mind if a few men came in with sweats.
ABBY: Okay (laughs). So if you were at your perch with your friends, at The Buck Stops Here, and someone came in in sweats. What would y'all say?
RAYCEEN: It depends on who it was. If he was cute, we would all eye him. We would all, oh, you know, look down, look up. Hopefully something would be presenting itself, I guess.
(Abby laughs)
RAYCEEN: I guess, use your imagination.
(Abby laughs)
RAYCEEN: But the girls would never wear sweatpants.
ABBY: No
RAYCEEN: We would never wear sweatpants. We did, we would have a fabulous poncho over it or a big old swing top. So if you wore sweatpants, they didn't look like sweatpants. How about that?
ABBY: You transformed them.
RAYCEEN: You transformed them. The girls would probably rip them up and make pair of shorts or ripped jeans, or take it and, you know, the girls would take a sweater.
Abby: They’re creative.
RAYCEEN: The gays are. The gays would do everything. So they would be, they would start out with sweatpants, they would be something else once the gays got a hold of ‘em, you know. So that was the interesting…God...
ABBY: How about going home with one of your friends' exes?
RAYCEEN: No, there's something that, there is always a code, you know, you never go behind. You don't want anyone’s second sloppies like, you know, no.
ABBY: In the Queer community, I'd say a lot of people, because we're so tight knit, that it happens kind of often.
RAYCEEN: Well, if it does, you didn't know. You didn't know. Or if you did, out of respect to your girlfriend, you would go to your girlfriend and you would talk to them and say, “Well, I'm going out, or I'm leaving with so and so.” But I would never do that out of respect.
ABBY: I agree. Now, we've already touched this, but taking public transportation to the clubs.
RAYCEEN: Oh, honey, I loved it and would do it now. You know, if I map it out now, if I map it out right, right, honey, I will pop on a bus. I love public transportation.
ABBY: I think it’s the most convenient thing about D.C.
RAYCEEN: Well it’s fabulous child, it’s like being, you know, like New York, but everybody mainly walks in New York, (singing) walking in New York.
Yeah, everybody walks in New York. Or either catches public transportation. They catch the subway.
ABBY: But see, the Metro doesn't go to where all of the fun like clubs were, so was it mostly just the busses?
RAYCEEN: No, back then, yeah, we had to catch the busses. Or you got on a bus and you walked.
ABBY: What about making out in the middle of the dance floor?
RAYCEEN: No, I wouldn't do that. I kissed a few frogs in the middle of the dance floor, but I only kissed them trying to think that they were gonna become Prince, but they didn't. So that's as far as I'm making out. I mean, I'm not shunning anyone who does it. But that, for me that, oh, that would be a no. So, let me hold up a no, no!
ABBY: All right, last one: using a fake ID?
RAYCEEN: I think everybody is. Yeah, even when I would go out with my brothers, we all use fake IDs. I would go to strip joints with my brothers, honey, and I’d have a fake ID. Yes.
ABBY: How did y'all get fake IDs back then? Because now, when I was in college, we just, like, submitted a photo, and then it mysteriously comes in the mail.
RAYCEEN: Oh no, girl, somebody always made them. Someone you knew made them so that's underground. Part of the underground, someone you knew made them, Miss Ruth made them, Miss Betty Ray. You give somebody $20 and you get an ID, and they would be great. Some would be amazing. Or you took someone else's college ID. You know, when you would borrow your brother's college ID or your sister's college ID or something like that. Or, you know, there was always a little seedy place downtown, you went and someone would make them out the back of their car, have a laminating machine or something, and make them for you, right there, you know, child.
(Game show music plays again then ends)
(rotary phone rings)
ABBY: So our viewers have left you a couple of voicemail messages asking for your help, your advice, and so let's listen to the first one, and let's see what brilliant insight that you can give them.
CALLER ONE: Hey there, I think about how easy it was for me Google stuff about my identity growing up, and I can't help but wonder, where did you guys turn to learn more about yourself? Were there books, bars, or Queer figures in your community that really helped you piece it all together? Thank you.
ABBY: The question is basically saying, there's a lot that they think they can access now, like the internet, social media, to learn more about their identity. You growing up, how did you learn more about who you were? How did you kind of piece all of that together when you didn't have as many open resources as we have today?
RAYCEEN: We didn't have any, any other than seeing people in the community that you were, you know, that you thought were part of the community that you wanted to belong to. And there were terms that we used to call transgendered women, transsexuals back then. So terms have changed over the years. So the trans community was the first community that really embraced me.
So it was trans women that embraced me and mothered me through the community, and they sheltered us, and they, they took us under their wings, and they said, “Don't do the things that we do. We're making it better for you.”
So, they just wrapped their arms around us in love, and they shielded us from a lot of stuff. Most of the time, something happened, it would be either trans women or very masculine presenting women who we used to call butch or the term bull. Is that, you know, bull? Can I say the terms?
ABBY: Yeah
RAYCEEN: We used to call them bulldaggers. So back then, that's the old term, bulldagger. Or, you know, or dyke. Did I say dyke? Bulldagger, dyke, those were terms that were used for very masculine presenting women. And, because that was a different time, those were the terms that they used.
So those were the first to either, you know, protect you, take care of you, and love on you. And then, of course, everyone knew that someone had a gay hairdresser, that all the, you know, someone's grandmother went to, you know, there was always someone gay or Queer. You know, we've gone through many terms gay, Queer, you know.
And how do we identify? There were terms that people use. If someone wasn't sure, they would say, “Are you a friend of Dorothy? Are you one of the children? Are you in the life?” And those were great terms that we used, that when someone would say, yes, that was your way to identify who they were.
So those terms were very, they were safety words. And, you know, back then, it was a form of Pig Latin that the kids spoke, which we called AUGA. So you would go, speaks auga pig latin: issmauga ingthauga irlgauga, what you oindauga odaytauga, ildchauga, you irningitauga.
So that was, and I would say, “Hi, Miss Thing. What you doin today, girl? How are you doing today? Oh, Miss Thing, you're turning it.”
So, you would take the last letter off the word.
ABBY: Okay
RAYCEEN: And you would put auga behind it, and you would say, speaks auga pig latin: issmauga ingthauga irlgauga, so that’s, Miss Thing, irlgauga (translation: girl).
You know, so you would put, and that's how you know the term, I know. It took me a while to get it girl, because, you know,
ABBY: Wow, I’ve never heard that before.
RAYCEEN: Yeah, that's an old term, an old term. They don't even, we, unfortunately haven't passed it on to your generation, which was sad. I think that's something that we should have passed on to your generation. But, you know, things evolve and people lose.
But those were words, if you heard somebody speaking Auga, you knew instantly they were one of the children. You know, somebody giving (speaks Auga) issmauga ingthauga, that ildchauga, irninitauga.
You know, that kind of, it took me a long time to get that. The girls would talk. I would be coming to the clubs, and I would be like, “what they saying? wait a minute,” you know? So it was a form of Pig Latin. Pig Latin is, (speaks Pig Latin)
So that is a form of Pig Latin, but the Queens would take it and called it Auga and twist it around.
ABBY: That's fascinating.
RAYCEEN: Isn't it something?
ABBY: Well, let's go on to our next message.
CALLER TWO: Hi, I'm Mia. I would love to hear about any spots around D.C. that used to be Queer hangouts, either designated Queer spots or just where you happen to find community, like a new coffee shop that you pass by today [and] reminisce on when it used to be a vibrant gay bar, or a TJ Maxx that used to be a bookstore where you fell in love in, et cetera. Thank you for sharing.
ABBY: So I think she's basically asking, when you're walking down the streets of D.C., places that no longer exist, that used to exist, that really were home to you.
RAYCEEN: Franklin Park was my coming out park. You know, back then Franklin Park, the African American girls hung there, and Franklin Park was a colorful park back then.
The transgendered women were on one end, or drag queens or transsexuals were on one end and butch queens, and in the middle were the drug addicts, and on the end were the pimps and the prostitutes.
Now, Franklin Park, set from, it was a big park. So, where the park on 14th Street is, Franklin Park was across the street. So now it's all cleaned up and gentrified, and they have concerts there. But that was the, I always called it the proving ground, or the meeting ground. You know, we met up there, and everybody would walk the corridors up to Dupont Circle. When, but you would meet there first, and then you take your trek on up to Dupont Circle.
But, and we walked along the corridors for safety, the main streets. You would never take a side street because fearful of what could happen to you. So you would, every time, by the time we got to Dupont Circle, remember how I told you we traveled like a gay gang. So, we would start off maybe five, six, by the time we got to Dupont Circle, we, like we said, we would be 40 or 50 deep.
So we get to Dupont Circle, and Dupont Circle was like the Mecca, the epicenter. And there were two different experiences from, because mind you, by the time we started at Franklin Park, you meet up with the African American girls. You walk along the corridor. By the time you get to 14th or 16th Street, you meet the Latin girls. By the time you get to Dupont Circle, you meet your Caucasian girls. So by the time we get there, we just a rainbow, you know. We are the rainbow, you know. So by the time we get there, you know, it’d be a welcome to the UN, you know, of the gays. The UN of the gays.
So it'd be this colorful group of people from everywhere, you know. We meet, of course, everybody always had a fag hag or two. So, you meet a couple of them. So, by the time we get to Dupont Circle, especially in the 80s, in the late 70s, way before Fame was on television, the kids and the Duke Ellington children, which would come and they would meet the public school girls, and the older girls, we would sit and kind of judge them.
It was always like going to a ball. So they have a dance off.
(dance music starts to play in the background)
Someone would have a radio with a big old boom box that it took 12 batteries to run, and you would plug it into the side, or you had your boom box without any batteries. But back then this, this big metal box that you could plug your radio into in the middle of DuPont Circle, and the kids would dance around the circle like Dancing with the Stars on acid. It was fabulous. It was just fabulous.
And the older girls, we would sit along the rail of the fountain or on the benches and score the girls as they would dance or dance off, and you would pick who would win. It was wonderful.
(dance music fades)
(jazzy music with lots of horns starts to play then fades into the background)
ABBY: Rayceen, thank you so much for joining us today and to send us home, Rayceen is going to leave us a message on our bare it all after the beep hotline: phi-phi. So, take us home, Rayceen, with your favorite D.C. Queer memory.
RAYCEEN: Hey baby, this is Rayceen. I can tell you about a fabulous time in Washington, D.C., a colorful group of gays were amazing, fabulous, colorful, flamboyant, bold, courageous, and daring. And I think that every club we went to, oh, whether we started at the Brass Rail, or we ended up at Nob Hill, or we went from Nob Hill to La Zambras, or from La Zambras to Mr. P's, or Mr. P's to the Fireplace. Or we would go from Badlands to Rascals, or Rascals back downtown to the Buck Stops Here. Or we would go from the Buck Stops Here to, over to, the Delta Elite, and then we would jump from the Delta Elite over to probably the Brass Rail.
(phone ringing in background) It would be fabulous. It was an amazing time. (ringing stops) Oh my god. And as you can see, my phone is even ringing in the background. Child, while I'm leaving this message. Someone's calling me, child, with the tea, and those were just great times.
I remember the terminology we used to have. All the great terms, are you one of the children? Are you in the life? Are you a friend of Dorothy? So those were great times and great memories. So that's just something I wanted to leave with you, girl, a little tad bit of this, and a little tad bit of that, and a little bit of this, all sprinkled in and rolled together, (Rayceen laughing) like cupcakes!
Bye, girl! (Rayceen laughing)
ABBY: Hey baby… we’re so glad you’re here, and thanks for listening until the end of the episode.
Don’t you worry, we promise we won’t leave you hanging for too long. Next week, we’ll be back up with the history of bars starting in the early 1970s with John Eddy as he finds a place to start a revolutionary bar. And we’ll have another After Hours episode in two weeks time.
We want to thank the Rainbow History Project, the DC Public Library, and the countless other academics and historians, whether featured in these episodes or not, who helped inspire and guide us through this process.
And of course shout out to the rest of the QTDP team, Ellie, Mads, and Sam for making this podcast happen.
You can find a transcript for this, and every episode, on our website at queeringthedistrictpodcast.com and linked below in the episode notes.
If you want to learn more or stay up to date on all things Queering the District Podcast, follow our social media pages @queeringthedistrictpodcast. You don’t want to miss exclusive interview clips, juicy voicemails, and bi-weekly spotlights.
Have a story to share? Think we missed something? Give us a call, and bare it all after the beep at 202-753-6570.
See ya later!
(Music swells then fades out)
