Stance Takes: Nightclubs - Counterculture & Resistance

Stance was asked to curate an event as part of London College of Fashion’s Design and Politics season. This Stance Takes episode covers two of the conversations recorded live in front of an audience at their Arcade East space.

Black music continues to dominate the charts but why is it still so hard for artists to get gigs or for some black clientele to get into certain clubs? Stance Takes’ first live discussion examines the way that music by black communities has long been perceived as a threat to the established order and how, from the Jazz age onwards, the prejudices of white society have constrained black creativity and participation.

We also explore the legacy of the controversial risk assessment form for live events, Form 696, which was seen by many as a tool by which the police targeted and excluded Black musicians. Our panel were able to give first hand accounts of how the 696 was used as a barrier, limiting certain communities from being able to make a living from nightlife culture, and how its toxic legacy lives on.

Nightclubs offer people a place to experiment with new music, technology and identity. In our second discussion Stance explores how these experiences are influenced by architecture and design. Stance traces how nightclub spaces have evolved from the adaptation of unprepossessing and unwanted spaces – dank basements, ramshackle former theatres and warehouses – to the emergence of highly designed and architecturally specific nightclubs. What has been lost and what has been gained as the physical fabric of the nightclub has changed? Plus we discuss what nightclubs for the future should look like.