Back in Black

IN New York's gay community, the Black Party, held on March 20, is considered either a drug-and-sex self-destructive debauch or a tribal celebration of music and sexuality. For Ellen Feldman and John Putnam, however, the Black Party represents the anniversary of their relationship.

The couple met in 1997; by late-winter 1998, they were breaking up. John, a professional blues musician, was still living in Boston; Ellen, a computer programmer, in New York. Knowing how much Ellen loved the party, he showed up for one last night. Maybe it was the connection Putnam felt to what he now calls "a celebration of the darker side." Or maybe it was his first ecstasy. But the next day, Putnam moved in with Ellen.

For many people, the Black Party is the highlight of the year. Held annually on the weekend closest to the spring equinox, it harks back to the glory days of the East Village nightclub the Saint, arguably the greatest dance space that ever existed. Saint members were the era's self-defined A list: men who worked out, summered on Fire Island, did the best designer drugs and took dancing very, very seriously. The DJs patented a smooth-flowing musical experience, from Saturday evening well into Sunday afternoon. Dark balcony seating surrounded the dance floor, where good-looking men marched up the steps for a two-, three- or five-way.

Ironically, the club's opening in 1980 coincided with the beginnings of AIDS; with its closing in 1988, it was as much a victim of the AIDS epidemic as so many of its members.

The Black Party loomed large as the club's signature event. Owner Bruce Mailman envisioned the Black Party as an evocation of Celtic tribal rites when men donned animal skins and retreated into the woods to ensure the passage of winter into spring. Men did indeed don animal skins-leather chaps, jocks, harnesses-and celebrated. The annual posters became collector's items, such as 1982's particularly infamous one depicting an adult circumcision. Likewise, the party's live acts became legendary-though there was never an on-stage circumcision or electrocution or dismembering, plenty of porn stars and talented amateurs titillated and reviled the crowd.

The Saint-at-Large has kept the Black Party alive, most recently at Roseland Ballroom. Its posters can still arouse controversy, such as last year's: 10,000 Polaroids of a young man Photoshopped by photographer Robert Zash to look bruised and battered, which was criticized for extolling violence or even gay bashing. This year's poster illustrated a reverse circumcision in the style of Gray's Anatomy.

The party that began at 11 p.m. on March 20 and ended the next afternoon marked "Rites XXV," in the Saint's mock-dignified Super Bowl parlance. The Saint-at-Large is notoriously stingy about providing numbers or any other details, preferring to wrap the party in an underground aura, but estimates put that crowd as high as 7500. An upstairs hallway was dubbed the Love Lounge-although there was at least as much action in the darkened corridor behind the DJ booth-and already, the dildo-woman fucking a man has become this year's most talked-about stage performance.

So what could possibly induce a straight couple to attend such an unfettered celebration of gay male machismo?

It's certainly not the music, which Putnam, whose musical tastes range closer to Muddy Waters and B.B. King, decried as "hard, industrial noise." Nor are they particularly turned on by the sexuality, which was surprisingly tame this year.

What really turns them on, they said, is the energy. "It's 7500 people pounding to the same rhythm at the same moment. I honestly believe that, at that moment, it's the most energy emanating anywhere on the planet. It's powerful but not violent. It's not anti-anything. It's just happy!"

"I have never seen that many guys together and not fighting," Putnam added.

Putnam and Feldman met at a straight s&m retreat, and Putnam admitted that he finds the casual acceptance of sexual fetish in the gay world fascinating. ^^^ "Gay people don't think of themselves as fetishy," he said. "The s&m scene for me was exciting and dark. It was an undercurrent, the secret handshake."

In marked contrast to the seriousness with which straight people approach s&m, many gay men consider kinky leather outfits as more of a fashion statement than a lifestyle. They have their leather drawer, where they retrieve their armbands, harnesses and masks for parties or just to spice up their love life. Putnam compares it, not unreasonably, to drag. "Straight men who cross-dress do it as a sexual high," he observed. "Gay men do it for fun."

Feldman and Putnam are both awed by the physical perfection that surrounds them on the dance floor. Feldman readily admits that the guys are turn-ons. "It's like going go to a museum to admire the paintings," she said. This year, she wore a satin evening dress and a feather boa, along with her trademark gardenias, which attract the hot men to come and take a whiff.

Putnam's feelings are more complicated.

"These guys have tremendous bodies," he said. "If I worked out for a year, I'd have less than 10 percent of what they have." Putnam, who is 53, said he thought he was "in pretty good shape" the first time he attended. "I had been lifting. I thought I was hot shit. I went to the Black Party totally humbled, and it was the end. These guys did steroids, they worked out like mothers. I was never going to compete with them."

This year, he said he noticed a greater variety of body types than in the past. As well as the slabs of beefcake, he saw more of the "underwear model type," and even "a couple of fat people."

The Black Party has always attracted a diverse crowd. Older people come to remember the Saint and the long-gone era it represents, many of the young for the same reason. But this year, the Saint-at-Large faced some very real competition from Alegria, a hugely successful event held the next night at Crobar. Many would-be Black Party attendees decided to skip the main event-and the $100 ticket altogether.

In the 90s, the Black Party had grown from a regional event to a full-fledged circuit party. At its height, the handsomest, most sculpted gay men flocked to New York from Milan, Sydney, Hamburg and points beyond. Those parties quite possibly presented the best-looking agglomeration of men ever assembled in one place.

But an entire generation has come of age that wasn't even born when the Saint opened. How many of these men appreciate the tradition that the Black Party represents? Some of these younger men have apparently relegated it to "leather bear" status. If the Saint-at-Large is to maintain its hugely successful franchise, it will have to re-invent itself for a new crowd, one for whom mere nostalgia for a long-gone tradition holds little meaning.

In the meantime, however, devotees like Feldman and Putnam will continue to look on it as what Feldman referred to as "my religious holiday. We all have whole aspects of our personalities for public consumption. There has to be one period of time when you celebrate and honor the darker side of your being."