Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Night Class
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.nightclass.nyc/
CITY: Manhattan
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://thenewinquiry.com/author/victor-corona/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Mexico.
EDUCATION:Yale University, B.A., 2003; Georgetown University, certificate of organizational performance management, 2007; Columbia University, Ph.D., 2009.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sociologist, educator, and writer. Columbia University, New York, NY, instructor, 2009-11, 2015; Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, instructor, 2012-15; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY, instructor, 2013-14; Polytechnic Institute of New York University, NY, postdoctoral research fellow, 2014-18; California State University, Los Angeles, sociologist, instructor, 2018—.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Victor P. Corona is a sociologist, educator, and writer based in Los Angeles, California. Currently an instructor and sociologist at California State University, Los Angeles, Corona has also taught at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Hofstra University, and Columbia University, from which he obtained a Ph.D. He also earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a certificate of organizational performance management from Georgetown University.
In 2017, Corona released his first book, Night Class: A Downtown Memoir. In this volume, he recalls the years he spent in New York, studying at Columbia during the day and participating in the colorful downtown nightlife after hours. Corona also reveals his status as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and tells of his interactions with members of the Club Kid scene, his friendship with Lady Gaga, and his exploits at clubs, including the Box.
In an interview with Nicole Bayiski for the website Hamptons.com, Corona discussed the book’s evolution, explaining: “It started out as an academic research study and then the book became a much more personal story about why a sociology professor would dive into an outrageous world like New York nightlife. Although written by a sociologist, it’s now a juicy set of tales about the downtown characters that make Manhattan such an interesting arena. And I talk about aspects of my own life that made me curious about them.” He told Bayiski that the narrative of the book is “partly about my transformation from a bald, nerdy, plain researcher to someone with colored hair.” Corona discussed reactions to the book in an interview with Tea Hacic on the Stai Zitta website, remarking: “Some people didn’t like it. They didn’t like how they were treated. But the book is very honest and in terms of this idea of ‘spilling tea,’ I also spilled plenty about myself! About my heartbreak, how I struggled to make my way through nightlife, how I was treated. I had never before revealed that I had been undocumented! Nobody knew that, not my students, not my friends, not people I dated.” Corona continued: “I think that it’s in the warts, it’s in the honesty that we see our common humanity. So I understand that some people will never wanna talk to me again. But it’s amazing to get messages from people like you or people around the world who enjoy the look I gave them into New York.” In the same interview with Hacic, Corona was asked what message he hoped the book offered to readers. He responded: “That fame is a fascinating but dangerous thing. And that my journey through these different scenes in New York made me question why we want fame so desperately. Like, during my big book talk at Rizzoli, that was one of the first questions that came up. In light of all this, how do you make sense of who is in the White House now? And I’m like, the chickens came home to roost!” Corona added: “Fame is something that we understand so poorly and its something that people end up regretting. You can’t prepare for it! Nobody on this planet can prepare you for fame.”
Reviewing Night Class in Publishers Weekly, a critic remarked: “Although Corona can be an engaging narrator, the personal material at the narrative core comes across as flat and rushed.” However, a Kirkus Reviews writer described the book as “an engaging, if unlikely, memoir” and “sociology taken to the streets and basements, yielding a well-wrought introduction to a scene little known—and perhaps little imagined—to outsiders.” “Readers interested in the glamorous … world of downtown New York will appreciate Corona’s rich descriptions and deep research,” asserted Laura Chanoux on the Booklist website.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2017, review of Night Class: A Downtown Memoir.
Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2017, review of Night Class, p. 58.
ONLINE
Booklist Online, https://www.booklistonline.com/ (May 31, 2017), Laura Chanoux, review of Night Class.
Hamptons.com, http://www.hamptons.com/ (February 6, 2018), Nicole Bayiski, author interview.
New Inquiry, https://thenewinquiry.com/ (February 6, 2018), author profile.
Stai Zitta, http://staizitta.com/ (December 13, 2017), Tea Hacic, author interview.
Victor P. Corona Website, https://www.nightclass.nyc/ (February 6, 2018).
Victor Corona
, Ph.D., is a sociologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia and a B.A. in sociology from Yale. He lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
I’m a sociologist at California State University, Los Angeles, where I teach gender and sexuality courses, and previously taught at NYU, Columbia, Hofstra, and FIT. After studying sociology at Yale and earning my Ph.D. at Columbia, my dive into downtown Manhattan’s art, performance, and nightlife worlds led to my first book, Night Class: A Downtown Memoir.
In the book I meet Lady Gaga’s old Lower East Side tribe, explore wild midnight hotspot The Box, and hang out with grown up Limelight club kids and surviving Factory Superstars shadowed by their friendship with Andy Warhol. I discuss the legacies of two matriarchs: nightlife queen Susanne Bartsch and Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field. And I tell all about a summer spent working as assistant to Party Monster Michael Alig after his release from prison. I also describe my own journey from young, closeted, and illegal Mexican immigrant to sociology professor.
Photo: Bharti Tiwari
PRESS
Page Six (7/2017, 12/2017, 1/2018)
The New Yorker
DAZED
The Daily Mail
Barnes & Noble Reads
Literary Hub (7/2017, 10/2017)
Stai Zitta Magazine
Out Magazine
Yale Alumni Magazine
Emma Roberts’s Belletrist
World of Wonder WOW Report
Filthy Dreams
Hamptons.com
Electric Lit
Quiet Lunch
Kirkus
Booklist
Publishers Weekly
Peeew! (8/2017, 12/2017)
Largehearted Boy
Volume 1 Brooklyn
The Blue and White Magazine
Your Impossible Voice
Reviews by Amos Lassen
RECENT WRITING
LA After Dark, Part I (1/2018)
Plastic People (1/2018)
Leaving NY in the Blink of an Eye (12/2017)
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VICTOR P. CORONA, Ph.D.
Ph.D. (2009), Columbia University, Sociology
Certificate (2007), Georgetown University, Organizational Performance Management
B.A. (2003), Yale University, Sociology
EDUCATION
California State University, Los Angeles (2018 - )
New York University (2014-2018)
Columbia University (2009-2011, 2015)
Hofstra University (2012-2015)
Fashion Institute of Technology (2013-2014)
FACULTY
APPOINTMENTS
Page Six (January 2016, April 2016)
Refinery29
Town & Country
New York Observer
BlackBook (April 2014, September 2016)
The New York Times
PAPER Magazine
The Daily Beast
The Washington Post
Columbia Daily Spectator
The Times (London)
Spex (Berlin)
Verve (Mumbai)
OTHER PRESS
(SELECTED)
OTHER RESEARCH
Doctoral dissertation: Career Rhythms of United States Army Officers, 1870-1960
Senior Thesis: The End of Technocratic Hegemony in Mexico’s PRI, 1982-2001
QUOTED: "Some people didn’t like it. They didn’t like how they were treated. But the book is very honest and in terms of this idea of ‘spilling tea,’ I also spilled plenty about myself! About my heartbreak, how I struggled to make my way through nightlife, how I was treated. I had never before revealed that I had been undocumented! Nobody knew that, not my students, not my friends, not people I dated."
"I think that it’s in the warts, it’s in the honesty that we see our common humanity. So I understand that some people will never wanna talk to me again. But it’s amazing to get messages from people like you or people around the world who enjoy the look I gave them into New York."
"That fame is a fascinating but dangerous thing. And that my journey through these different scenes in New York made me question why we want fame so desperately. Like, during my big book talk at Rizzoli, that was one of the first questions that came up. In light of all this, how do you make sense of who is in the White House now? And I’m like, the chickens came home to roost!"
"Fame is something that we understand so poorly and its something that people end up regretting. You can’t prepare for it! Nobody on this planet can prepare you for fame."
Tea Hacic
December 13, 2017
I usually don’t wear wigs to interviews, but this one is special. The interview, I mean. The wig isn’t special at all—I only got it because I needed something with bangs when I don’t feel like gluing down a lace front.
Anyway!
I’ve always said that the only thing worth taking seriously in life is FUN. So I was thrilled to find out that a sociologist(!) with a PHD(!) who teaches at NYU(!) wrote a memoir about nightlife in downtown New York(!!!)
I always say that people should absolutely—almost exclusively—judge a book by its cover. If someone writes a “good” book but then lets some graphic designer plaster a cliché all over it—that means the writing can’t really be good because the brain behind that writing isn’t “in touch” with what I, personally, think is COOL. And who has time for that?
So!
When I saw a glittery eyelid drooped over a sneaky eyeball, peering through a pervy peep-hole on a glossy black cover, I was sold. When I noticed the letters spelling out N-I-G-H-T-C-L-A-S-S were made to look like cocaine or finishing powder—two substances of equal importance in nightlife—I thought, what a gem! I snagged that shit before I even read the blurb.
I contacted Victor P. Corona on Instagram. I guess I technically “double DM’d” him, first inviting him to the Ladyfag party I was hosting and then pressing to interview him about his book over drinks. He agreed, which was great! What wasn’t great was the fact that I had only read like, two pages by then. Lols.
Once Victor and I planned the interview, I figured I should probably prepare something to interview him about. I committed to reading the first few chapters on Thanksgiving morning while hung-over out of my brains at the café attached to the ROXY Hotel in Tribeca. The previous night I was there too, at the bar attached to the ROXY, aka Paul’s Baby Grand. The party there sucked so I ditched my friends under the pretense of “having a smoke” and ended up at a jazz club (sorry, Paul). On my way to my hotel that morning I complained to my [lucky] driver about how Wednesday nights at Paul’s were “so much better once!” Hours later, as my temples pounded like speakers at the Boom Boom Room, the pages I read were voicing my same sentiment (and resentment) about other parties, past and present.
“Pick your nostalgia. You’ll find someone in New York who shares it.” Pg. 30
This book covers pretty much everything that could have happened to anyone “worth knowing” downtown. Gaga, Warhol, the Factory, Queens, Club Kids—Michael Alig himself, in all his horror! Reading juicy gossip, bitchy quotes and fascinating facts lifted my hangover.
I’ve always said the only thing worth splurging on is TIME. Your days on earth are numbered so if you have to eat less or dress worse to afford taxis, that’s fine! On Friday night (the one after the Thanksgiving after that Wednesday at Paul’s) I hopped into a cab to interview my new fave author!
I always love when journalists describe how people are dressed in interviews, so FYI: I’m wearing a hot pink Malibu Barbie dress I got off of UpscaleStripper.Com. It’s freezing outside, but I’m not wearing tights because they’d show through on my belly, which is exposed, obviously! I’m wearing matching pink rhinestone platform sandals, also from UpscaleStripper.Com. And that un-special wig, from Wigs.Com.
UpscaleStripper.com is my fave store!
Victor! He’s wearing all black, so he could either be in Rick Owens or Uniqlo, I have no idea. That’s the thing about wearing black. Point is, he’s gorgeously mysterious, physically and otherwise. He wears sunglasses inside!!! He wrote a lot about how his image has changed through his experience in nightlife. Corona didn’t really start “going out” till his late twenties, after finishing his PHD. The book opens with a scene many of us know painfully well: feeling underdressed and unwanted at the gates of a cool ass party you aren’t on the list for. He says that being rejected by doormen made him a better version of himself. I can relate. I never liked my clothes in my early twenties which is why I was so eager to take them off.
Corona experimenting with teal hair back in 2013 in Los Angeles, where he’s moving in January 2018.
Anyway!
We’re ~conducting~ the interview at Boiler Room. It’s a gay bar that offers a FREE second drink during happy hour! (That’s cool, but still doesn’t make up for the fact that there are no mirrors in the bathrooms.) I’m laying down on a couch with my shoes off (ouch) and he’s seated on the sofa to my right. I’m drinking wine, he ordered a beer. They’re both served in equally enormous glasses. (Another point for the bar but still not enough to forget those mirrors!)
Despite having talked to everyone who is anyone (the book bounces between Vic’s personal stories and interviews with superstars, star-fuckers, wannabees, has-beens, are-nows and all the in-betweens) Victor doesn’t name drop or indulge himself in conversation. He uses his velvety voice to only say things that matter. Which is a SHOCK, after spending countless nights with people who fear they’ll fall off the face of the earth any second they aren’t SCREAMING random information about themselves! (I may or may not be included in the latter).
We hit it off! After our interview Victor invited me out with him, which is what I had hoped for when getting all dressed up in the first place. We got drinks at the Bowery and crashed a party at Public. I guess the rest is “off the record” so unfortunately I can’t talk about that or his Serious Heterosexual Writer Friend who obviously happens to be French aka annoying 😉
So!
The following has been lightly edited for clarity. (I removed roughly 1,000 words about Lady Gaga.) Enjoy with a drink or ten!
Lady Gaga and ex-boyfriend Lüc Carl at Motherfucker, 2007. Photograph by Geraldine Visco.
TH: You just released “NIGHT CLASS” this past June. Congrats! Has it changed your life?
VPC: Well, there have been reactions that I didn’t expect. I was worried how it would affect me teaching at NYU. To my surprise, they ended up promoting me in the fall! Some people didn’t like it. They didn’t like how they were treated. But the book is very honest and in terms of this idea of ‘spilling tea,’ I also spilled plenty about myself! About my heartbreak, how I struggled to make my way through nightlife, how I was treated. I had never before revealed that I had been undocumented! Nobody knew that, not my students, not my friends, not people I dated. I think that it’s in the warts, it’s in the honesty that we see our common humanity. So I understand that some people will never wanna talk to me again. But it’s amazing to get messages from people like you or people around the world who enjoy the look I gave them into New York.
Zaldy at the Copacabana. Courtesy of the Alexis DiBiasio Collection and Ernie Glam.
TH: Don’t spill the tea if you can’t drink it! What made you want to write this book?
VPC: Well, the first version didn’t fly because it was a purely academic, dry treatment of it. The sociology of nightlife. It’s what I thought I was “supposed” to do, as a sociologist. But the people that I would give it to would all essentially ask what you did: “why did a sociologist choose to write this book? How did you manage to be at a Ladyfag party or a Susanne Barsch party or at the Box?” We reached a point where an editor just didn’t like it and my students said, “you have to let the reader know why you did this.” So that was the final push I needed to make it more of a memoir. I’m just using my own story as a vessel to open up these other stories. What it was like to work for someone like Michael Alig and what I learned about myself and my own flaws through someone as unbelievably pathological as him.
TH: You say at one point that being rejected by a doorman made you a better version of yourself. More fabulous! But where do you draw the line between a doorman being critical for the sake of a party and simply being an asshole?
VPC: That’s a really good question. It’s that fine line that determines an ultimately successful party. There is actually one doorman in New York who is very very popular, and there’s a party that goes on every Tuesday that I just don’t go to because he’s just straight up an asshole. If you show up and you’re not dressed well, sure, you don’t deserve to get in. But if you’re clearly making an effort, and you’re known, and he just wants to go out of his way to be an overlord, it’s not fun. So it is a fine line. I think the best door people, like Kenny Kenny, know how to remain beloved while maybe being a little mean at times. Kenny is obviously featured prominently in the book. He’s the most legendary doorman in New York. And he’s known to be very sassy, to read you to the point of tears, but he’s loved because he’s not an asshole. Nobody in New York would ever call Kenny Kenny an asshole. It’s what I say in the book: everyone needs to make the effort. Make sure you’re contributing to the positive energy and to the visuals.
Mr. Pearl and Susanne Bartsch. Courtesy of the Alexis DiBiasio Collection and Ernie Glam.
TH: I was a door girl for a couple years and at first I thought it was just about the names and beautiful people but eventually you learn, like, “OK, that 18 year old kid wearing pajamas has been here 3 times and wants it badly-they’re gonna make the party better than the 30 year old with the great LQQK, who’s just buying a bottle.” It’s ultimately about intuition.
VPC: Oh! Where did you do the door?
TH: In Milan in my early twenties! This party called PUNKS WEAR PRADA, by Natasha Slater. We had great DJ’s and an amazing, mixed crowd. That was my first experience working in nightlife. Anyway, I really appreciate that you take nightlife seriously. Most people think that nightlife is frivolous but I think that it’s more important to a community than church! Often it’s the ONLY important thing in a community. Why do you think “society” people don’t give it the respect it deserves?
VPC: Because most people are extremely beige and boring. That’s what I’ve realized. I’ve come across a few very serious book editors who will just not write about the book. Because, that’s exactly it, they think it’s frivolous.
TH: Maybe they were just never let into a party and they’re bitter.
VPC: That’s another part of it! Yeah! They know that for all their money and their fabulous townhouse or gorgeous loft in SOHO—that because they and their spouse are so heteronormative and dull and boring, they can’t get into the places that you go to or your friends go to. That 18 year old who can’t pay for drinks, he gets in and they can’t. And they resent us for it.
Michael Musto and Joey Arias. Courtesy of the Alexis DiBiasio Collection and Ernie Glam.
TH: Do you think nightlife is for everyone? Do you think people can learn to be a part of it?
VPC: I think my example shows that everyone can find some way. I’m 35 years old, I’m not a male model, I shouldn’t be walking around in a jock strap. But I can still put on a decent look and dance and have a good time. So I think it’s about finding your own way in. You don’t have to show up dressed like Walt Paper or dressed like Ladyfag. But you can make the effort to show that you belong. I don’t think anyone should feel like they can’t. And that’s the magical thing about New York! I think if it was truly that exclusive, it wouldn’t endure as a sort of mecca for freaks and artists.
TH: How has social media has impacted nightlife?
VPC: It’s something that a lot of nightlife folks are wrestling with. On the one hand, you want people to broadcast and be free advertising. On the other, there’s a sort of general consensus that excessive selfie-taking in parties really ruins it. And that’s why a space like the Box doesn’t allow photos. I end the book with guidelines. And one of them is: like, you, you look fabulous, so by all means, go out with your friends and when you get there and your hair and makeup are flawless, take a selfie! Let everyone know how fabulous you look! But then. Put. The phone. Away. For your sake! Just enjoy the lasers and the lights and the music.
TH: When I hang out with my younger friends and try to explain this to them. I try to describe the magic that we USED to feel when we DIDN’T have phones at parties. A party should be a secret shared only between everyone there. A place you can explore yourself and the things you shouldn’t do. To feel like the star of your own film! That possibility is cut off the second you get a notification. You’re brought back to earth or your own bullshit curated self—I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to ‘the purity.”
Anyway!
I think the ideal party runs like a town: there’s the doctor, the postman, the whore, the criminal, the mother, kid, the dog, etc. And each party that really works, works because each person inside is playing their role. There’s the drug dealer, the too-drunk girl, the good dancer, the untouchable hottie, the dude who starts fights, the DJ cling-on, the pervert—my question is: What’s your party persona?
VPC: Well first of all I love that analogy! I love that construct! It sounds like you may agree that the true holy grail of any nightlife scheme is the MIX. It does take a village to throw a party! And I think the best nightlife people are able to attract them all. The Box has the Wall Street hedge fund millionaires and the club kids straight off the bus from Iowa!
Michael Musto and James St. James with the iconic club kid lunchbox. Courtesy of the Alexis DiBiasio Collection and Ernie Glam.
TH: Yes! I used to go to male model agency parties because I used to..*ahem* date them, but those parties blew ass! It doesn’t matter how hot the type of person is, one single type at a party just doesn’t work! Mix. It. Up! So, you still think the Box is the best place in town?
VPC: Um…well…Speaking of spilling tea, Chapter 6 of the book is devoted to the Box. It got me banned.
TH: What! That’s so fucked up!
VPC: Well everyone was so surprised. Everyone who works there, who performs there, they said, “thank you for recognizing us, thank you for being free advertisement for us, thank you!” I think it’s the most academic chapter of the book. They were ready to throw a party with free three tables for me. Extremely generous, I was so grateful. They said, “just send it to Simon Hammerstein.” I interviewed him for the book. They said reach out to him to get the OK. But then he banned me! For reasons that aren’t understood. The good news is that it seems that the ban will be lifted in the next few weeks. But I’m actually moving to LA in January.
TH: Wait but. But I don’t get it!
VPC: It’s not entirely clear to me. I can speculate off the record but I think a place as interesting as the Box, I think he was concerned about how it’s represented. Anyway, I want to answer the question about what my party ‘role’ is. The word that comes to mind, because of the book, is Voyeur.
TH: Loves it! I NEED voyeurs because I’m the exhibitionist. Without you I’m nothing. So. Why are you moving to LA?
VPC: Because I guess I just got restless.
TH: But they just promoted you!
VPC: Some people think it’s stupid. I want to try something different. A lot of the people who I’ve interviewed who have moved to LA talk about how, for performers and for nightlife people, it’s a lot cheaper. Certainly there’s a lot more space. Here we’re walking around in 30 degree weather and in LA its 90 degrees.
TH: Is writing a book like getting a tattoo? Once you get one you want more?
VPC: No.
TH: How hard was it?
VPC: I know what you mean about tattoos. You get one and then you know the next five. But now that this came out, when I do book talks, some kids ask about it and I say: Tell the story that only YOU can tell. If you’re gonna be a writer and write a book, you gotta make sure it’s something that only YOU on this miserable planet can tell. I went into this book knowing this. I knew that whether nobody bought it except my mom, it wouldn’t matter, because it’s the story that only I could tell. And I just have to get to that place again. I want to try Hollywood. I’m writing a film and trying for a TV series.
In chapter 3 of Night Class Victor described the moment when Party Monster Michael Alig came at him with a knife. Photo: Victor P. Corona.
TH: Oh, can you tell us about it? Or it’s secret?
VPC: The TV adaptation of the book that’s really in question in terms of how close to the book it should stick. The film is more of an experiment, to think about all these different scenes in contemporary culture. Because what it is now, post-Bloomberg New York, is very different than what it was during, say, the Club Kid Era. Like even just the street that we just walked by, there are gorgeous, expensive, luxury condominiums. And that’s just not the New York that gave birth to the Club Kids.
TH: Yeah its sad. Speaking of sad, let’s talk about Gaga! I just finished the ‘Stef Infection’ chapter. I have a complicated relationship with Gaga. Growing up as a lil punk, Gaga was the first pop star I let into my heart. And I let her in hard. Like double penetration! My friends all told me, “she’s bullshit she’s stealing from other artists” and I was like, “you know what? Who fucking cares? I love her so much!” And then. For me, the downfall began when she wrote a column for V Magazine. I was like, “she didn’t write this.” She seemed so full of herself! The next thing, OK, I loved ‘Artpop,’ I thought it was a masterpiece, but she did that music video with R KELLY and TERRY RICHARDSON. At the SAME TIME! Which shows that she’s not genuine about what she pretends to “care” about, socially. Then, Tony Bennett. I love Jazz but what are you doing Gaga? I know you just got hip surgery, who hasn’t? Do a performance in a wheelchair! You did in ‘Paparazzi,’ maybe this is your punishment for playing around in a wheelchair for a music video! Take your consequences, don’t punish your fans! Now, ‘Joanne.’ I was like, this sux, but I’ll listen to it. But the NETFLIX doc was my last straw. She isn’t being honest. What do you think?
Lady Gaga at Motherfucker, 2007. Photograph by Geraldine Visco.
VPC: I really sympathize with a lot of what you just said. I think that I was drawn not just to the catchiness to her music but I liked the fact that she was trying to deconstruct fashion. But then she started believing her own myth. She laid it on too thick. I think that everyone can admit that she has a mean set of pipes. As a performer, she’s unique. Once in a generation! She’s able to understand spectacle the way that Andy [Warhol] and Michael [Alig] did, in a way. But unlike Andy, she really started to believe in it. And that’s what you saw in ‘5 Foot 2.’ She started shoving it down our throats.
TH: Eating her own shit. What do you want people to learn from your book?
VPC: That fame is a fascinating but dangerous thing. And that my journey through these different scenes in New York made me question why we want fame so desperately. Like, during my big book talk at Rizzoli, that was one of the first questions that came up. In light of all this, how do you make sense of who is in the White House now? And I’m like, the chickens came home to roost! Are we surprised that a society as obsessed with spectacle—
[VICTOR GETS RUDELY INTERRUPTED BY ME]
TH: —Why couldn’t it be George Clooney though? Ugh. Now everyone wants to be famous because of Instagram and shit.
VPC: Exactly. This is what I go through in all my classes. Fame is something that we understand so poorly and its something that people end up regretting. You can’t prepare for it! Nobody on this planet can prepare you for fame.
TH: What you’re saying counts for having kids, too. I don’t wanna have kids. But I do wanna be famous because I don’t wanna die. Most people are OK with dying as long as they have children. Fame is like having children. Nothing can prepare you for it, you usually regret it, and its dangerous! It’s a big deal! But you want a LEGACY. There’s more and more of us, the world is ending, politics are scarier than ever, technology is bigger than we are. More of us want to be famous because we’re afraid of disappearing now more than ever.
VPC: It’s a way to be immortal.
TH: If we can just cling to our phones and our followers—
VPC: Sure, I can go with that premise. But when is enough enough? Like, when you messaged me, I wanted to know who you were, so not only are there these gorgeous photos of you but you’re really funny! So you already have, for example, what Dorian Corey in ‘Paris is Burning’ called ‘a small fame.’ So if you were to get smacked by a bus tonight you’d already have that. So what is enough?
TH: It’s never enough. When I was 23 I thought, “if I just get a Vice column I’ll be happy.” Got it! Wasn’t happy. “If I just get a TV show I’ll be happy!” Got it, wasn’t happy! And you probably said, “if I could just pblish a book”—it’s not enough! Lady Gaga, queen of the world. It wasn’t enough! She had to start wearing flats to find a new purpose!
VPC: Think of all the men she’s lost. Her fame cost her the loves of her life.
TH: That’s the problem with fame.
VPC: I thought the answer to wanting fame was: to want less.
~~~
PS: Yes I finished the book before writing this! Thank you for believing in me!
PPS: Buy ‘NIGHT CLASS’ here!!!
QUOTED: "it started out as an academic research study and then the book became a much more personal story about why a sociology professor would dive into an outrageous world like New York nightlife. Although written by a sociologist, it's now a juicy set of tales about the downtown characters that make Manhattan such an interesting arena. And I talk about aspects of my own life that made me curious about them."
"partly about my transformation from a bald, nerdy, plain researcher to someone with colored hair."
Nicole Bayiski
INTERVIEW: Author Victor P. Corona Dishes On His Storied Introduction To Manhattan’s Nightlife
Nicole Barylski
nbarylski@hamptons.com
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Author Victor P. Corona, Ph.D. (Courtesy Photo)
This weekend, author Victor P. Corona, Ph.D. is bringing a bit of downtown Manhattan's nightlife to the Hamptons.
On Saturday, August 12, Corona will be signing copies of Night Class: A Downtown Memoir, which was named one of 12 Must-Read Indie Books Coming This Summer by Barnes & Noble Reads and given a shout out by actress Emma Roberts on Instagram, at East Hampton Library's Author Nights (authorsnight.org) and on Sunday, August 13, he'll take part in a conversation with writer and poet Dayna Trois at Harbor Books (20 Main Street, Sag Harbor, www.harborbookssgh.com).
We recently caught up with Corona about his first book.
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir is Corona's first book. (Courtesy Photo)
Did you set out on your six year journey with the intention of writing this book?
VC: Yes, but it started out as an academic research study and then the book became a much more personal story about why a sociology professor would dive into an outrageous world like New York nightlife. Although written by a sociologist, it's now a juicy set of tales about the downtown characters that make Manhattan such an interesting arena. And I talk about aspects of my own life that made me curious about them.
How did you find yourself part of the club kids?
VC: The book is partly about my transformation from a bald, nerdy, plain researcher to someone with colored hair and glitter make-up who could access some of the hottest parties in New York. But I would never call myself a club kid. Nightlife never paid my rent. Even after the coolest night out, I had to get up, put on my brown, tweedy professor clothes and go teach my courses. The club kids of both the Limelight era and today's parties are wonderfully talented creators of wearable art. Go see their looks!
As a sociologist, what intrigued you about Night Class: A Downtown Memoir's subjects?
VC: The people I introduce you to in the book are without a doubt the most fascinating people that I have ever met. From the Warhol Superstars to the Limelight / Tunnel club kids and Lady Gaga's Lower East Side crew, they are extremely creative, talented, and glamorous people. But they're so hungry for fame. So the book is really a meditation on how fame, spectacle, and delusion are interwoven in downtown New York.
What sets New York nightlife apart?
VC: New York is the city that never sleeps. Its energy pumps non-stop. Nightlife may go through trends and eras but it's always vibrant and exciting. Chapter 6 is all about The Box, which I consider to be downtown's best nightclub. It attracts A-list celebrities, hedge fund managers, and some of the most fabulous club kids in town. You will see outrageous performance art there that you won't see anywhere else! Go on a Thursday night when the great Amanda Lepore hosts!
How have nightlife queen Susanne Bartsch and Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field shaped the scene?
VC: I devote chapter 5 to them and title it "Midnight Matriarchies." They are two tough and savvy entrepreneurs who have created magical havens where so many artists and performers have launched their careers. Susanne hosted my book launch at The Standard and at one point I went over and told her, "New York owes you so much. One day we'll all tell people that we were at a Susanne Bartsch party." Chapter 5 tries to make sense of what it takes to build a downtown empire like Susanne and Pat did.
How did you end up working for club-kid killer Michael Alig?
VC: I visited him in prison thirteen times as book research and at that point it seemed like he really wanted to start over as a mature and drug-free writer and artist. When he was released in May 2014 I had a light summer teaching load and wanted to see how he would reacclimate to free life. Chapter 3 is the story of what it was like to work with him and why I eventually stopped contact with Michael.
Have you ever been to the Hamptons and if so, what are some of your favorite spots?
VC: I have been only once before with the writer Dayna Troisi, a lifelong area native and my former student at Hofstra University. We spent a lovely day at the beautiful home of my mentor and friend Wednesday Martin and her husband Joel. Wednesday is a brilliant thinker and bestselling author who has also written about Hamptons culture. Dayna and I also popped in to a fabulous reading at Harbor Books by poets Lucas Hunt and Esther Mathieu and then had an amazing meal across the street at Page. I need to go back! We then stopped by artist William Quigley's opening in East Hampton. This Sunday Dayna and I are actually headed back to Harbor Books for a dishy Q&A together about fame, New York, and nightlife. Come!
For more information about Night Class: A Downtown Memoir, visit www.nightclass.ny.
QUOTED: "Although Corona can be an engaging narrator, the personal material
at the narrative core comes across as flat and rushed."
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir
Publishers Weekly.
264.22 (May 29, 2017): p58.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir
Victor P. Corona. Soft Skull, $16.95 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-61902-939-2
In this scattershot hybrid memoir and cultural history, sociologist Corona researches the New York City
club scene circa 2011 while describing his own metamorphosis from earnest academic nerd into glittering
creature of the night. Born in Mexico and raised in Westchester, N.Y., Corona struggled in his youth with
his sexuality and outsider status, finding temporary havens in radical politics and academia. Only after his
first forays to nightclubs did he realize that his true path required detours to the gym and cosmetics counter.
His activities lead him in the book to discussions about a parade of eccentric clubgoers, including Lady
Gaga (whom he caught glimpses of) and the alumni of Warhol's Factory. Corona had stints as an assistant
for the club-kid Caligula as well as for Michael Alig, who was convicted in the 1996 murder of fellow
clubgoer Andre Melendez. Corona's story of his journey has fascinating elements, above all the Alig
encounters, but falls short of its potential. The lack of an overview or historical outline blurs his subjects
into a bewildering montage, a problem further exacerbated by the inclusion of dozens of detailed interviews
that do nothing to move the narrative. Although Corona can be an engaging narrator, the personal material
at the narrative core comes across as flat and rushed. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Night Class: A Downtown Memoir." Publishers Weekly, 29 May 2017, p. 58. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494500756/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c9f0b6a5.
Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494500756
QUOTED: "an engaging, if unlikely, memoir."
"Sociology taken to the streets and basements, yielding a well-wrought introduction to a scene little known--and perhaps little imagined--to outsiders."
1/27/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517093422524 2/2
Corona, Victor P.: NIGHT CLASS
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Corona, Victor P. NIGHT CLASS Soft Skull Press (Adult Nonfiction) $16.00 7, 11 ISBN: 978-1-61902-
939-2
An engaging, if unlikely, memoir of a scholar by day, club hopper by night.Corona is many things: a
sociologist at NYU, a dreamer (in the sense of both having parents who were illegal immigrants from
Mexico and having large ambitions), a gay Latino, and both a worshiper and student of celebrity. He
combines all these interests and attributes in this spry memoir of New York nightlife, the bouncer-at-thegate
demimonde of loud discos and flowing drink and drug. As he writes, he is almost alone in chronicling
the scene as a scholar: there have been a few who have parachuted in for a quick look and just a couple of
other participant observers, including a former runway model who "accessed situations and had
conversations that a big-nosed, non-white queer man like me simply couldn't." Inspired to come to NYC by
the antics of the so-called Club Kids movement of the early 1990s, a whirlwind of outrageous behavior and
costumes that ended in a morass of pharmaceuticals and murder, Corona exults in "the eventual education I
would get downtown: the complicated yet very malleable nature of human identity." Put on a costume or a
wig, that is, and you become a different person--but in the club scene, you are who you want to be,
whatever personality or gender you wish, and by Corona's account, no one is particularly interested in the
truth. Though written by a scholar, there are only a few nods to academic niceties here. The only obligatory
moment seems to be a somewhat glancing history of the club scene as refracted through the pioneers at
Andy Warhol's Factory, whose escapades are well-documented elsewhere. Yet even Corona's nods to those
pioneers are lively, as with his homage to Susanne Bartsch, whose "pronounced Swiss German accent is a
harsh flourish that only adds dramatic bite to her already expressive character, one that incarnates
fabulousness." Sociology taken to the streets and basements, yielding a well-wrought introduction to a
scene little known--and perhaps little imagined--to outsiders.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Corona, Victor P.: NIGHT CLASS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491934283/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=25e47ba8.
Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491934283
QUOTED: "Readers interested in the glamorous ... world of downtown New York will appreciate Corona’s rich descriptions and deep research."
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir.
Corona, Victor P. (author).
July 2017. 320p. Soft Skull, paperback, $16.95 (9781619029392). 818.
REVIEW.
First published May 31, 2017 (Booklist Online).
How are identities shaped and curated? What separates the artists whose fame grows exponentially—Lady Gaga, Andy Warhol—from their lesser-known associates? And how can a young sociology professor with Mexican roots and a childhood in the suburbs belong to the glamorous New York clubs? Sociologist Corona’s memoir of his “night classes” in downtown clubs tracks his evolution from a closeted teen to a participant in the glittery nightlife scene in parallel with his research into the rise and fall of some of the city’s biggest stars. Corona’s interviews with former Factory Superstars, Club Kids, and others allow him to explore fame, identity, and artistry. Corona’s writing is less an introspective memoir and more a history of a specific New York era. At times the reader may wish for more personal detail from Corona, as he hints at a parting of ways with Michael Alig, a Club Kid convicted of manslaughter, and other intriguing off-the-record conversations. Readers interested in the glamorous and dangerous world of downtown New York will appreciate Corona’s rich descriptions and deep research.
— Laura Chanoux