Honey Soundsystem – Gay Performance Art in the ’90s Detroit Techno Scene

Live from Red Bull’s Detroit studio, Jackie House continues our week-long celebration of the city's music and culture with a spotlight on two Motor City natives who have dedicated their careers to building its LGBT nightlife scene. One of them is Patrick Burton — a DJ, poet, painter and performance artist who promoted at the legendary Music Institute in the late '80s, and later went on to become a resident artist at 1515 Broadway. Burton shares tales of pushing the boundaries of Detroit dance music culture with a number of his performance art pieces — many of which he debuted at actual nightclubs, sometimes to an original soundtrack by Derrick May. Adriel Thornton was one of the young performers Burton enlisted, a party promoter, activist and entrepreneur who fell in love with dance music after listening to tape recordings of Burton's’s Saturday night parties as a kid. He eventually became one of the scene's key players as the founder of long-running club night FAMILY.