Abstract
In Le Boogie Woogie: Inside an After-Hours Club, author Terry Williams explores two after-hours clubs located in New York City, one called “Le Boogie Woogie” and the other called “Murphy’s Bar” (operating during the 1990s and the 2010s, respectively). Williams is a sociology professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City and has previously published many works including Cocaine Kids (1989) and Crackhouse (1992). Through interviews with and observations of various individuals involved in these scenes, Williams argues that cocaine usage serves to connect individuals. Because they are hidden from the public eye and based on membership or association, these scenes are vastly understudied. Each scene acts as its own institution and is led through specific cultural norms, which are typically associated with illegal activities.
This book is organized into six loose chapters. The first and last chapters make up the Introduction and Conclusion portions of this book, respectively. The four middle chapters consist of The Setting, The Scene, The Characters, and the After-Hours Now. At the end of the book, Williams includes appendices on methodological design and field notes in addition to an update of the characters and a glossary of terms.
Introduction
Williams uses this section to examine the use of cocaine inside the after-hours club Le Boogie Woogie. Among other forms of illegal activity (e.g., sex play, gambling), cocaine use was a cultural norm in the after-hours club scene during the 1980s and 1990s. Williams provides a brief statement regarding the purpose of his study, which was to investigate “how the after-hours club functions in its neighborhoods as an institution and how that institution establishes various social controls over cocaine users and nonusers in a natural setting” (p. 8). Using an ethnographic study design, Williams can effectively examine both verbal and nonverbal forms of social control associated with cocaine use during the after-hours club scene.
The Setting
This chapter contextualizes the after-hours club scene, emphasizing its roots in New Orleans, LA, during the jazz age. Williams identifies the various ways cocaine can be ingested, smoked, and/or injected into an individual’s body and its effects (e.g., euphoria, talkativeness, and sexual arousal). Next, he assesses the layout of Le Boogie Woogie. Although it first appears that the layout was dependent on space, Williams presents a substantive argument that the layout’s main purpose was for people to “bump into” and begin conversations with one another and to provide areas for certain activities. For example, the bar was used to pick up or “catch” an individual to engage in sexual activity.
The Scene
In this chapter, Williams examines the rules associated with being inside Le Boogie Woogie. He notes that, in addition to following unwritten rules, patrons must exude “coolness,” or a “poise under pressure,” even when under the influence of drugs. Here, Williams suggests that cocaine is a form of “social currency more important than money” in these scenes. For example, a patron is socially disadvantaged if they do not have cocaine, and the overindulgence of cocaine is in violation of unwritten rules. Finally, Williams emphasizes the need for patrons to have status, which is based on “social honor” that is determined by “street credentials, time in prison, gang ranking, mob affiliations, and street knowledge” (p. 92). Here, the individual status becomes a form of social control in the after-hours club scene.
The Characters
This chapter describes the many characters involved in the Le Boogie Woogie after-hours club scene, including barmaids, regulars, house girls, and, even, “a freak” (or someone who “loved cocaine excessively” [p. 140]). Williams examines the use of gender differences within the scene through cocaine overindulgence. Whereas a woman is considered “buzzed” when she has overindulged, a man is traditionally considered “zooted” or “wasted.” In addition, barmaids and house girls are often sexualized in the scene. Through these observations and interviews, Williams finds that gender expectations are used as tools of social control to help females assimilate into the male-dominated scene. Due to the detail that Williams provides about characters and their roles in this section, the reader should take care to understand how each character is connected through their engagement in illegal activities. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Williams finds that illegal activities in this scene are typically used to help characters escape from reality and/or create short-lived friendships.
After-Hours Now
This chapter examined Murphy’s Bar to show how the scene has evolved since the 1990s. Because Williams combines the setting, scene, and characters of Murphy’s Bar into one chapter, this section was scattered. In contrast to Le Boogie Woogie, Murphy’s Bar is in a different area of New York City, contains more types of illegal drugs, and is considered both an actual bar and an after-hours club. Despite these differences, Williams argues that common themes of community, social control, and status are found in the two scenes. Further, Williams argues that these themes are interconnected, where the institutionalization of the scene requires social control, where social control is dependent on status, and where social control and status combine to create community through cultural norms.
Conclusion: A Culture of Refusal
Williams uses this chapter to explain that after-club scenes remain an integral yet hidden part of urban communities today. Using illegal activities to engage patrons and employees alike, each scene is its own institution, maintained through social control, status, and community.
I highly recommend this book to scholars, professionals, and students because of its thorough ethnographic examination of an understudied area. This book is best suited to be used for courses on qualitative methodology, urban sociology or criminology, and cultural deviance. In addition, this book is a useful reference for individuals interested in understanding human interaction and behavior within small, fringe subcultures.
