Welcome to the Jacks of Color Community. Bringing you the hottest private parties for gay men of color and our admirers.
For Steam: A Quarterly Journal For Men
By Jim Merrett,
Volume 1, Issue 4, Winter 1993
JACKS OF COLOR – A REVIEW
JACKS OF COLOR, 14th Street, Manhattan; Fees: Men of Color who reserve beforehand, $10; White men as MoC’s guests, $10; Others, $15. For address and dates of JOC’s parties, contact LIDELL JACKSON at 212/222-9794. If you like safe sex with Black guys – whether you’re a Black man yourself or a white admirer – I highly recommend New York’s Jacks Of Color. I’ve twice visited this club, which bills itself as a Safe Sex Party for Men Of Color – i.e., males of Black, Caribbean, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American or other non-white backgrounds. On my first visit, an extraordinary thing happened: around midnight, an orgy scene developed in the sex room which involved at least 15 men, including nearly every shade of the human rainbow, huddled together, touching, sucking and embracing one another. It was an inspiring sight, and if I’d been able, I would’ve joined in. Exhausted as I was, I mentally recorded it for private viewing on lonely nights to come.
Jacks Of Color prides itself on its propensity toward group action, and indeed, a certain free-wheeling atmosphere pervades the monthly parties which started about three years ago as an alternative to the mostly-white Manhattan sex scene (hence the racially-adjusted fee structure). In addition to providing a space where men of color are the majority, the hosts – three African-American New Yorkers – attempt to remedy the body-fascist, white-gym-bunny aesthetic by opening their doors to all somatotypes as well. And they have been more-or-less successful in both objectives. At JOC, indicating that you’re open and available by walking around nude seems to count almost as much as the state of your physique.
The party meets in a dance studio in downtown Manhattan. On both Saturday nights that I attended, the neighborhood was deserted and the building unmarked, but once I climbed the stairs I knew I was in the right place. A muscular man named Kobi, who wore a revealing black leather harness, greeted me brusquely, which may have been his role.
I was then ushered through a door into the dance-studio-cum-party-suite, bathed in red light for the occasion. I was asked to shed street clothes into a garbage bag, and slid my stockinged feet across polished wood floors, through a social area, to the opposite end of the studio, where I checked everything. Condoms, lube and plastic wrap were available gratis to the right of the clothes check. Jacks Of Color also features a bar with soft drinks. If you want beer, you’ll have to bring your own. Opposite the clothes check is the entrance to the sex room, which is partitioned off from the rest of the studio with hanging plastic sheets. On my second visit inside the sex room, a particularly stunning tableau caught my eye: two men, facing each other, cocks crossed – one Black and uncut, the other white and circumcised – while a third man, possibly Latino, licked them both like a two-toned popsicle. Yes, visions of heaven.
If you too are a fan of such interracial harmony (not to say ecstasy), you can keep abreast of JOC’s schedule by getting your name on the club’s mailing list – free if you attend regularly. For out-of-towners, I recommend calling Lidell before your next trip, to get details of the next party.