On the second night, Nevis, Paris, and I headed to a Caribbean flag party at a club in Atlanta’s downtown area called Primal. For those who don’t know what a flag party is, it is a party where all attendees are expected to bring the flag of their country, or countries of origin. In this case, you had to bring a Caribbean flag to get the discounted rates. The party was free before 12am, with a Caribbean flag, and more after (I didn’t try to find out the amount because I wasn’t planning to pay). Since my family is from the beautiful nature island of Caribbean, Dominica, I went to the party with a small handkerchief with the Dominican flag imprinted on it. Nevis and Paris also brought flags from their respective Caribbean countries.
On this night, once again we left a little bit late. It was past 11pm when we headed towards downtown Atlanta, with Nevis as our (designated) driver. As we pulled up to the club, we immediately noticed that there was a long line outside of the club. With less than 15 minutes to midnight, Nevis dropped me and Paris at the front of the club and went to look for parking. Looking at the line, it didn’t seem like we would get in for free. Living in New York, I had seen these scenes before at clubs. Promoters advertise free admission before a specific time (usually 11pm or 12am) and then when you get there, the bouncers hold up the line until past the designated time so that people in the line will have to pay the cover; and then when you get in the club, it is empty. Paris and I were hoping that we would get into the club before the Cinderella hour (midnight). And, as we walked past the line, our fairy godmother (or our fairy godfather) granted our wish. A guy standing near the front of the line stopped us and offered to let us cut the line and stand in front of him and his friend. Seeing that it was 10 minutes to midnight, we accepted his offer without hesitation and stood in front of him and his friend. Usually when a guy that you don’t know offers to do something for you---i.e., buy you a drink or let you cut in line---he expects something in return, either your attention, time, number, or something else (if they are nasty). Surprisingly, this guy just let us cut in front of him and didn’t say much to us other than “hello”. Five minutes later, we were inside of the club for free. We walked in and passed the female cashier sitting behind a small podium with a cash register on top of it. Next to her, there was a big black male bouncer standing next to a velvet rope that separated the entrance and cashier section from the club’s front room. Paris walked past him. As I tried to walk past him, he stopped me abruptly and gruffly asked me if I had a flag. I was in such a hurry to get into the club that I forgot that I had to show it to get free admission. I had my flag hanging off my belt loop on the back of my jeans. I turned around and showed him the Dominican flag hanging from my belt loop. He nodded at me and allowed me access to the club.
I joined Paris on the other side of the velvet rope and started surveying the space, since I was there to gather data for my research (I love ethnography. Don’t hate me. Hate the game. If you want to get paid to go clubs, go to grad school and become a sociologist). The club consisted of two rooms: a front room and a dance floor. The front room was small but big enough to fit about 50-60 people comfortably. It had two seating sections with long white leather couches and mini tables. The seating sections were facing each other. There were a few women sitting on the couches and chatting with each other as they waited for the dance floor to open. To the left of the couches, there were two separate unisex bathrooms. On the opposite end of the room, there was a small wraparound bar with a white male bartender behind it. There were few people at the bar ordering drinks as they also waited for access to the dance floor. Although there was a long line outside the club, there were very few people inside the club. There were probably about 30 people inside (which is not surprising since most clubs that offer free admission before a specific time will try to hold the line outside so very few people get in for free). Of these 30 or so people, most of them were women (again not a surprise).
As I looked around, Paris informed me that Nevis called her and told her he had found parking and was now waiting in the line, which had gotten longer since we left. We decided to sit down on the white couches that were near the velvet rope and wait for Nevis to get in. Ten minutes later, Nevis sent Paris a text message telling us that he had left the line to go to the liquor store across the street from the club and that he would meet us inside later. With that information, we decided to go to the bar, order drinks, and enter the dance floor, which had been opened while we were waiting for Nevis. The dance floor was located on the lower level of the club. To get there we had to descend several steps that were near the front room’s bar. The dance floor was in a large room with an elevated DJ booth at the far right corner and with a long bar along the back wall. There was an elevated dance area that went along the left wall to the DJ booth. As we were waiting for Nevis, more and more people had started to enter the club. There were about 70 people on the dance floor when we got there.
Since it was a flag party, there were Caribbean flags, big and small, all over the room. However, unlike Club 426, where the flags were hung around the club, the flags in Primal were on the people. People were holding, waving, and whipping the flags of their Caribbean country of origin. Interestingly, no one country seemed to dominate the room. There were flags representing countries across the Caribbean region: the US Virgin Islands, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Panama, Barbados, the Bahamas, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Lucia, and Dominica (of course!) to name a few. Many times I have been to Caribbean parties in New York and Boston where one country seemed to dominate the entire party. Can you guess the country? (Just think of the first country that comes to your mind when you hear the word “Caribbean”. Yes, it is that country. The one with the puma sneakers and t-shirts.) So, I was happy to see a wide variety of Caribbean countries, especially the smaller islands, like mine, represented at the party. The music was pretty diverse too. The DJ played soca, reggae, dancehall, and hip-hop. Each musical genre got an equal amount of time, although as expected the music was predominantly Caribbean.
After about 20 minutes, Nevis finally joined us and he looked pretty pleased about his decision to go to the liquor store. As most people know, anything you buy at a bar or club is significantly more expensive than anything you buy at a store, and that includes drinks and food. Why bottles of liquor cost $200 to $300 in a club when they cost $20 to $30 at the liquor still bewilders me. He had decided to buy a small bottle of liquor and drink outside rather than buy drinks at the bar. It was a good idea in theory but not in practice. He ended up buying drinks at the bar. Drinks in a social setting sometimes can be like Pringles. You can’t just have one (LOL!).
Overall, the party was pretty good. Although it was a Thursday night, the club was full of people, the music was good, and people were having a good time. As the night progressed, more and more people poured into the club. By the end of the night, there were about 200 people in the club. People were generally dressed casually. There were no tiny black dresses or collared shirts at this party. People were wearing t-shirts, jeans, tanks, and shorts. The proper attire to jump, whine, dutty whine, and nuh linga (for those who don’t know, these are dances). Although there were 200 people in the club, there was plenty of room for people to dance and do what they felt like without bumping into other people. There were no fights or shouting matches, just good vibes. There were people from all walks of life just having a good time, from the pyts (pretty young thangs) looking to whine it up on the dance floor to the middle-aged couples enjoying a weeknight date to single men looking to dance with a few ladies and get some phone numbers (for some post-club activities). As the night progressed, I learned that Primal was not a Caribbean club. The DJ mentioned several times that this was the first time they had held a party at Primal and that people should take notice of the features of their new venue, such as its outdoor area, large dance floor, and two bar areas. Though it was not a Caribbean club, Primal hosted a good Caribbean party. Around 2am, the lights turned on, the music stopped playing, and we, along with the other Caribbean partygoers, filed out the club. As we were leaving the club, the DJ invited everyone to continue the party at Club Expose on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain. Looking to keep the good times going, Paris, Nevis, and I piled back into Nevis’ car and headed towards to the Stone Mountain. However, it seems the party gods didn’t want us to continue our partying on this Thursday night because we never made it to Club Expose. Despite having the aid of a GPS system, we couldn’t find the club. After turning around 3 times, we decided to call it a night and go home. My second day looking for Caribbean Atlanta ended.
One Love
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