#speakeasies

There are norms inside that you can only learn through experience.

Inside you are allowed to break free from the shackles of mainstream society, intermingling between people you'd never even imagine becomes normal. Rules that once held us down become forgotten.

It is a place that the mainstream believes does not exist to the extent it really does. Outsiders believe we are dead, but no, we are as alive as we've ever been. If we must adapt to survive, say no more.

That being said, the true core of our existance must stay strong. We may get into occasional brawls or get bored of the same old performers from time to time, but we are all in a mutual understanding that this place? It's the best place we've got to get our fix.

The variety of New York's Prohibition-era drinking spots was mind-boggling. The most prolific form, however, was the speakeasy. Likely derived from the "speak-softly shops" of nineteenth-century England, where smuggled, untaxed liquor could be bought cheaply, the term "speakeasy" served in New York as a catch-all phrase for illegal bars ranging from cellar dives peddling twenty-five-cent beers or fifty-cent glasses of "smoke," to fancy townhouses in midtown outfitted with multiple bars, dining areas, game rooms, and live entertainment. Speakeasies could easily be hidden in storefronts, office buildings, or apartment houses.      —Michael Lerner, Dry Manhattan (Harvard Univ. Press 2007)

Above, a speakeasy on 24th Street in 1932.