Poet, teacher, and community activist Marguerite L. Harrold takes readers on a trip to the city’s underground house music scene with her new book, Chicago House Music: Culture and Community. In the introduction, she states her intention to “explore the music and culture from its roots to the present day, and to highlight local community members, their experiences, and their contributions to the culture.” She does this effectively by taking a deep dive into Black music history and honoring the Black LGBTQ+ icons who paved the way for house music to reach party people across the globe. Chicago House Music: Culture and Community release partyWed 8/14, 6 PM, Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St., thesilverroom.eventcalendarapp.com The book starts by dissecting the origins of house music. “The thing is, almost anything can be a house song, because almost everything has gone into creating the house sound,” Harrold writes. Elements of Negro spirituals, field songs, gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, soul, and funk are all embedded into the fabric of the sound. Some of the key elements are the communal uplifting that’s woven throughout gospel and blues, and the improvisation that’s central to jazz. Before house music got its name in the early 80s, it was called disco. Harrold likens Black music to a sprawling family tree: “Disco music is the mother of house music. Funk and soul are her fathers. Gospel, blues, rock, R and B, and jazz are her godparents. Hip hop is her brother.” Harrold divides Chicago’s house music timeline—which she acknowledges is very complex and not always linear—into four parts, centered around those who built the culture: The Pioneers (1970–1975), The Originators (1976–1989), The Innovators (1990–2000), and the Guardians of the Flame (2000–present). She thoroughly tracks the movement of the people and the music throughout the decades. The house-music pioneers that she highlights include David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, and Larry Levan, three men from New York who owned spaces that transformed the dance club experience during the 1970s. They were also all DJs who understood a good party is reliant on music and a sense of community. Levan’s Paradise Garage was groundbreaking, as he worked with Richard Long, who designed premier sound systems, to create the lighting and sound of his space. This was the first time that a club had been curated around the DJ; Paradise Garage also featured a dance floor that could accommodate 2,000 people. Harrold notes that these innovations remain a model for how modern clubs set up their sound systems today. There is a detailed exploration of how house music made its way to Chicago during the late 60s and early 70s, a time that was filled with social and political turmoil. The Black Arts Movement was in full swing and a new soul sound was developing. Robert Williams, a New York native who frequented Mancuso’s Loft and Siano’s the Gallery, visited Chicago in the early 70s and was disappointed to find the clubs here were nothing like what he experienced back home. He eventually moved to Chicago a few years later and would soon own his own club where Frankie Knuckles, a gay Black man from New York, would be the resident DJ. This was a Black gay club that required membership, not to be exclusive but to ensure everyone’s safety. Through word of mouth, the club became a popular spot very quickly, and was dubbed “the Warehouse” by local teens. This is where the term “house music” originates from. Harrold writes, “It is with the same spirit of inclusion and connection, based on love of the music and the strength of the LGBTQI community, that the Warehouse became legendary and crowned Frankie Knuckles as the godfather of house music.” The crowd at the Warehouse grew more diverse, and house music in Chicago exploded from there. A slew of dance clubs, house music DJs, and party promoters would follow. These house-music parties were safe spaces for young queer people of color in the city. Harrold, who grew up in the city during this era, details how Chicago’s house-music culture developed in the 80s. There was a certain style of dress and people began forming social groups and collectives, like the Chosen Few and Vertigo. But then there was a shift in the ’90s and 2000s—hip-hop and house music began to split. Radio stations switched from playing house to hip-hop, and the club scene became more expensive and focused on those with VIP status. House music had grown far beyond Chicago and DJs started becoming global superstars. House heads remained resilient and came up with innovative ways to keep the culture alive. Groups like 3 Degrees Global emerged with the mission to revitalize the friendship and connection that’s at the heart of house music. In 2005, 5 Magazine, founded and published by Czarina Mirani (aka Czboogie), established itself as the only publication in the country that is focused exclusively on Chicago house music. The latter half of the book features interviews with essential figures in Chicago’s house music scene: Kendall Lloyd, Edgar “Artek” Sinio, DJ Lady D, Czboogie, Mario Smith, and avery r. young. They each describe how they were introduced to house music, how it makes them feel, and in what ways house music has impacted their lives. They all share similar sentiments about the way that house music has always accepted them as they are. Young, who was named the 2023 Chicago poet laureate, shares how house music and Sunday morning church are one and the same. “It is all supposed to be breaking the shackles of what binds you so that you can be liberated enough to understand how to be humane to other humans,” he says. Harrold does an excellent job of mapping out the past and present landscapes of Chicago house music, while bringing to life the Black LGBTQ+ heroes who birthed its sound and feel. She demonstrates that Chicago house music is much more than just a music genre: it’s a safe space, it’s a living and breathing culture, and it’s a way of life. by Marguerite L. HarroldBelt Publishing, paperback, 209 pp., $24, arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781953368737