At the 2025 Paradise Garage Reunion at Xanadu in Brooklyn, writer Craig Washington joins fellow “Garageheads” to celebrate the legendary club’s enduring legacy. Through an intimate interview with original resident DJ and reunion co-organizer David Depino, the piece explores how the gathering has evolved into both a multigenerational dance floor and a living memorial to those lost to HIV.

For the men that were there, any mention of the space immediately takes them to a time and place where the dance floor provided refuge from the grim realities outside its walls. In its early incarnation, The Warehouse catered to a membership-only clientele made up primarily of Black gay men. The man who people came to see, DJ Frankie Knuckles, was the master conductor of many a legendary night. Knuckles once described the Warehouse as “a church for people who have fallen from grace.” Knuckles, a Black, gay native New Yorker, established himself as a tastemaker in Chicago. A pioneer who manually created extensions of rare groove records with a blade, he laid the foundation for an entirely new genre of music: House.