by Alex Corey
On the initial walk up this feels like the wrong place. The Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Queens is a bit more quaint than what’s expected for a “Sleepy Hollow” themed night. A playlist of 70’s hits wafts off a distant speaker system and the courtyard only has a handful of people in costumes.
But the distinct knock of bass in the distance draws the anointed towards an open door. After a ticket check and a step into a bar basement, the mood starts to elevate. The crowd is awash with gothic costumes, a cavalcade of flares, ruffles, lace, and anything else if it came in black. But rather than a sea of phone lights and awkward jumping, the crowd is dancing like their lives depend on it.
This is Book Club Radio.
Started a year ago this party series and YouTube channel is the brainchild of sibling DJs JoJo, Tinzo, and a team of friends. In the span of a year, the team took the name of their group chat and turned it into multiple sold-out parties and a YouTube channel with several mixes crossing a million views. But, how’d they set themselves apart from every other boiler room style set that posts their mixes online? The team focused on fostering a space for human connection and put tech on the back burner.
“The mission of book club is to, basically return the dance floor to a place for dancing,” said JoJo on a calm afternoon after a weekend of playing sold-out venues with their sibling Tinzo. “At the event, it’s like ‘try not to face the DJs’ and live in the moment around you.”
BookClub parties are referred to as meetings. Each comes with a different theme encouraging attendees to dress up to get them out of their comfort zone. To join a meeting an attendee must DM @BCRLibrarian on Instagram to receive the secret link to buy tickets.
Following a bad clubbing experience for the original Book Club members, JoJo penned the Book Club Radio Manifesto. The list of seven rules set the tone of the party series and make its intentions clear. “Cause basically, I had a gripe with the music parties we were going to, " said JoJo. “ When we go out we’re just looking for a place to dance and it is becoming harder to find that – so we felt like we should try to do it ourselves”
Since then the team's view count and turnout for shows have both grown rapidly with tickets selling out within two hours of release. They’ve gone from living room parties to their last Halloween meeting spanning two separate dance floors and multiple DJs. “Normally I’d play this down but I’m so proud and so happy with how this has gone because we’ve put so much work into this,” said JoJo. “ We all have day jobs, we just do this in our spare time, to see it become successful feels really really good.”
The teams' main gigs include Kevin & Claudia being engineers, Tinzo works with a music publishing company, JoJo makes documentaries for Sound Field under PBS, and Carlie works in vintage clothing and handles the business side of book club.While balancing the hassles of everyday life the team maintains a laser focus on keeping the heart of series the the same as the third meeting – which made Book Club Radio take off. “Ok, how do we not break this,” Jojo laughed. “How do we keep this special? But also share it and bring new people into the fold.”
At the Halloween meeting, they maintained the spark and brought plenty of new people into the fold according to Ahona Paul, who’s been a patron since their second meeting. “It’s always a good group of people who’re there to vibe. But respect each other's space and I like that about this place,” said Paul at the close of the night. “If you come here it’s for the music it’s for the vibes”
Rylan Metcaffe, a Utah resident, caught onto the vibes and flew in with a few friends Halloween weekend to see if Book Club Lived up to its view count. “It was one of the coolest parties I’ve probably ever been to,” said Metcaffe. “My favorite part is the people. Everyone is so open to meeting each other no matter what experience. No matter where everyone's been.”
With Halloween far in the rearview, members of Book Club celebrated how far they’ve come in a year by bathing 9 Bobnote in Brooklyn in blood-red lights for a vampiric ball last Saturday. (Complete with hanging bat and banging techno) Stay tuned for a step into a futuristic techno epoch next month.
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