Every Alley Is Stud Alley

Every Alley is Stud Alley

If you found yourself walking around Soma in the past year, and you happened to look up, you might have seen some graffiti scrawled beautifully across the edge of a random, otherwise nondescript roof, declaring, Every Alley is Stud Alley.

As far as we know, it is the only remaining piece, the only physical remnant, of the wild, uncontrollable, unsanctioned Stud Alley party, which has occured for six years, on Saturday night of pride weekend. It is a reminder of a night that hundreds of you, thousands even, have come to anticipate and plan your gay holiday around.

But. The thing we've all come to expect, what we look forward to every pride season, isn't going to happen.

At least in the way we know it.

The faceless organizers and infrastructure crew who carve out that space for all of you, we who revel in the ecstatic, divine madness you each bring...well, we're tired. Just like you, we look forward to this night, breathlessly hoping to find our own escape trajectories from the mundane brutality of the sex negative, trans antagonistic, anti-faggotdyke hellhole of racist capitalism. Our hearts long for the liberatory beauty, the freaky, outrageous, decadent, and depraved dreams-turned-into-actions, of the militant queers who show up.

But we're starting to feel that the alley has outgrown itself. Each year it gets bigger, more people show up and not all of them share our dreams. (this is an unsanctioned event. it is not a safe, or even safer space. it is not supposed to mimic folsom, or dore alley, nor is it dyke or trans march. it began as something wilder and more ferocious, and as it grows, we have seen an increase in attendees who behave in ways disconnected, perhaps even uninterested, in its liberatory potential. we have no desire to take on the burden of making the straights or assimilationist gays welcome or comfortable. the cops know they can't fuck with us because we are too dangerous. let's keep being dangerous together.) What was once an Opening to Elsewhere, now only leads to an empty room we all built, and it is no longer big enough to contain our desires. It has become clear that it's time for a change, an acceleration of our imaginations.

In 2020, amidst the George Floyd rebellions, which threatened to burn down the entire racist project of america, an impromptu gathering came together in the alley next to the old Stud bar. It was the culmination of the militant Pride Is A Riot demonstration, itself a replacement for the corporate pride parade, which thankfully had been cancelled. Each year since, despite a couple location changes (fuck them pigs, we’re too fast for those losers), we have gathered and spelled out ACAB, and WE ARE FREER THAN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND, with our bodies and our actions. We have taken part in the long lineage of party-that-is-a-riot and riot-that-is-a-party which is the true core of Pride, and renewed the spirit of collective rebellion for another generation of criminal, militant, revolutionary queers.

In each of the six iterations of Stud Alley, we have seen things new, exciting, and unique. Voyeuristic reporters have called your redecorations, "Too Vulgar to Print or Show on Television," and described your actions as an, "Illegal Vandalism Orgy." Babes, you have done so good!

And yet, we find ourselves longing to create something different. We don't want this to be a party simply for a party's sake, because it is expected or assumed. (the worlds we seek are indescribable. the moments we create are experiments in finding them.) Doing anything, just to do it, because it is routine, because we've done it before, is so, so boring. Nothing queer, nothing anarchist, nothing liberatory, should ever be boring. We don’t want to live those lives. That’s for straight people. (The alley has never, ever been boring. And we don’t want to see that happen.)

So this year we are challenging ourselves, and anyone else who these words resonate with, to dream anew. What does it mean to take seriously the still-standing graffiti that declares: EVERY ALLEY IS STUD ALLEY!

This is your heads up, this is your opportunity. We saw a locked door and broke it into pieces. And now we’re taking those fragments home with us. What’s left is an open space. You can walk through it if you want to, or break down another one.

Have each other's backs. Remember that we can carve out spaces for each other by making ourselves dangerous to our enemies. Remember that we have strength in numbers. Remember that you can have what you ask for, so ask for everything. Remember what it means to stay dangerous. And do it in every moment, for the rest of your lives.

What we have created together is literally magic. It is a piece of another world erupting from this dying one. Every liberatory moment, every project that shakes our understanding of what is possible, is a stepping stone to something bigger and more earth shattering. What will we do next? What utopic visions will free us more?

It’s up to you.

It is up to all of us together.

It always has been.

We can’t wait to see what comes next.

kisses,

(who cares who we are. we aren’t separate from you.)

p.s. The alley is in a long lineage of rebellious play. Remember the Lex riot, 2015. Remember Bash Back!. Remember, “They Had Swords”, May Day 2009. Remember the White Nights. Remember Stonewall. Remember Compton’s Cafeteria. The alley was never the beginning, nor will it be the end.

The Alley is Dead// Long Live the Alley