We Started a Nightclub

What Studio 54 was for disco, the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge was for the alternative scene of 1980s downtown New York. Located at 101 Avenue A, the Pyramid offered a mixture of cultures: from groundbreaking, irreverent theater and experimental music to “anti-drag” that challenged the norms of gender binaries. It began in 1981 when the East Village was considered a dangerous no man’s land, rents were cheap, AIDS was still unknown and a new generation of creators broke the mold and went on to make art in an atmosphere of unbridled celebration. Theme nights and bar dancers, fixtures of the downtown avant-garde and kids escaping their past all added to the club’s popularity. At the Pyramid, John Jesurun and Ann Magnuson rubbed elbows with They Might Be Giants, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and 3 Teens Kill 4, who shared a stage with Lady Bunny and Hapi Phace. By offering a home to obscure, genre-defying and unpolished acts, the Pyramid played a crucial role in shaping the city’s underground cultural scene for decades to come. In 2021, the Pyramid closed permanently. Though the venue was no longer the hotspot of its early years, its closure prompted an outpouring of reminiscence and mourning for a bygone era, amid a broad renewed interest in the art and culture of 1980s New York.