Wanna be the first to know about exclusive offers, events and happenings? The Queen of the Club Kids is now part of a different club. The MC announces, "the one, the only, Jennytalia! She proceeds to stomp down the runway, looking both physically and mentally out of this world, then rips off the blond wig to reveal her fully shaved head. She won the pageant. This was all captured in Party Monster, the Shockumentary , the documentary about the rise and demise of the Club Kids.
But the Girls Club is maybe the farthest thing from a dusty basketball gym. A recent tour lead by Dembrow took upwards of an hour due to the sheer size of its 35,square-foot facilities. Oh, did we mention the planetarium? There's one of those, too. And that's just to name some of the classrooms. We even pass through a social justice center. During the tour, Dembrow mentions that photographers from its sister club in Chiapas, Mexico are in town and the girls are out on a photography excursion.
Photo by Christopher Leaman. The club is raising the next generation of environmental, ethical, and entrepreneurial leaders by offering middle and high school-aged girls plus programs to choose from per week as well as year-round programming.
And it's all free. As part of its mission, the Girls Club even provides job training and opportunities to the mothers of the girls. A gorgeous mosaic map in the lobby shows the many locations where the club existed until it found its current home, including community rooms in the projects, schools, a basement that flooded every time it rained, in a restaurant's back barβ¦you name it, they met there.
It wasn't until they launched a year capital campaign to raise 20 million dollars "through blood, sweat, and tears" she jokes that they were able to build the incredible facilities they have now. Though New York City has changed radically over the past decade plus, the Lower East Side is still home to some of the highest rates of poverty in the city.
