I wanted people to say, ‘Oh, guess what? We have a local gay bar!’” No matter what Alibi was, I wanted to make sure that it was in Harlem. “I really wanted the Black community to have good options, to not only have to go to Chelsea for a gay bar. “I get bored very quickly at straight bars.” Lacking that affirming safe space, he committed to being part of the solution. “You don't feel like there’s a place where you can go to feel at home,” he admitted. For Minko, the idea to open Alibi came while walking through Harlem, where he had recently bought an apartment, and noticing that there were no rainbow flags. Still, there is another reason why these businesses have been able to thrive during such trying times: the support of their community. Our bookkeepers always ask us, ‘How are you doing these numbers during COVID?’ and I just sit back, shrugging my shoulders, like, ‘I don't know.’” “With us being one of the only Black-owned, LGBTQ+ bars in New York, we got a lot of media exposure, which did allow us to flourish in a small time frame. “I hate to say this, but COVID was almost a good thing for us,” he said. “What I love about Black people, there’s a resilience in us, and if you’re Black and gay, it’s even stronger.”ĭespite the lack of a bailout from the Trump administration, Hughes added that there was an unexpected silver lining in their predicament.
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