Nelson with camera

Nelson Sullivan was a video artist living in New York City through the 1980s. He grew up in South Carolina and recounts a teenage experience at the Stonewall Riots while visiting an older brother in the Village that night. Nelson leased a house in the Meatpacking District when the neighborhood was desolate except for blue collar workers, homeless drug users, and literal meat. The 3 floors of 5 9th Avenue filled with life as Nelson played host and den mother to a fresh and unique segment of queer New York nightlife. His friends and subjects include RuPaul, Lady Bunny, Miss Lady Kier, Michael Alig and the Club Kids, Leigh Bowey, and Michael Musto. Nelson also loved emerging video technologies and filmed hours of his day-to-day life, too. His form was mostly-self taught, incorporating hand-held documentation and in-camera editing to create queer vinettes of gay life in New York City.

In the clip below, Nelson takes you on a tour of his home at 5 9th Avenue in the Meatpacking District in 1985. We hear his directions to a driver, are greeted by his dog Blackout upon arrival, and get an exclusive look into his 3 story home –which he packed not only with treasures but a wandering cast of friends in need of a room. Nelson’s personal style and charming character is captured in this tour as he entrances us with his casual on screen presence. Some highlights include Nelson’s piano song (@3:38), his closet (@6:22) and a close look at the area of Gansevoort and 9th Ave that was once host to loading docks and meatpacking trucks (@7:11). In the last 10 years, Nelson’s house was a restaurant and cocktail bar, but recently the place has closed. Much of his archives have been maintained on YouTube and will soon live at the NYU Fales Library.

(Thanks to Nelson Sullivan for being so damn prolific; Thanks to Robert Coddington, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, and the 5ninthavenueproject for their archival work.)