""It was a community, it was family," Thais-Williams told The Times in a 2018 interview. "To be honest myself, I was pretty much a loner too. I always had the fears of coming out, or my family finding out. I found myself there.""
""I didn't come into this business with the idea of it becoming a community center," she said in 1992. "It started before AIDS and the riots and all that. I got the first sense of the business being more than just a bar and having an obligation to the community years ago when Black gays were carded - requiring several pieces of identification for entry.""
Jewel Thais-Williams, founder of Jewel's Catch One nightclub in Los Angeles, died at the age of 86. The nightclub served as a vital space for Black queer women and the LGBTQ+ community since its inception in 1973. Artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Madonna performed there. Thais-Williams faced challenges, including police harassment, while fostering community support during the AIDS crisis. She created a welcoming environment for individuals marginalized in the nightlife scene, highlighting the club's significance in Black and queer culture, comparable to renowned clubs in New York and Chicago.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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