Tara Duvivier is Senior Planner at the Pratt Center for Community Development. Building on years of experience as an urban planner, Tara spends her days working towards a more just and equitable future for our city. She’s also a staple NYC DJ who cut her teeth in the early 2000s as part of the Rare Form collective. Rare Form started out throwing parties with ?uestlove and Pete Rock, and went on to found the J Dilla-tribute series Donuts Are Forever, now entering its 15th year. Tara’s also been a long-time member of the Makossa Cookout family, which itself just passed the decade mark. We met back when I was booking DJs at Ace Hotel New York, but only really got to speak in depth for the first time this April. Special bonus at the end of this one.Ben: Hey Tara, thanks for taking some time tonight. How’s month one of lockdown?
Tara: I’m feeling as well as I can be. My parents are good, they're out on Long Island and are elderly. I have a brother that lives nearby so we strategize and make sure that they're taken care of. I left my job and started a new one during all of this, and that’s been interesting, working remotely with people I barely know. All of the usual “getting to know you” things aren’t happening. For the most part I'm just trying to stay home and keep going.
Ben: What about DJ life? Did you have stuff on the calendar when everything closed?
Tara: Funny enough, I didn't have much going on and it was kind of getting me down. I think it had to do with day jobs. I wasn’t out and about at night as much, you need to be hustling at other people's events to get booked. But thinking ahead to summer when I put on some larger events, I know they’re going to be impacted. Even if we were allowed to do events, I don't know how comfortable I would feel. This is gonna last longer than I think most people are anticipating.
Ben: Let’s go way back. Tell me about your family, childhood, and growing up in New York.
Tara: I was born here, my parents had immigrated in the 70s. Most of my family came here in the late 60s to early 70s for various reasons, mostly education. Everyone ended up in Brooklyn, in or around Flatbush. There continues to be a very large Haitian community out there. My mom's a nurse and my dad worked at a factory on Long Island. He definitely did not like living in Brooklyn, so we moved out to Long Island. The suburbs. I didn’t have that “cool teen in New York” experience that a lot of native New Yorkers know. My parents were super strict and I went to Catholic school. All girls, you know, did all of that. When I graduated I was like, “I gotta get out of here.” Then, I got a scholarship to Cooper Union and ended up staying.
“Dance is about freedom of expression.”
Tara: Growing up, I was in really close proximity to all different family members. Every day after school we were going to so-and-so's house where all the cousins were and someone's aunt would watch all the kids. Some people left New York but then, you know, another person got the apartment. You always had a place to stay for a few months until you got on your feet. It was different. This might still happen today, but it's harder because rent has become so high. My parents worked really, really hard, but they were also able to save a lot of money because rent wasn't ridiculous. Later, when I started venturing out on my own and rents were going up, I realized how much of a restriction it is. My friends couldn’t just have a part time job and paint in the evenings. They had full time jobs, multiple jobs, and were working long-ass hours. Many were never able to do the things they came to the city to do. Close friends ended up leaving and were only able to actually do something and become successful specifically because they left New York.
Ben: I’m assuming the rent issue had something to do with your becoming an urban planner? What about deejaying? When did each start up and how do they inform one another?
Tara: Deejaying came first. Around my sophomore year, around 19. I got into the rhythm of things, I'm out hitting the clubs, going to all these different parties. That’s where my love for DJs comes from. Once I graduated, my friends and I just decided that we were going to be party promoters.
With urban planning...I didn’t know what an urban planner was. After school I was working full time at a bank and hit a point where I thought I was gonna leave New York. Again, I ended up staying and decided to go back to school for a master's in public administration at NYU. That program is in the same school as the urban planning school, and all the things I thought were really interesting— funding, the built environment, rent, and housing —were coming from the urban planning students, so I reapplied.
Makossa Cookout promo flyers from 2019, the summer series’ 10th year running
Tara: Many people still think of deejaying as a frivolous thing, but it has real cultural and political significance in terms of the kinds of movements that came out of nightlife. Nightlife provides some marginalized groups a safe space and new forms of family. I definitely found people that are very close to me, as close as my own family, through music and nightlife. I started learning how to blend the networks, securing housing for myself, finding both day jobs and DJ gigs. Like, what I do during my daytime job now I got through networking with DJs.
This is why it’s so important to me that people have access to cultural resources. Life is hard enough, it's really important that we understand where people live and how people live, and that access to culture isn’t restricted to people with certain means. The most important cultural movements of our lives have come from the Bronx. Why doesn’t the Bronx have more in terms of resources today?
Ben: Do you remember the night where you felt you’d really come into your own as a DJ?
Tara: Oh God. I would say…okay there’s DJ Center. He's amazing, he plays all types of music, and is a producer as well. He invited me to play his night one time at Belmont Lounge. I was super nervous, and remember this was pre-Serato, so all vinyl and I’m lugging my shit around on the train. And you know, I was still really green but it was great. I was like super grateful, people seemed receptive, and I had fun. Then there was a point where he was like, “I gotta go out of town for a gig, can you take over my night?” I was terrified but also, this person has entrusted me with their party. And it wasn’t a sleepy night, it was a Thursday and things were popping in there. For him to feel confident that I could handle it by myself, one of my favorite DJs ever…That was the moment for me.
“Coming from a nonprofit background, it was important to me that our parties be on the up and up.”
Ben: I’d love to hear your thoughts on the repeal of the Cabaret law [2017].
Tara: Overall, it is a good thing. It needed to go. You know, it was completely racist. Dance is about freedom of expression. I remember being at places and being told that I couldn't dance. Or there would be signs that say “No Dancing”, but I haven't seen them for a very long time. It was more enforced when Giuliani was mayor ‘cause he was using it as a tool to shut down bars and clubs. Probably even Bloomberg to an extent but he understood the money aspect of it. Bloomberg was really trying to get all of the nightlife into a concentrated district...thank goodness that didn't happen. There's still a lot of restriction on dancing in New York City, but it really has to do with zoning. With the zoning resolutions, dancing is very much singled out.
If you're wanting to open a bar or a place with live music, the zoning might specifically say “no dancing,” or maybe you can have musical entertainment, but not dancing. A lot of this is based on things like capacity. All I can think about is there being another Giuliani type mayor that decides that they dislike nightlife, and then they use zoning as a reason to go after venue owners. It's just a matter of time. So the Cabaret law being repealed is good but I don't think zoning is high enough on anyone's radar.
Ben: In 2018 you tweeted about a party being shut down by a program called MARCH. What’s that?
Tara: MARCH is the Multi Agency Response to Community Hotspots, it’s been around a while. The first thing that happens is they've somehow identified a place as being a “community hotspot” for whatever reason, usually they say it's noise. Then, instead of having Environmental Protection come in, who regulates noise, you get the Department of Health, The State Liquor Authority, FDNY, the Department of Buildings, and the cops all at once. They show up at a venue and look at egress, capacity, guests’ IDs, everything. God forbid you have an exposed pipe or something...they could probably get you on that. This generally results in a lot of violations and fines for a venue. They’ll just shut a spot down and usually it isn’t clear to the guests why. It seems very arbitrary and there's no transparency whatsoever.
Ben: I don’t see how anyone can run a F&B-centric business in this city that’s up to all codes and in accordance with all laws at all times. I’ve seen roaches at Michelin restaurants as frequently as I have in dive bars.
Tara: It's intimidating. And again, if it's really a noise thing, then let the people who have the decibel meters come out. Why cops? Why FDNY and the SLA? People felt they were being targeted because they happened to have a lot of hip hop DJs.
Tara working Donuts are Forever #5 (left) and #7 (right). Photos by Clay Williams, used with permission.
Ben: I want to come back to that, but first let’s talk about the events group you’re part of, Rare Form. When did that all start up??
Tara: Oh I just looked this up. It was 2002. We were friends who all hung out, we would all go to parties together...out all the time. All in our twenties. We all were gainfully employed and I’d moved back home with my parents for a little bit, so I had more expendable income saved from not having to pay rent. So we knew all these great DJs and just thought...do we want to give this a go? I had a friend who worked for a website that did club listing, we identified our graphics person, our PR person, even a computer science person. This perfect combo. We decided to do a party and wanted ?uestlove from The Roots to DJ. I forgot what the venue was called when we did it, but it was where Greenhouse on Varick is now. We had a friend who worked with liquor and beer brands, so we got free beer. We did really well at that party and were just like, “We've just...we're doing it.” Then we did a party with Prince Paul and...
Ben: Gotta interrupt for a second...it sounds sort of fantastical. You decide to throw parties and your first two DJs are ?uestlove and Prince Paul? Like…how?
Tara: We just reached out. I think just from us all being the kind of people who were out a lot we knew the right people to ask. And we had friends who were nerds like us, so we knew they’d come to the party. So we reached out. You know, what’s the harm? Again, it comes back to resources. It’s all about sharing resources and information, and finding people on the same wavelength.
Ben: This is all happening around the time that 2x LP of The Roots Instrumentals had just come out right?
Tara: Yeah. Or maybe it was the live album? For the first party it was actually a celebration like, in honor of some new thing that came out but I don’t remember the exact release. At the time ?uestlove wasn’t really pushing it as hard as a DJ, not like he is today.
“I've seen beautiful buildings, beautiful spaces. I’d love to throw a party in some of them, but my community’s safety is in my hands.”
Ben: How’d you define Rare Form’s identity beyond being a group of friends who wanted to throw a party?
Tara: All we really wanted with the parties— while we definitely wanted to make our mark —was to do things in a way that would make people remember them. When we were younger we’d go to these parties run by these promoters called Black Diamond and their whole thing was like, very bougie black people. College educated, grown and sexy when that was the term…
Ben: …“Grown and sexy” makes me think of that Jay Z line “I don't wear jerseys, I'm 30 plus…”
Tara: We all fell into that. We’re all going to Express and getting the button up, you know? That’s what it was! We just liked the whole vibe these slightly older promoters were providing. They had good DJs, like Rich Medina. That was when you had to get dressed up to go to the club. We wanted people to talk about our parties the way that we talked about going to those parties, but we didn't want to make people dress up.
Ben: So we’re around peak Soulquarians era…maybe a good time to talk about J Dilla. After he passed, Rare From started working on tribute parties. That’s been going on like 15 years now?
Tara: Next year will be 15, yeah. So right after Dilla died, maybe a week or two later, somebody threw a little tribute at Public Assembly which then, I think, was still called Galapagos Art Space. I remember we all went and we had a really good time. We're hearing songs that we didn't even know Dilla did, our minds were blown. And then a friend was like, “You guys should do this every year.” So we just started doing it.
Some promo images from early Rare Form parties featuring ?uestlove of The Roots
Ben: Aside from appreciating Dilla’s legacy, what’s been the general mission of the series?
Tara: Coming from a nonprofit background, it was important to me that our parties be on the up and up. We didn’t feel right making money off the party so we always donated it all. The first few years we gave to various causes like Lupus Foundation for Research and the J Dilla Foundation. We then worked with an organization named Groundwork, Inc (now part of Good Shepherd Services) and Scratch Academy for a few years getting [their] kids to classes, and through that met people from Building Beats who were doing even more with music education. Today, Donuts are Forever is pretty much their event in terms of putting the talent together, though we still help out. With Rare Form, everyone's married except me. People have kids and it was getting harder to manage. So it's great that we could move this over and have Building Beats really taking it on as their own. It's great to see the money raised actually get put to good use.
Ben: With all the venues closed, do you have suggestions for where people could put their own money to good use? Anyone you want to shout out?
Tara: There are venues that I definitely want to see supported. Our Wicked Lady, which is where we do Massoka Cookouts now, I just love it. They're great guys. In addition to the actual bar space, they have artists studios and rehearsal spaces. Also Ode to Babel, and C'mon Everybody on Franklin. If people have spaces they’ve got personal attachments to, just try to support those. Also lot of DJs are going the streaming route; check them out and if they’re doing tips, Cash App or Venmo something.
Ben: The uptick in DJ streaming has been cool. I’m almost 40 and have an 18 month old, I wasn’t out as much anyhow. But both of us went to a Lauren Flax stream Bunker hosted and it was fun.
Tara: Yeah, this is nice. DJ Spinna did a Prince tribute, I was checking that out yesterday. Rich Medina was doing something on Twitch. DJ Wonder’s doing stuff. And Spinna has what looks like a full club in his house. There’s a custom console, three turntables, a rotary mixer and an effects machine. It’s so nice I thought he was at Public Records at first. It’s amazing to see where all these talented artists do their work.
A crowd dancing at C’mon Everybody, one of Tara’s suggest venues to support. Photo provided by Eric Sosa. You can support them during COVID-19 lockdown here.
Ben: Quick sidebar…across all of your years of spinning around the city, who’s had the best sound system, overall?
Tara: I thought Output had a really good sound. It was loud, but it was never hurting your ears, It just felt soft and loud at the same time. I don't think I've heard a place that's been as good.
Ben: You brought up Massoka Cookout, another larger scale summer party you’re involved with. Last year was the decade mark, do you think there’ll be an 11th this summer?
Tara: So we have a friend who had a store in Williamsburg; who’s from Brooklyn but lived out in California for a minute. He had a friend from there, this DJ coming up who wanted to throw a party once a month in the backyard of the store. Maybe get some food together. I didn’t go to the first, but my friend said I really had to check it out. I went, had a great time, and got an offer to DJ. The other DJs and I just wanted to build it out more because it was so fun. It already had all the elements you'd want. You've got the food, you've got the drinks, you've got the people that look like you. It was just the right vibe and has always been great. But, we’ve had issues with that one, too.
Ben: What happened?
Tara: So again, this is all happening in the backyard of a store in Williamsburg during the daytime. It was on Grand Avenue which wasn’t Bedford, but it's still a major street. The second year, this woman moved in nearby and started calling the police on the party often. The police went inside her apartment and didn’t think it was that loud, but she kept calling. Eventually she called and said that someone had a gun at our party. A bunch of cops came and while they were all right, their basic stance was that this lady’s just not going to stop until the party gets shut down, so they shut it down. The whole thing set me off. Like, how dare she call it about a gun...somebody could have been outside holding a can of soda that gets mistaken and the next thing you know cops are yelling to see peoples’ hands. Someone could have died. All I could think about was that any one of us could have just been out there, with no idea that cops were coming and we could have lost somebody. I was enraged and was ready to jump the fence and tell this woman off. And at that point, my friend's landlord was saying we just had to stop, so we ended up moving to a proper venue [Our Wicked Lady].
Ben: I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Like, the Cabaret law’s gone but not the racism that upheld it for so long. You said the cops were alright, is that the norm?
Tara: While people will call and say whatever, for the most part it's been surprisingly alright. We haven’t had the worst experiences in the world with the cops. But the thing is, we have to always expect the worst. We've been very intentional about where we do events because I don't want to put anyone in a dangerous position. I've seen beautiful buildings, beautiful spaces. I’d love to throw a party in some of them, but my community’s safety is in my hands.
Ben: It’s a lot of responsibility, and I wanna say thanks for that extra labor because people like you are why New York City is New York City. I also want to keep going on the subject of beautiful spaces. If I were to ask you to consider different buildings in the city that have been personally meaningful to you, and to pair each up with a song…would you be into that?
Tara: This is a cool idea! I think I can work this out.
Check out More Songs About Buildings and Star Foods, a bonus post with DJ Tara.