Six months after Katrina leveled New Orleans, the Big Easy’s gay crowd still wanted to party with DJ Kimberly S. during Mardi Gras. “It was busier than I’d anticipated, and I felt like a positive presence there,” says Kimberly, who brings her optimistic aura to the turntables tonight at the Interbelt’s annual Heaven White party. “Downtown was alive. It was a well-needed celebration.”

The 39-year-old SoCal native has been spinning progressive-house tracks in gay bars across the country since the late ’80s. Today, she’s a resident DJ in nightspots from Seattle and Santa Fe to Minneapolis and Atlanta.

It all started with a job in a West Hollywood “girl club,” where patrons favored hip-hop. “Lesbians like that bumpy, grindy stuff,” says Kimberly. “But I’m so glad I don’t play for only women anymore, because I would grow cobwebs playing hip-hop all night. I like the boom-boom, the energy, the crescendos, and the climaxes of progressive-disco-house-tribal stuff. It’s an adrenaline rush.”
Sat., April 22, 9 p.m.

This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2006.