Big Easy Grooves

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.