Manray is a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

in Central Square,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. It was named for

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

artist and photographer,

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

Early days

In 1983, Campus'','' a

gay club A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served ...

, was built on a site previously occupied by Simeone's Restaurant. In 1985, the club was expanded under the moniker of Manray and its dance nights included a ''Campus'' event along with goth, new wave, industrial, and fetish nights. The club billed itself as an "art bar", and often featured gallery shows by local artists in its lounge area. Manray gained national attention when it was featured in ''

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

.''

Culture

Manray catered to a variety of alternative lifestyles. Its longest-running night was ''Campus'', a night "for

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

men and their friends". Wednesday was designated a gothic event known as “Crypt”. A New Wave night was held every Saturday, which featured DJs Chris Ewen and Gary Conzo playing new wave and

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

anthems, respectively. Manray also hosted many live music acts, including

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

. Manray gained a reputation as a hotbed of strangeness in the early 1990s, when it became home to the

goth A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were: *Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history *Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history Goth or Goths may also refer to: * Goth (surname) ...

and fetish/

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...

scenes in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area. Alternating Friday night events would be geared to one, the other, or both subcultures, resulting in a local scene that was unique in its cross-pollination across recurring events with titles such as ''Hell'', '' Xmortis'', ''Fantasy Factory'' and ''Ooze''.

Closure and reopening

On July 30, 2005, after more than 20 years, Manray was forced to close its doors. The owner of the building decided to take advantage of the high property values, and to demolish the building in order to construct

apartments An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...

. This followed a long process in which a building near Manray was declared historical, and the developer sought and eventually got permission to move that building to a new lot. Its final week was reported as a sad farewell by its patrons; discussions on and rumors of its reopening persisted for years. In January 2023, ManRay reopened in the former ImprovBoston space at 40 Prospect Street in Cambridge. The Friday of opening weekend had a "line wrapped around the corner and required hours of patience, in raw January temperatures".

Oral history book

In January 2022, an oral history of the nightclub was released. The crowd-funded book, ''We Are But Your Children – An Oral History of the Nightclub ManRay'', presents the history of the club and its importance to the communities that attended ManRay.

References

External links

Office website
(for Prospect St. location)
Archive of official website
(for Brookline St. location) {{coord, 42.3633, N, 71.1022, W, type:landmark_scale:500, display=title Nightclubs in Massachusetts Cambridge, Massachusetts Defunct nightclubs in the United States