"With the old definitions of The Future now quite literally out of date, there has never been a better time to create the truly new." - Chi Chi Valenti
Click + Drag, was the Manhattan nightlife hybrid that ruled Saturday nights at the legendary club MOTHER and later at Chinatowns FUN from 1995 through 2001. Birthed from a body of work started by founding members CHI CHI VALENTI, KITTY BOOTS and ROB ROTH at Jackie 60, Click + Drag was an amalgamation of art, fashion and atmosphere consistently blending computer-age references with a theatrical sensibility, sexual ambiguity and a strict dress code, rigidly enforced on the famous and the up-and-coming equally. ( cyber, fetish, gothic, post-apocolyptic, sexy robot, glamnerd, leather, vinyl, rubber, genderhacking, imaginative head-to-toe black, full period costume or theme-inspired. Absolutely no denim, khaki, business suits, or athletic wear, ever.)
the brainchild of three gifted parents. Multimedia artist Roth was the nights art director CHI CHI VALENTI (who coined the term "Cyberslut" in 1992 for a JACKIE 60 fetish series) stream-of-conciousness MCing.) Fashion designer Boots, the night's "gatekeeper" and stylist, is a British transplant whose clothing credits include LITTLE KIM, GWEN STEFANI and the late TIMOTHY LEARY as well as costuming for films including the upcoming GYPSY 83. Co-producer Abby Ehman was the nights kink control.
Each week, the group set out to create a visual and sensory experience unlike any other, a moment in time which challenged gender roles in heretofore untried manners and would send the spectators involved away with a memory.
Click + Drag's audience was a eclectic mix of downtowns elite, hardware fetishists and teenage hackers who often cited the sexually-charged atmosphere, best-dressed audience, and Roth's unprecedented visuals among the night's greatest lures. The night even drew celebrities like the SPICE GIRLS , director GUS VAN ZANT, supermodel KAREN ELSON, and designers MARC JACOBS and STEPHEN SPROUCE.
The long list of performers have ranged from GENESIS P. ORRIDGE, THE BUTOH ROCKETTES, opera songstress CHRISTINE MATOVICH, rock legend DEBBIE HARRY dominance diva MISTRESS ANGEL STERN and drag performer JUSTIN BOND , just to name a few.
The progressive hard-edge electro soundtrack came from such DJ's as LOAD REZENHAND(of the Throb music empire) DJ St. James and DJ SAMMY JO (tour DJ for the SCISSOR SISTERS).
Since its birth at MOTHER, Click + Drag has morphed continuously through its six-year run, consistently reinventing itself to keep moving resolutely into the future. many imitations have followed but none have touched the level of spectacle that Click + Drag reached. While co-creators Valenti, Boots and Ehmann have focused on other projects since Click's last incarnation at FUN, Rob Roth continues to create dynamic imagery through video, design and performance in NYC and beyond.
