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 Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

. 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 Surrealist movements, although his ties to each ...

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 as ...

, 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 An alternative lifestyle is a lifestyle perceived to be outside the norm for a given culture. The phrase "alternative lifestyle" is often used pejoratively. Description of a related set of activities as alternative is a defining aspect of certain ...

. 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 ...

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 Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name *Chris Abani (born 1966), Nige ...

and

Gary Conzo Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran *Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Unit ...

playing new wave and disco 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 lamp Richard 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 and

fetish Fetish may refer to: Anthropological uses * Fetishism, the attribution of religious or mystical qualities to inanimate objects, known as fetishes * Zuni fetishes, small carvings from various stones made by the Zuni Indians * Imiut fetish, in anci ...

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 in ...

scenes in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

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 ma ...

. 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