Susanne Bartsch, a producer and performance artist. Photo: Tony Notarberardino/@chelseahotelportraits For New York City’s nightlife personalities, the pandemic has turned their worlds right side up. Since March, many have been spending their waking hours like the rest of us — rising with the sun, as opposed to the other way around. “If I’m still out on someone’s stoop at 11:30 p.m.
“RuPaul always said, ‘You gotta be on the square’: meaning the iPhones, iPads, televisions, whatever. I’ve been wanting to get on the square for a long time, but I could never get it together. This pushed me onto it. I was doing a show called Bartschland Follies at the McKittrick Hotel every Friday. When it got canceled, I told everyone to come over to my house at the Chelsea Hotel and film it. It was just performers — like ten of them.
Photo: Courtesy Ana K. Guzman “Before the pandemic, I was working at Baby’s All Right as head of security. I’ve been there for seven years now. And May marked my first anniversary of becoming part owner of a security company. It looked like 2020 was going to be a really great year, especially for a POC-woman-owned company in the security field, which is predominantly male. And then this happened.
I’ve been doing my Sunday-night show on Facebook Live now. It’s almost like a virtual barroom ambience because there’s people listening and talking to each other in there. Like someone will log in and say, ‘Hi! How are you? I just opened up a bottle of wine …’ One song that’s always a favorite is ‘Ladies Who Lunch,’ from Company. I’ll break for a few minutes and tell people to go fix themselves another cocktail, and then when I come back we’ll do a toast.
I got a job at Gitano [a Tulum-inspired bar in Soho], which closed after Halloween. It’s outdoors, so it was COVID safe and they followed the regulations. We got these clear plastic [face shields], which are makeup friendly. That was another thing that made me want to stay home: I couldn’t do my regular makeup. My lipstick is such a big part of my look, and with a mask, it’s really hard. I made a mask with lips on it and got creative with matching outfits.
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