After Dark

After Dark was a nightclub located in the former Focus Phase II space on the 2nd floor of the Florentine Building at 117 21st Street North (now Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard North). It opened in 1981 and was managed by Darrell Meadows.

The gay-friendly club featured nightly performances by female impersonators, including full-time staff performers Joann Delite, Zee Jones, Beth Monroe and Mallessa Starr. In a contemporary newspaper account Meadows distinguished the club's performers, who considered their work "just a job," from "transvestites" who get sexual pleasure from wearing women's clothes, and "drag queens", gay men who live full time as women.

References

• Kemp, Kathy (June 3, 1983) "Female impersonation is just a job at After Dark." Birmingham Post-Herald Kudzu, p. 4–5