“Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” @Dnice #ClubQuarantine: Digitally Mediating Ritualistic Leisure Spaces during Isolation

Abstract

Drawing on the DJ’s divination as hope purveyor and healer, this commentary examines the trendiest club scene during the COVID-19 and worldwide social distancing—#ClubQuarantine. It explores how DJ and producer Derrick “D-Nice” Jones uses Instagram Live to reproduce and perform hope through dual components of his musical sets: 1) participatory/performative healing and 2) cultural preservation. Situating this DJ within the Black Aesthetic, these two elements are explored in conversation with Kelly’s (2013) performance of hope theory. This commentary provides understanding for leisure scholars about the flow of Black visual and aesthetic culture and how the house party or the club can be a space of healing and cultural preservation —even in the face of a global health and economic crisis.

Keywords:

• Black aesthetic
• hope theory
• cultural preservation
• well-being
• performative healing COVID-19

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.