ADAIR

Brooklyn-based DJ and event producer ADAIR makes sure women, people of color, and the queer community are heard — and that they can hear one another. The intentional, consistent safe spaces she creates like Haute Sauce and Rose Gold foster much-needed community within the music scene. And ADAIR echoes whole worlds, too, within her music, with diasporic soundscapes of Brazilian baile, house, disco, funk, dancehall, hip-hop, and the fringes of these genres. Audiences have been taught by her music at the Brooklyn Museum, the Ace Hotel, and the Apollo Theater; they dance hard to it, too. “If there is a gap in your local community, fill it,” ADAIR says, “Don’t spend too much time thinking of how to make the event or function happen. Execute. Do it. Then learn and improve and build on your original idea.” Though programming spaces and building awareness has been a process of learning, ADAIR says it’s so worth it to fill a void. “I started DJing and event producing because I wasn’t seeing the community I was desiring, and I wasn’t hearing the music that I knew our queer community appreciates,” she says. Those who hope to bring this kind of haven to their neighborhoods should take things step by step, ADAIR advises, and watch their own pursuits flourish in feats of karma and connection, too.She recently set sail with Lez Journeys as their official DJ for the 2018 cruise to Cuba. —LK