It could have been anything. An Aimé Leon Dore pop-up? A Deuxmoi-reported sighting of Chappell Roan? Something-something sneakers? But no, the line outside Night Club 101 that wrapped around East 7th was in fact for democratic-socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. The anti-billionaire, pro-Palestine assemblymember for northwestern Queens had shouldered his way into second place in a recent poll of Democratic-primary candidates, and if tonight looked and felt different from most political fundraisers, it was because — as the actress Rowan Blanchard, one of the hosts, said to me — “he’s different.”
“We knew people were experiencing a kind of political malaise,” said the artist Aria Dean, who helped plan the event. “So many events get written about because there’s a huge line outside.” Why not, she said, “mobilize the clout bomb”? That they had managed to do so a day after Andrew Cuomo had announced his candidacy was a happy accident. In Dean’s telling, the party — run not by Mamdani’s campaign but by writers, artists, and organizers — had come together through downtown tag-teaming. Its sponsors, who helped cover the open bar tab, included leftist podcast Chapo Trap House and the party-girl publicist Kaitlin Phillips (who wasn’t there; I was told she “might be in Europe”).
Around 500 RSVPs filled the bar with the usual vague hyphenate professions — but, notably, little irony. “This is the most optimistic I’ve felt since Bernie,” said a meme-page-runner–artist. “Have you ever read Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks?” a man shouted over the music. Mamdani facilitated this energy, working the line, oscillating between rousing effusions on the cost of living and flashing a goofy, impish grin. When he took the stage, the crowd cheered. “We’re here to make the buses fast and …,” he goaded. “Free!” they shot back. By the end of the night, the campaign had raised 22 grand.