Alibi Lounge, reportedly the last gay bar in New York run by a Black owner, is asking for help to prevent the permanent closure of the bar.Minko opened Alibi Lounge in Harlem back in 2016. “I fell in love with my neighborhood.
I fell in love with my street,” Minko tells Now This. “[But] I walked about 20, 30, blocks, and I didn’t see anything that represented the LGBT image whatsoever.”Alibi fixed that inclusion problem.
Minko created a venue where New Yorkers could feel “automatically accepted, understood, and embraced.”With the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak in March, Minko had to close the bar for what he hoped would be a temporary period.