On March 4th of this year, Chicago mourned the loss of DJ Funk, a trailblazing ghetto house producer celebrated for his work with the local label Dance Mania. This came just over a month before the label was set to commemorate 30 years of the genre, featuring artists like Waxmaster, Jammin Gerald, DJ Milton, and others. While many of these figures are referenced in Daft Punk's 1997 track 'Teachers', they may be less familiar to the average electronic music fan. Despite recent years seeing nightlife hotspots like New York, London, and Berlin receiving more attention, Chicago remains firmly established as the nucleus of house music.
Last April, the 30th anniversary celebration of Dance Mania was organized by Viva Acid, a community-focused music initiative based in Chicago that highlights the distinctive influences of Chicago House Music on global DJ culture through events, workshops, and an annual music summit. Co-founded by Luis Baro and Andrew Emil in 2021, the initiative emerged in the first year after the pandemic as a series of engaging talks, workshops, in-store performances, daytime parties, and club events. Just this past October, the organization marked its fifth year of serving the community.
“As engaged members of this community, we had a network of individuals we wanted to showcase,” Andrew Emil shared with CLASH Magazine via Zoom. “These are the voices that need to be heard. These are the stories that need to be shared. The vision was simply to bring those to the forefront so that their legacies, lineages, and experiences remain remembered.”
Organized into three segments—The Foundation, Community Building, and Implementation—this year's Viva Acid Summit featured essential figures from nightlife such as DJ Lady D, Gene Farris, and DJ Slugo, who spoke candidly about maintaining fiscal responsibility, evolving while honoring their legacies, and enduring through challenges and periods of creative stagnation.
“[It’s crucial to continue teaching music history to younger generations] to ensure a brighter future for the underground,” DJ Slugo commented during a call with CLASH. “Without the underground, everything will become commercialized. When everything is commercialized and everyone is following the same trends, the genre begins to lose its vitality.”
This year, Viva Acid partner Jessica Fortune Fenner curated the panels not just for knowledge dissemination but also as platforms for meaningful discussions that lead to actionable outcomes. Talks like “Claiming Space, Shaping Culture” and “Thriving Through Opposition: The Trans Experience” on the second day of the summit showcased many young voices discussing developments in their evolving scenes and spaces.
Emil added: “It’s really about the impact on the community—not merely experts sharing their life stories. [It’s about] creating measurable community impact for the future and closing the gap between the founding members of the community and the youth. The aim is to gauge this through our surveys, relationships, and connections.”
In addition to Viva Acid, Chicago is actively working to preserve its status as the heart of house music. Last August, city officials designated the month as Chicago Footwork Appreciation Month. The city also hosts the Chicago House Music Festival and Conference annually—an event for which Emil serves on the DCASE planning committee—attracting tens of thousands to Millennium Park in Chicago.
“There are so [many] bright and shiny distractions for young people getting into music now,” Fenner noted when discussing the importance of imparting knowledge to the next generation of nightlife enthusiasts. “Understanding your history provides something to root yourself in, something reliable to return to. It instills a sense of solidity and grounding, rather than being swayed by the myriad of outside influences dictating how you should be or what you should do.”
Words: Arielle Lana LeJarde Main Photo: Josh Wink – Credit, Andrew Emil Inset Photography: As Credited
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On March 4th of this year, Chicago mourned the passing of DJ Funk, a trailblazing ghetto house producer recognized for his work with the local label, Dance Mania. It was just a