Box (The). Membership card, stationery, undated

The Page Hodel papers document the professional activities of the dance club DJ, radio Mixtress, and nightclub promoter Page Hodel (b. December 4th, 1965), dating from 1976 to 2019, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The papers consist of Hodel’s working files, such as correspondence, agreements, typed and handwritten notes, postcards, and fliers related to her career as a DJ, the events and clubs she created, her productions, club gigs, and one-off events. Also included fliers, mock-ups, posters, brochures, programs, magazines, newspapers, books, clippings, and other publicity and promotional material from her clubs and parties; photographs, negatives, and slides; memorabilia such as buttons, badges, party kit bags, stamps, clothing, banners, and other ephemera from events and clubs, particularly from the long-running Club Q and The Box; and digital material, including zip drives and CDs.

The material documents her long career in the music industry, from her notorious birthday parties and the years of DJ booking at Amelia’s, Oasis, and other venues to her collaboration with Olivia Cruises in the 1990s (See Series I. Working files). Documents cover her collaborations with KSOL, as the station’s first female mixer, in the early 1980s and later with LIVE 105. Extensive material pertains to her nightclub promotion and event producer career, covering Hodel’s The Box and Club Q, as well as other parties and venues, such as the Wet, Dance Factory, Eve, Girl Pride, Jump, Soul, and more, as well as DJing at outdoor events, pride parades, and festivals, such as the San Francisco Pride Parade and the Folsom Street Fair. (See Subseries I. C. Events production, I. D. Hodel’s events, and clubs; I. E. One-off events).

Her numerous awards and honors, including many Cable Car awards for San Francisco's Favorite DJ and Cable Car Awards Hall of Fame, San Francisco Bay Guardian awards for Best Dance Club for the box, and Best DJ, are also part of the collection. In addition, there is documentation of Hodel’s involvement in AIDS, cancer awareness, LGBTQ-focused, and other types of fundraisers, such as the AIDS Dance-a-Thons in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, the AIDS Walk, the Women’s Cancer Walk, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Project Inform Volunteer Appreciation Parties and more.

A large portion of the photographs are attributed to photographer Chloe Atkins. Hodel hired her to create portraits of many patrons and staff from The Box, as well as Club Q. Hodel celebrated the beauty of the diverse individuals she attracted and entertained and used these images of the real people coming to the clubs in her promotions. The collection includes Atkins’ prints of The Box crowds as well as the publicity material they featured in. Other photographers who contributed are Patrick R. Reynolds, Jessica Tanzer, Dawn Lewis, and others. Photo collages created by Page Hodel are contained in Series IV. Photographs, Slides, and Negatives.

Although The Box was open to all genders and sexualities throughout its 11 years of operation, there are a few letters and articles related to one case where the efforts of The Box’s staff to maintain this dance club as a safe and healthy environment for the gay community and their friends got misinterpreted as an act of sex discrimination (see more in Box 1, Folders 24, 25, Box 3, Folder 27, Box 4, Folders 2, 9, 16-17 and for an issue at Club Q, see Box 4, Folder 51).

Finally, Hodel included in her archives a folder related to the election of U.S. President Barack Obama in 2008, including her voter registration card, sample ballots, and more.

The collection includes a few items related to Hodel’s project and subsequent publication, “Monday Hearts for Madelene,” with images of one-of-a-kind handmade hearts Hodel constructed and photographed weekly for 11 years in honor of her beloved partner Madelene Rodriguez, whom she lost to ovarian cancer a few months after they first met.