According to the GoFundMe page, it took two assaults on the community safe space before NYPD made an arrest. A vandal set fire to Alibi’s rainbow flags on two occasions during Pride Month in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic isn’t the first hardship to hit Alibi in recent years. Contributions will go towards helping him “keep my black/latino LGBTQ employees on payroll, pay rent, taxes, and utilities covering the months we quarantined.” He’s already raised $26,000 of the club’s $50,00 goal as of Tuesday, June 9. Minko is now fighting to save the bar with a GoFundMe. Minko only reopened for takeout in mid-May, for two days a week and now has series of required payments. Alibi did not receive any pandemic assistance from the government and to make matter worse, burglars broke into the bar and stole its cash register while the business was closed for the pandemic.
Alibi was forced to shut its doors on March 16 to adhere to NYC’s COVID-related restrictions and has continued to face financial challenges.
Owner Alexi Minko opened Alibi Lounge in 2015, a decade after immigrating to New York from Gabon, with the hopes of creating a safe heaven for the LGBTQ community of Harlem. As we enter Pride Month 2020, in the midst of a global fight for racial equality, Manhattan’s only black-owned LGBTQ+ bar, is in danger of shutting its door for good.
