Downtown New York was reeling, for most of the month, from the 3 June death of Benjamin Cho, the fashion designer, DJ, artist and nightlife fixture, but on 18 June the after-party for Cho’s memorial tried to channel the loss into a positive place. That evening, the club Paul’s Casablanca hosted its final Smiths Night, the dance party pioneered by Cho in 2003 that would often go on late into Monday. The artist Andrew Kuo presided in the DJ booth alongside Brian DeGraw, a member of the band Gang Gang Dance and Cho’s usual collaborator. The sadness was all contained in the songs, as the room embraced the weird energy Morrissey pioneered so well. “Dancing and singing felt like a good way to think about our friend,” Kuo said.
