Pink House Forever

The Pink House was like an underground United Nations. Chapel Hill's aspiring artists, musicians, poets, DJ's, activists, actors, writers, nudists, flutists, knuckleheads, and couch-surfers, all living together in (relative) harmony, united by their common bohemianism. Life inside the Pink House often consisted of weird shit happening at all hours, every day, it rarely stopped. And there's something about that place that won't allow the vibe to ever fully dissipate. / PinkHouseForever.org

Pink House. 130 North Street. Back In The Day.

Fellow residents from the 1991-94 years were Clint Curtis, Shyam Patel, Raj Krishnasami, Lydia Craft, Jess Deltac, Kyle York Spencer, Caroline Rivers Hall, Mel Lanham, Michelle Sinnott, Jay Murray, N'Gai Wright, Scott Bullock (who crashed on the couch for a year before finally moving in), Bryan Ellerson, Karen Hurka, Sally Stryker, Ryan Mathias, Charlie Speight, Chris Palmatier, Trent McDevitt, and Steve William.

Besides holdovers and returnees Jay, Scott, Mel (& Laverne!), Chris, and N'Gai, residents during 1995-97 included Ian Williams, Greg Humphreys, Allen Sellars (who, like Jay, lived at both the Pink House and 401 Pritchard), Zak Bisacky, James Dasher, Linden Elstran, Jiffer Bourguignon, Grant Tennille (who first made the scene as a fixture in N'Gai's room circa summer '93), Zia Zareem, Ben Folds, Tom Holden, and Chris "Chip" Chapman.

- Erik Ose

Friday, March 19, 1993

Rave of the future at Purple House

Ian, Clay, Matt, and the rest of the Purple House residents were willing to let me promote one of their house parties, especially since I promised to import out-of-state talent (our crash pad pal from Boston, DJ Stony). I'm not sure what color purple crossed with pink makes, but that was this night's flavor. We were all comrades in arms when it came to livening up the off-campus party scene. Also when it came to catching scabies, but that's another story.

There were three versions of this poster, each featuring a different Rhode Island crew member who was going to make the trip. But despite my grand plans, none of the special guests hyped on the posters materialized, supposedly due to a broken-down car. I don't remember what Dana's excuse was, he was visiting from NYC and crashing at the Pink House two nights before:

"So that's how these kids are at the law school. They get on my nerves. Their philosophy is, 'I just want a job, I don't care who I sell out, I just want to work in the firm, I just want some money for my kids.' " - Dana, rap session with N'Gai and Erik, 3/17/93

but apparently his plans changed and he couldn't stay through the weekend. Regardless, the party went on as scheduled, a good time was had by all, and Dai's spirit certainly hung in the air, two weeks after his epic first visit to Chapel Hill.