A LEGACY CONTINUED

The Pink Speakeasy isn’t just the greatest, pinkest performance venue you have ever seen. It’s also a love letter to the women who came before us in the family of our Mother-Daughter duo. They have laid down the groundwork to put the love of art and dance in our bones so that we can continue the legacy they've laid down today.

MARGARET ELIZABETH FOSTER -

THE MATRIARCH

It all started with a single decision. In the backdrop of the Great Migration, Margaret Elizabeth Foster knew her children needed an environment to foster their creative talents. She raised her children in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, further inspiring their love for the arts that has been passed down from generation to generation. Her bold, head-strong decisions and risks set a precedent for her children to always choose their passion first, and take that leap, no matter how big it might be. She made sure her children knew that she will be their foundation for whatever path they choose, as long as it brought them joy.

ANNA MARGARET GRAYSON

One of two daughters of Margaret Elizabeth Foster, who both inherited the love for dance and the arts. Anna Maragret Grayson was one of the first Katherine Dunham dancers, starting in 1945 and performed the popular Katherine Dunham shows such as Carribean Rhapsody and Caribe Song. She traveled all over the world as a dancer in the 1940s all while raising her two sons, continuing the tradition of imbuing the love of the arts in them; a family tradition. Even better, she was able to live her dreams along with her sister, Roxie Spino, and made a lifelong friend along the way in a woman named Eartha Kitt. Not only was Anna Margaret a Katherine Dunham dancer, she also was the wardrobe mistress to Katherine Dunham and a close confidant. After her time as a dancer, Anna Margaret went on to do many amazing things, one of them being opening a dance school with her eldest son Jojo Smith in the 1970s called Jojo’s Dance Factory which was a highly successful dance school. Jojo’s Dance Factory is now known as Broadway Dance Center today.

ROXIE SPINO

The woman who dared Eartha Kitt to audition for the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. However, there’s much more to her story. Roxie Spino took her love for the arts just as seriously and passionately as her older sister, making it a lifelong career. She first began as a Katherine Dunham dancer in the 1940s along with her sister and one of her closest friends, Eartha Kitt, first beginning at the Katherine Dunham Dance School in 1939, then being promoted to the dance troupe. In 1947, she left the Katherine Dunham Dance Co to pursue putting on her own show with her own dancers touring different NYC nightclubs and gaining much popularity, eventually earning her a role on Broadway in Finnian’s Rainbow. After a long career on stage, she decided to go a different route, she opened a dance school in Harlem which helped many stars along their way. Additionally, she had always had a love for clothes, so she affectionately went into fashion design, designing costumes for Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaunghn, Freda Payne and many others.

EARTHA KITT

Affectionately referred to as Margaret Elizabeth Foster’s foster daughter, Eartha Kitt has always been seen and treated as family and shared the same love for the arts as us. Not only she was a Renaissance woman herself, but she also frequently funded and supported many artists and art projects one example being the Katherine Dunham Foundation for the Preservation of Cultural Arts. Not only did Eartha Kitt show us how lifechanging art can be but also how important it is to support it and uplift it in any way we can.

US - MIGNON GRAYSON & TEHJA FAGAINS

After Anna Margaret Grayson’s first two sons, she had three more daughters, all who had creative talents bestowed upon them, and the youngest of the bunch, Mignon Grayson, also had a daughter and named her Tehja Fagains. We both carry the love for the arts in our hearts and want to provide a safe, beautiful space to celebrate art in its uninhibited form.

OUR MISSION

The Pink Speakeasy is a one-of-a-kind, all pink entertainment and event venue that embodies the vintage elegance and glamour of the 1920s to the 1960s, conceptualized and owned by a Black mother-daughter duo. The Pink Speakeasy provides a high-quality, luxury experience for both attendees, performers, artists entertainers alike; while serving as a safe space for women and femme-identifying people in the entertainment and production industry.

OUR VISION

Our mission for The Pink Speakeasy is to provide a beautiful, unique space for the arts to be celebrated while also providing a safe space for those creatives.

OUR LOCATION

The Pink Speakeasy is 20 to 40 minutes from Times Square, NYC located in the quickly growing town of West New York, New Jersey.

Full address will be provided upon inquiry.