On August 25th, the @TrappyHourHarlem Instagram account was hacked and deleted.
Thursday, August 30, I headed to Harlem to attend the TrappyHour Who Done It?! themed party and spoke to the party organizer and social media lead, who is also the decidedly anonymous voice of @TrappyHourHarlem Instagram account. When I ask him his initial reaction to seeing the page deactivated he says “I immediately thought, ‘okay Instagram finally got me!’ You know because [the page was] racy.”
TrappyHour is “Harlem’s #Black #Queer #LIT #party”, Thursday’s at Harlem Nights. This very-2018-happy-hour starts at 8pm, and is a staple party in PoC Queer & Trans nightlife in New York—attended by Millennials and Generation X-ers alike. Many of the attendees are cisgender Black and Brown gay men who enjoy hearing Trina Look Back At Me, and live for a Baldwin, Hansberry, Nina Simone discussion. There is a new page up, @TrappyHourHarlem2, however there is a feeling that an era has ended, and a nagging wonder Who Done It?!
When I first arrive at Trappy Hour, to find out what’s tea, I am early for the meeting. Lights are low, and to my left I see notable literary and media figures sitting with cuties and drinks. The bar is full with chatting people, and the seats against a wall to the right are packed with friend groups, taking shots and catching up about the week’s happenings. I find a seat on the stage, there’s a “Harlem Nights” sign hanging above me, and an older daddy with a beard, rapping with his twinkier free-talking friend.
Harlem Nights is a dive-ish bar with a vibey cabin hip-hop feel sitting on 138th Street and Adam C. Powell Boulevard. The kitchen serves pub-style bar food, a ton of wings are brought out, as hip-hop and caribbean music play from a playlist—each song with a three second fade into the next, classy.
Who Done It?! shifts into nightclub feels a little after 10pm. Seats are removed and the music turned up. Boys are standing now with a two-step and tipsy look about their faces. Some girls with their girls are dancing by the bar as Trappy Bandit walks into the bar. Trappy Bandit is my name for our anonymous Trappy Hour organizer and the human being on the other side of the deleted Trappy Hour Instagram and new @TrappyHourHarlem2.
Trappy Bandit offers me a drink, and we talk outside. His voice and his candor match the tone, and style of @TrappyHourHarlem. The aesthetic and energy of the page is described by Jason a Trappy Hour frequenter, as “Black boys enjoying life.” He calls the Instagram account “a safe space for people to be their most fullest and ratchet selves.”
Trappy Bandit says he did not receive a notification saying @TrappyHourHarlem was being taken down, but “weird things happened.” He says “I was looking over my emails because [Instagram officials] tell you when they are taking [content] down. Then when I looked at [Instagram], it just says your password has been changed.” Trappy Bandit was thinking that this still could be apart of the eroticism displayed on the page, or “The surveys. The vulgar, push the envelope” surveys that helped Brandon, a Trappy Hour attendee, feel like he wasn’t alone. “To see people answer similarly [let me know] I’m not alone”, Brandon says with a laugh.
“I screen capped everything because something seemed suspicious, especially after somebody told me that they were going to do that”, Trappy Bandit says. “The [alleged] person who [deleted the page] came to the party last week (now two weeks ago), and said they were going to have my little page taken down.” I asked Mr. Bandit why he felt the person who threatened to delete the page is the one who deleted it? “I only believe [he did it] because when I went back to the page and clicked the link in the bio, it jumped to his platform, and a video that said ‘Level Up’”
He shows me the screencaps of the Instagram. Trappy Bandit declined to disclose the alleged hackers information, because he wants to see how Instagram is going to follow-up.
“When I did investigate it through [Instagram] they said ‘You violated these terms, so that is why your page has been disabled’”, and then “When I sent them the screenshots and some questions no one got back.” “There is a percentage chance that I could be wrong. I don’t want to blame anybody. That is why I need Instagram to say ‘this is what happened.’”
Mr. Bandit says he had the idea to throw the party to keep a positive spin on things, he says “I was sitting by myself and I thought, instead of getting down or mad about it. Let me turn it into something.” Trappy Hour has been going down for 2 years. It has a special energy, that packs out Harlem Nights every week. I asked Mr. Bandit what made @TrappyHourHarlem so special to partygoers? He said “It was just a person you didn’t know just being raw! I put all my problems there because they don’t know me. A lot of people felt warm and like they could talk back to the account.”
He says he was surprised about how many people would tell him very personal business. “That is why I really want to know who is in this account, because people are telling me things about their lives.” Social media has been a huge space for Queer & Trans people in search of community and conversation engaging the lives we are living. Trappy Bandit did not know the IG account had become a safe space, until engaging with followers in surveys. “It was mostly people who live in small towns. One guy I sparked with and he was going through a hard time, but I don’t remember his username.”
The party picks up and people share their favorite memories. Some will miss the story streams celebrating beauty—praising thicks fems and muscle daddies alike. Some will miss watching during evenings with bae . Some think the alleged hacker needs to experience the love of the old page. All Trappy Hour activity can be found over @TrappyHourHarlem2 now. The party goes on.
<3
