Dallas CD club creates space and belonging for music lovers

From KERA News:

On an ordinary Tuesday evening, Dallas music fans gather inside CreatrVerse eager to dive into the depths of Blonde. The critically acclaimed album by American singer-songwriter Frank Ocean is playing at full volume as the crowd of fellow music enthusiasts mingle.

This is CD Club, a social group founded by Dallas-based DJ Keiva “Kilo Posh” Spence. Once a month, the club invites music lovers to have meaningful conversations about albums that have made a significant impact on music culture.

“I think of this as like an archive club in a way,” Spence said. “Because CDs are kind of archival items, so it’s just preserving culture and art.”

Spence got the idea to create the club in 2022. At the time, she found herself struggling to find motivation, so she began driving around Dallas with friends searching for CDs in a ritual she calls “album hunting.” These trips sparked deep, introspective conversations and quickly evolved into a community convening for like-minded individuals.

The CD Club’s first official meeting took place in September 2023 at Bishop Arts’ Spinster Records, where the group discussed OutKast’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below.

“It was my own personal therapy that I just opened up to others that could possibly be going through the same thing, but it’s still something that’s still healing me,” Spence said.

Each month a poll is posted on the CD Club Instagram page for the community to choose albums from various genres to explore. The discussions cover a range of subjects from the art of producing and DJing explored through Kaytranada’s 99.9% to Women’s History Month celebrated through Solange’s When I Get Home.

Spence moderates the meetings, but also allows the crowd to do most of the work, creating a safe space for attendees to share their feelings and even argue their opinions.

“There’s people that want to have that conversation, there’s people that will take it there, and there’s people that are not just in it for the trend,” she said.

CD Club is more than just a discussion group; it’s a space where Dallas creatives can connect, share their own work and feel less alone. Ricky “FunkRula” Gatling, a producer artist originally from New York, met Spence in 2021 after a DJ set in Dallas and has been helping the club from Day 1.

“Everybody kind of drops their ego when it comes down to CD Club,” Gatling said. “The coolness drops. No one’s too cool. No one’s trying to be the star. Everyone’s just kind of in a space together.”

Gatling also believes the club has boosted his confidence, allowing him to share his thoughts more freely in a supportive environment. He said it’s been refreshing to find people who think like him and motivate him to add his opinion.

“You get to this point where you raise your hand and get up in front of all these people,” Gatling said. “Even if it’s a hot take or something that everybody agrees with, you say what you have to say because you love this album so much.”

For many attendees, the CD Club has become a place to gain connections and build relationships they wouldn’t find outside of their own personal bubbles. In just a year, the club has grown from 13 attendees to over 40.

Tiara Francois is a Dallas painter who considers herself an average music listener. She discovered the CD Club through mutual friends on Instagram. She said the club offers a rare opportunity to connect with new people in a genuine way, something she finds increasingly difficult.

“A lot of things that people do to socialize, like maybe go to a bar or go to a restaurant, typically you go to those places with people you already know,” she said. “So, you limit the amount of opportunities you have with connecting with new people because you’re already concerned with the group you came with.”

Francois appreciates how the club allowed her to connect with strangers.

“What I like about this club is you could kind of go by yourself and leave, having had a few new conversations with somebody you’ve never met. That’s how you build genuine connections in a more natural way,” she said.

As the CD Club approaches its one-year anniversary, Spence is excited to expand the club with more resources and partnerships.

“I’m really pushing the artists that we do have in our club to really change the way that we see music and listen to music because I love to talk about their albums as well in the future,” Spence said.

Spence never anticipated the direction the CD Club would take but is grateful to have built a space where ideas could linger and be explored more deeply.

The next meeting is on Tuesday, September 24 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at CreatrVerse.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KERAnews.org. Thanks for donating today.