Over the years Kay’s Oasis in Mattapan has been the site of countless reggae concerts, sound system dance nights, and milestone celebrations. Earlier this month, it was Kay’s turn to be celebrated. Owner Kay Chambers held a party to mark her retirement after four decades of owning the nightclub as well as the adjoining Kay’s Oasis Beauty Salon. Chambers opened the salon in 1984 and the nightclub, which was most recently known as Kay’s Lounge, in 1989.
Chambers tells WBUR that she decided it was time to retire so that as she begins her 80s “I can enjoy the rest of my life.” She says she’s sold the building via a broker – “signed, sealed, and delivered” – and that she’s not sure what the new owner will do in the space. She still owns the liquor license but intends to sell it as well.
Kay’s now joins such other shuttered neighborhood venues as the Caribbean Cultural Center and Skycap Plaza as being just a memory for Bostonians who want to experience Caribbean music and nightlife. And it comes at a time when the neighborhood has gained a new venue and others are adjusting their programming.
Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell, who represents District Four, says that he’s never known life in the neighborhood without Kay’s. The 42-year-old notes that for his Caribbean parents “Kay’s was their space to go and have a good time, to meet with friends and socialize and create community and a new city. At a time when reggae music wasn’t received with open hands by all club promoters, Miss Kay welcomed and encouraged it.”
Veteran Boston reggae DJ and producer Junior Rodigan had a residency at Kay’s from 1991 to to 1999 and then again from 2003 to 2006 which helped turn what had been an erratically used function hall into a popular nightclub.
“I know at least four people who exist in this world because their mom and dad met on a Friday night at Kay’s,” says Rodigan. “And it’s really important to remember that this was a business owned by a Black woman. And she also worked at the salon as one of the hairdressers, so she’d been there in the morning doing hair and then she was the one who pulled down the gate when the club closed late that night.”
After Kay’s closure, Rodigan posted on social media a graphic paying tribute to all of the major entertainers who had appeared at Kay’s over the years. The list speaks to the importance that reggae artists placed on appearing in the heart of Boston’s Caribbean community. Some, like Grammy winners Morgan Heritage, came back to do album launch events at Kay’s years after they had crossed over into performing at mainstream rock clubs.
And then there was the sleepy Sunday night when Rodigan was shocked to see a giant tour bus idling on Blue Hill Avenue. Reggae superstars Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Baby Cham had come to hang out and perform some impromptu songs after playing a concert at what is now the Leader Bank Pavilion in the Seaport.
Boston Director of Nightlife Economy Corean Reynolds says her office is “proud of the work Kay has done in creating community and all the history associated with it, but we also have folks who are living in her honor and plan on doing the same work” at other venues.
As the Caribbean music scene moves into its post-Kay’s era, it does so in a very different landscape. While downtown Boston venues were once famously resistant to presenting Black music nights, Rodigan says that now you can hear reggae, soca, hip-hop, R&B and, especially, Afrobeats and Haitian music all over the city.
“There are a lot of younger promoters that are able to get into places like Big Night Live, Grand in the Seaport, and Mémoire inside of the Encore Casino,” he says.
Social clubs have long been a place where Caribbean music can be heard. Rodigan routinely appears at events like an oldies party called Big People Ting at the Montserrat Aspirers Club in Dorchester. He adds that Unity Sports & Cultural Association on Dunbar Avenue, long known for soca parties, has started attracting a younger audience, especially on Fridays.
And now there’s a new Caribbean venue right down the street from Kay’s: Sorrel & Lime, which describes itself as an event center rather than a nightclub, opened in February. Last weekend it hosted a concert with Trinidadian artist Coutain. Housed in a building that used to be the Island Pride Function Hall and, before that, Briggs and Briggs, the business received a SPACE grant from the city and has an application pending for one of the 225 new liquor licenses that the city will be granting over the next three years.
Worrell says he’s excited to have Sorrel & Lime in the neighborhood. “It will help to fill the void. We cannot ever have enough places to celebrate culture,” he says, “especially in these times where there is such a need to know your neighbors and understand diversity.”
Noting that she had very few problems over the years, Chambers has one piece of advice for anyone starting up a new nightlife venture: “Just go by the rules and you’ll make it. That’s all.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2025 WBUR