© Michele Saunders
“My life lead me to the Garage,” Michele Saunders tells Document Journal. Growing up in France, her father would play jazz records, nurturing a lifelong passion for music that took shape when she moved to America to attend Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. On Wednesday nights, she’d road trip down to New York to catch the world famous Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
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In 1979, she met her soon-to-be husband Andre Saunders, who was producing Billy Nichols’s disco classic, “Give Your Body Up to the Music,” mixed by Larry Levan, resident DJ at the Paradise Garage. Andre invited her to see Nichols perform—an experience that would change her life.
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“The very first time I went, I was backstage, dressed in a Norma Kamali outfit with high heels and a fur coat,” Saunders recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh my God! I am going to be back next week by myself, no husband, no high heels, no fur coat. This is where my new home is going to be.’”
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© Michele Saunders