Linux – Dombeeef and Airik Prince

Photography by Wilsonmodels

INTERVIEW >>>

Linux, hello! Thanks for chatting! So um, how are you enjoying 2025 so far, lol?

Hello!! 2025 has been off to an incredible start. I feel like all the seeds I planted in 2024 are finally starting to sprout, which makes me really happy and excited. 

Your garden is beautiful! Congrats on your Glam win, you’ve won as a writer. What can you tell us about about your columns—how did that opportunity come to you and what inspired your entries?

Aww, thank you, thank you. The whole writing thing just came to me, I never had a plan to do it. The story of how it came to be is actually quite beautiful. Back in 2018, I was wrongly identified and arrested by NYPD, who placed me in a men’s prison unit on Rikers Island. I was there for nine days in what was definitely the most traumatizing experience of my life. I don’t know how I survived. I met a few other trans girls there as well, who were set to be there even longer than me. We all worked together to stay alive and look after each other. A voice in my head told me, “You need to be writing this all down.” So I found a pen from the guy giving tattoos and a roll of toilet paper and I documented my entire experience while at Rikers. When I was finally released, I went to Justin Moran, the editor in chief at Paper Magazine and I told him my story and that the world needs to know what is happening to our trans sisters right in our backyard. Once it was published, there wasn’t a single night I could go out without people coming up to me and mentioning my Rikers Island piece. They say you should continue doing things that evoke a positive response from people and my writing seemingly did, but I didn’t want to write about traumatic experiences anymore…so I thought to myself, “What is something that makes me happy that I can write about?” 

     The clearest, most immediate idea was nightlife. This industry saved me and others so many times and it’s something I’m very clearly, deeply passionate about. So once I came to that conclusion, I was like, “OK, I’m doing a nightlife column!” 

And the rest was history! 

That’s a beautiful story! Speaking of beauty: Paul’s Dolls at Paul’s Casablanca! That’s a very popular party you’ve been producing. And Wednesdays aren’t easy! Can you tell us a bit about what sets this night apart from other parties?

Yesss, my home!!! I moved to NYC in 2015 and there was no place for dolls to meet each other. We had a Facebook group called the Fish Tank and if there were girls in your city, you’d get lunch or go in on a hotel room with them to see daddies, or you would just fully text them from their escort ads. 

Parties did not have 15+ dolls running around them like they do now. The sole connection between dolls was sex work. I wanted the girls to be more than that together, I wanted us to be real friends and have a sisterhood. So I started making reservations at restaurants around the city and inviting like 20 of my trans friends to the dinner; We would call it “DOLL DINNER.” After a few of them, there started being too many of us to fit at a dinner table and I was like, “Wait, this would make a great party!” So I set up a Wednesday night at Paul’s Casablanca and we just kept having amazing night after amazing night to now celebrating our third year anniversary. 

I think what makes this party so successful is that I’m trying to act selflessly. I truly just want to better the terrain of NYC nightlife and make a spot for people that didn’t previously have one. It’s fun, it’s chaos, it’s a sisterhood. I’m really proud of how far it’s come and where it is seemingly headed.

You’ve started a night called Clout 9 at Gabriela in Brooklyn. How’s that going?

Yes! It’s my new monthly Friday. If Paul’s Dolls is a house party, Clout 9 is when we finally get to the club. When I first saw Eli Escobar’s new Brooklyn spot, Gabriela, I knew I needed to throw a party there. The layout is just perfect: you get that cunty bottle service moment on the floor, you can socialize more privately on the upstairs mezzanine that overlooks the whole party and then you can also just get totally lost on the dancefloor. It’s very choose-your-own-adventure. I wanted to bring in my magic touch of crowd curation, and I think we were really successful with it. New York weekends are sooooo action packed lately, so I wanted Clout 9 to kind of feel like the Friday night social lubricant to your 48-hour bender of a weekend. 

Paul’s Dolls kind of requires my DJs to play more poppy/less experimental music because of what it is, so I really like that I’ve been able to have more of the music I like to dance to on my weekends out — the techno/heavy house vibe, at Clout 9.

Werk! Is there anything else you wanna mention or promote?

I’ve got a lot of things I’m cooking in the kitchen that I can’t wait to announce, but the column and parties are my prime focus right now. 

What’s a crazy nightlife story you can share?

Let me tell my most fab party moment I’ve ever had. A few years back, Susanne Bartsch brought me to a friend’s dinner party at this mansion in Malibu….I’ve never gagged harder. It was at the same mansion that Gaga filmed her music video for “Paparazzi” in. It’s four long dinner tables, and the seating was pre assigned and randomized. Across from me was RuPaul, behind me was Bette Midler, next to her was Susanne and then Naomi Campbell. Just when I thought it couldn’t get crazier, after dinner had ended, Miley Cyrus walked in, yelling “Sorry I’m late. The traffic was crazy!” 

It was the wildest night of my lifeeeeee. Susanne has brought me to the wildest corners of the earth.

Location courtesy of Michael Wakefield for Pickles’ Playground

Jim Silvestri

Related Articles