Photo credit: Jalen Turner
On her debut EP “Booty Codes,” Veralyn Wen wanted the project’s five tracks to showcase her current musical curiosities. Slated for release on September 25th, Wen seamlessly weaves her love for hyperpop, soul, and jazz across the nearly 16-minute runtime. She started some tracks months ago and finally finished the project after a summer residency ended and she suddenly had more free time.
“I wanted something to happen just for the sake of productivity,” Wen said, laughing. “I like to be productive every month, so I was like, the most productive thing I can do with all of these tracks is put them out.”
The tracks are fun and lively. They’re laced with barking dogs, whistles, heavy breathing, and playful refrains of people chanting lines like “hey, hey, hey,” “I just need you to dance, baby,” and “where’s the fucking bass?” They’re the kind of songs you might play at a dance party, with piles of people dancing under strobing lights, impishly bumping into each other all night long.
On Friday, October 2, Wen will debut at Paragon, a dance club on the cusp of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick. The space is a prominent venue in Brooklyn’s dance scene. Wen plans to play her sprightly new EP for the club’s dancing crowd during her set.
Veralyn Wen is a digital culture historian, curator, entrepreneur, and DJ. Originally from Philly, Wen graduated from Spelman College with a bachelor’s degree in art history. Since this summer, she’s called Bushwick home. While in Atlanta, Wen founded “Synth Wars,” a DJ battle where some of Atlanta’s best up-and-coming spinners competed to win the title of Atlanta’s supreme DJ. Since its launch, Wen has held competitions in Chicago, Miami, and London, and plans to expand to more cities. Synth Wars gives Black, brown, and queer DJs a chance to flex their skills, while giving attendees a night of enjoyment and fostering a competitive, fun environment. Since leaving Atlanta, Wen has had her sights set on taking over New York’s music scene, and Paragon’s upcoming event is another step toward that goal.
“I’m more of an artist here in New York,” said Wen of her move to Bushwick. “In Atlanta I was more of a curator, an organizer, and an A&R, so with my DJ competitions I was more like the person who was trusted to recommend different DJ stuff and put lineups together, but I wasn’t taken seriously as an artist or DJ. Maybe only three people knew that I was a DJ.”
Paragon is a stepping stone for Wen to continue solidifying her name as a DJ. The night’s theme? The Hood Needs House. Veralyn will play alongside eight other DJs who will cycle through the event.
Like many opportunities in the art world, Wen’s chance to spin at Paragon came through a friend: Csyan Russell. The club asked Russell, a fellow DJ and event organizer, to take over the basement of the space in collaboration with Russell’s own event series, “Twerk2Freedom.” Russell asked Wen to join the “Twerk2Freedom” lineup, and Wen immediately accepted, elated at the opportunity to play at a club that she deeply admired.
“It meant so fucking much,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve really looked up to Paragon’s programming. The first time I went, I noticed it felt very family-oriented – it’s rare for a club to feel like it’s family-run.”
Over the years, Wen’s connection to the venue grew as she watched DJs she revered headline Paragon events. She said the club’s commitment to upholding Black rave culture and showcasing DJs who played Black electronic music strengthened her respect and planted her desire to spin at the club one day, too. John Barclay opened the club on April 11, 2022. Barclay has a history in the dance club scene; he also created Bossa Nova Civic Club, a space that faced temporary closure in 2022 after a tragic fire but reopened nine months later thanks to overwhelming financial support from the dance community.
Located at 990 Broadway, Paragon dealt with a similar threat of closure. On January 22, 2025, they announced in an Instagram post that the club would close in April. The post shared that they simply could not “afford the financial reality of this industry in 2025,” but that if anyone was interested “in purchasing (or investing) feel free to reach out.” Perhaps an investor took them up on the latter, as the post gained hundreds of comments and thousands of likes; the club continued to put on shows, pausing for three months when it reached its April deadline, and triumphantly announced its reopening on July 16, 2025. The post thanked Detroit techno legend Kevin Saunderson for spearheading the revival.
Partygoers also owe Saunderson credit for inspiring “The Hood Needs House,” the event where Wen will make her Paragon debut. Kweku Saunderson, Kevin Saunderson’s nephew, founded the event series in 2015. Kweku felt inspired to start the series following a tragedy at a Brooklyn block party he attended in 2009 that sent him into a depression. Knowing his love for music, his father sent some of his songs to his legendary uncle, who invited him to Michigan to learn about Detroit techno. This sent Kweku on an adventure; he toured Europe with his uncle for two years and fell in love with house music. But when he returned to Brooklyn, he saw the same violence he had fled, and decided the hood needed house music. The hood needed to feel the same sense of relief and enlightenment he felt during those years in Europe. His community needed an outlet to come together and just dance.
The October 2 event will collaborate with KMS Records, Kevin Saunderson’s Detroit-based techno label that he founded in 1987. Like the Saundersons, Veralyn Wen uses Synth Wars to bring her community together to experience great music. That’s what makes her debut at Paragon the perfect stepping stone into establishing her music career in New York City. Wen hopes attendees will remember this performance fondly years from now. Beyond showcasing “Booty Codes,” she’s got a trick up her sleeve to help cement her performance in partygoers’ memories.
“They’ll be hearing some really nice unreleased shit you can’t really hear or find anywhere,” she said, explaining. “One of my big homies who’s an amazing Jersey club producer and DJ has been collecting CDs since the early 2000s. They’re demo versions of songs…he made me promise not to share them with anyone else. I think me and him are the only ones with those files.”
A year from now, Wen envisions herself DJing abroad, organizing more events, and hosting festivals. For her, Paragon is just the start.
“I want people to see my work and be like, ‘oh, she’s an all-around curator.’ I want to help uplift other people as well,” she said. “The same way that I did in Atlanta, but on a larger, larger scale.”
Editor’s note: This piece was originally written before Veralyn performed at Paragon on October 2.
You can check out Wen’s debut EP, “Booty Codes,” on SoundCloud.
Caitlin is 1/2 of disjoint and resides in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Her pieces focus on arts and culture.
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