It is with broken hearts that we say goodbye to a friend and an important member of Danseparc, Michael Harwell. Michael took his own life on Wednesday, August 21st. I know many will have questions as to why, but to point to any one reason would simplify a complex decision. I think Michael's brother, Nathan, put it as best it can be explained, "Michael's time on earth had a shelf life and before he started to take more from this world than he felt he deserved he ended his own life."

Michael became a member of Danseparc after a grueling audition with Allison and Shoe. The key question at the end because Danseparc had been an all female collective at the time, "would you be willing to wear a dress?" The answer of course was yes though it took him a while to follow through! He started to DJ with us in 2005 and remained a member to the very end when Danseparc ended October 10, 2009 and was part of the 10 year birthday in November of 2012. You might not have known the extent of how important he was to the night. He became the heart and soul of it. Michael always worked hard to sometimes design the posters, create silkscreens for shirts and mix cds and of course promote the night. While many of the themes came from you guys, he also came up a few on his own like wolf shirt night and the ELO tribute, He always had new music to share with us. That was the best part of Danseparc, we were always sharing new music with each other, it was just incidental that we did it in a venue and people would dance to it.

When Michael first started, the art stuff was usually handled by Shoe or an outside designer. "I didn't know of any art background with him. I just remember he once said to me, 'I'll give it a try though I'm not very artistic.' Which as you know now is pretty hilarious," recalled Shoe. Michael was an extremely talented artist. Every Danseparc shirt was his doing as were a lot of our favorite posters. But beyond Danseparc he had his own artistic endeavors and was part of Sketch Klubb. He had shows at The Joanna, Domy Books and was in The Big Show at Lawndale Art Center.

Service Details:
September 25th @ 7pm
14 Pews
800 Aurora St., Houston, Texas 77009

If you would like to speak, tell a story, or have photos or drawings you'd like to share, please contact Nick Meriwether: nickmera@yahoo.com