DJ Val (a giant “rat” beside her) at a Queens! House Party in a Chicago club. Husband Patrick (background, in striped shirt) also takes a picture of Val. Photo: www.erikmkommer.com
By Gordon Berg
Resilience. Joy. Hope. When it feels like our worlds are falling apart, it’s hard to let go of what’s dragging us down and trust the healing powers of love. But some people do. They’ve been through it all and can still find reasons to dance.
Valerie Harmon is one of these.
For more than 51 years, she’s been spinning the music she loves so that others may find their own joy. Their own hope. Their own resilience.
Harmon’s current home in Onekama is worlds away from where she grew up around Bridgeport, just south of Chicago. Bridgeport is an older, working-class neighborhood. Down to earth. Genuine. A diverse, tight-knit community. When someone needs help, neighbors rally around them. These are the qualities that were instilled in Harmon as a young girl.
When she was 10 years old, her parents divorced. She bounced back from that by doggedly signing up for every parks-and-rec or after-school class she could find. She joined a latch-key program, where she DJ’d her first dance for the kids. At age 10. She marveled at how the tunes she spun lifted people up. About three years later, her father bought a bar in Bridgeport from her grandmother. To pack the bar, he hosted DJ nights. On one of those evenings, the DJ didn’t show. Rather than cancel, her dad asked his daughter to fill in. It was a huge success. The crowd loved Harmon. That night her passion for DJing became real.
When disco came on the scene, that was the music she spun. In a few years, it morphed into a new genre: house (or dance) music. House music is felt, physically and emotionally. It’s loud. It’s energetic. It is joyful and life-affirming. The worldwide epicenter for house music was Chicago, and Harmon found herself in the middle of this movement. As DJ Val, she worked different shifts at three of Chicago’s hottest clubs ⸺ for 16-17 years, unheard of in the industry. She was recognized by Architects of House as one of the 100 most influential DJs in the Chicago house music scene between 1975 and 1995. Along the way, she occasionally managed clubs and worked as a graphic artist. She was in demand.
As a DJ, Harmon’s song selections draw an emotional response.
“When I’m transitioning into a song, and I could feel the crowd, and I know … they’re gonna eat it up, and … you can hear them screaming, and they don’t have their cell phones out, they’re dancing and sweaty, and you get that crowd response, and you get goosebumps … that is an amazing feeling.”
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That feeling extends to her fans, DJ colleagues and club staff. They all become her family. This family buoyed her up and helped her overcome deeper struggles. Graves disease. Bladder cancer. Thyroid cancer. Through all the radiation and chemo treatments, she kept going. She kept spinning her music, kept giving joy. She couldn’t let her family down, and they weren’t about to abandon her.
The Chicago DJ community regularly gathered in online chat rooms after their gigs to “talk shop,” but they still hadn’t met each other. That was about to change. One early morning, as Valerie made her way to a club to spin for a shift, DJs from all over Chicago were gathering there to greet her. They had been driven to the club by another DJ, Patrick Harmon.
Valerie fondly recalled, “… from the moment (Pat) came up to the DJ booth to grab my hand, it was over, like, that was it. Like it was absolutely love at first sight. Wow, like a pound of bricks. And I had been single for about 15 years. I was not looking. Yeah, it just happened …”
They were together for 15 years. About four years ago, Pat was diagnosed with ALS. When he learned this, he immediately asked Valerie to marry him. Two weeks later, they tied the knot. Those two weeks were a whirlwind. It was the height of the pandemic. Everything was closed. Finding a wedding dress was impossible. She was frantic. Then her club family came to her rescue. One of Chicago’s celebrity drag queens created a beautifully “blinged-out” dress at the last minute. According to Valerie, “ … it was the best wedding you could ever have.”
As Pat’s ALS progressed, they yearned for a more manageable, peaceful existence. They sold everything they had to move to a small fixer-upper in Onekama, across the street from Portage Lake. With help from neighbors and local service organizations, their home was modified to accommodate his limited physical abilities. During this time, their devotion to each other deepened. They stopped listening to music. It was just too hard on Pat; it reminded him of when he was healthy. They found joy in simply being together on their front porch and marveling at the beautiful sunsets on the lake.
They were delighted when a mutual colleague would call Pat to boost his spirits. That friend was Georgie Porgie, voted by Billboard Magazine in 2010 as Top 10 Dance Artist of the Decade, and more recently as Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artist. Valerie gratefully recalled, “[Georgie] is like a friend-soulmate, because this guy’s spirit is 10,000 years old, and he lifts you up, no matter. He would call and talk to Pat when Pat could hardly breathe, and he would talk to him for an hour or two, just speaking positive, and Pat would feel so good after talking to him … He’s an amazing person.”
Pat died at Christmastime last year. It was only after his passing that Valerie started listening to music again. She returned to her home studio knowing that it was, “…something I had to trudge through to stay who I was. Still at times, it’s hard, but I know (Pat) would not want me to stop.”
After her own health challenges, she was inspired to write again. Ten years ago, she collaborated with Porgie, also the founder and owner of Music Plant Group, to record “Rise Again”. It shot to #1 on the Kings of Spins charts.
This fall, still grieving for her husband yet buoyed by her own lyrics, Valerie rose again. On October 17, with Porgie as headliner, she made her dramatic and triumphant return to the club scene at an international dance-music event in Amsterdam that attracted devoted followers of this music from all over the world.
Porgie showered her with accolades. “Valerie Harmon is known to the world as Superstar DJ Val … One of the kindest, most beautiful spirits on earth. She is an incredible DJ, producer, songwriter and remixer. One of the hardest-working DJs who has broken barriers for female DJs around the world. Her accomplishments and triumphs are beyond words! I am proud to call DJ Val my friend, my sister, my inspiration. Val is a bright star to the world!”
Harmon ⸺ who, for the last several years, has been an internet radio DJ and is “working toward producing dance music” ⸺ reflected on her future.
“I’ll die a DJ. I will never stop. Life’s too short … Yes, people need some splashes of rainbow on them, so they … see that life can be happy, even in the face of tragedy.”
For more about Harmon’s career, visit her website: www.djval.com and www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/en/artists-speakers/dj-val/20137. Listen to her radio show on Thursdays at 10 p.m.: https://mix93fm.com and visit her DJValChicago Instagram page for more sunset photos. Listen to “Rise Again” HERE
Read more stories by Gordon Berg HERE
1 Comment
Gordon,
Thanks for this incrediboy inspiring story. Wow!! I’d love to meet Val, if you have an in…[smile]