To friends and family, they’re Del Hale, a 23-year-old Chicago native finishing their English degree at East-West University. But in the electronic-music community, they’re Miss Twink USA, a dandy bimbo bringing viciously fun party poetry to the DJ booth. Since starting out in the DIY rave scene six years ago, Hale has been playing music to express themselves and find community. Now they’re regularly packing clubs locally and out of state.
Miss Twink USA is part of the crew at Rumors, a party founded by legendary mix master Ariel Zetina. In October 2021 they started a monthly all-Black electronic night at the Empty Bottle called Legion of Doom with DJs Fuj and Niiiiggggaaaaa (aka Andrew Mainor and Shaun LaCosta-Sinclair). And along with DJs Sydfalls and Zolita, in January they received a Broadcast Lab grant from Boiler Room TV to curate a production called Silk Is Smooth that will drop in May. They’re calling it a “broadcast concept,” and it will fuse sounds from the current underground with gospel, house, footwork, and drill to celebrate Black Chicago’s rich history of using music to imagine new futures.
As told to Micco Caporale
When I was 17, I moved to North Lawndale and went to an alternative school—not because I was a bad kid or anything, just because I was anxious and wanted to finish early. I grew up very shy and didn’t have that many friends. I had just moved back into the city, and my life was at a weird standstill. I really wanted to find cool people that looked like me and thought like me. I was looking for a chosen family.
This was around the time when club kids like Imp Queen, Wanna Bon Bon, and Lucy Stoole were popping up. I pretty much followed all the drag queens online, but this was a weird sweet spot because a lot of DIY stuff was happening in Chicago at the time too.
I went to a squat party that was all-ages. My friends at the time were getting kicked out of their squat, and some anarchists were taking it over. I’ve been to squat parties where people are like, “Let’s break shit!” But these people were like, “Let’s throw a party! Let’s do a set!”
People were playing music off their own computers. Strobe lights in the corner of the room. It was just packed with anarchists and their friends. And I met the person who became my best friend, Itsï. She’s more in the noise scene, but she was DJing there. Like, suddenly I met every single person that’s in my life now. They were all DJs there, and it was just the coolest shit I’d ever heard in my life.
There was jungle, techno, ambient, and experimental stuff, and I thought it was really fascinating. I thought I could match that energy with something crazy. Right after that party, I started making mixes on my computer—just, like, cutting and pasting all these songs, editing with Audacity.
A lot of this was around when I discovered Mister Wallace, Sophie, A.G. Cook, and Traxman. Going out, I didn’t hear a sound that sounded like the music that I grew up listening to—you know, a lot of house and rap and R&B. I felt like there wasn’t a spot for that in the DIY rave scene, and I was like, “Yeah, let’s make a spot for yourself!” I never knew that it was gonna become something big. I just thought of it as another way to express myself.
My first DJ gig was at a DIY party. I moved in with people I met at that squat party, and we were like, “Let’s start a party.” And we did that a lot—just throwing parties at our house. And people would come through and have fun with us. So that gave me the courage to keep going, and I started playing different house parties around the city. Eventually, that brought me to playing Rumors for the first time when I was 18 or 19. That was my first club gig. I was so excited because it was the party I loved going to with my little fake ID.
Not gonna lie, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t really know how to play on CDJs or anything. At that point, I made all my mixes with Audacity. They were preprogrammed. I didn’t know how to mix in real life. I was completely self-taught, and this was a way of DJing that I just didn’t know, and I had to learn on the fly. But I always had a certain energy I was going for, even then. It was crazy to come full circle and be invited to be part of the Rumors crew years later. I love them so much.
After that, I was kind of just thrown into the world of DJing. I went from one gig a month to two gigs a month, and I’ve been just very blessed and thankful that it’s been like that until 2020, when everything shut down. I practice day in, day out, sunrise to sunset, every single day. Like, every single night, just practicing my craft with people who really saw my potential and thought I was cool. Now I’m playing multiple gigs a month and traveling.
I just keep getting more imaginative. Lately, my style has grown into something a little more electronic. I still love the club sound—I will always call myself a club DJ. But lately I’ve been trying to pull in brighter sounds from electronica. And I think blends are so fun. I love to have a smarter blend, then throw out some real random shit. I’ve also been listening to a lot of electroclash. There’s so many inspirations everywhere.
Moans: All Trans Showcase
Hosted by Irregular Girl and Tiki Vonté. With drag performances by Kerri Traid, Lemon LaCroix, Cae Monāe, Mauve, and Showponii, plus music by Mayon and Miss Twink USA. Followed by Late Night at Berlin with Miss Twink USA, running till 4 AM. Fri 4/15, 10 PM, Berlin, 954 W. Belmont, ticket price to be determined, 21+
Legion of Doom
Hosted by Dutchesz Gemini, with sets by Zolita, Sulfurrrrrrr, Ty Jones, and Rika B. Tue 4/19, 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10, 21+
Miss Twink USA
Other acts to be announced. Wed 4/20, 10 PM, Berlin, 954 W. Belmont, ticket price to be determined, 21+
Loraine James, Miss Twink USA, Purelink
Thu 5/5, 9:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $15, 21+
I’m a writer, so my mixes have these, like, weird story lines or moments—like a kick to the head or something bubbly. I’ve been thinking about the most poetic but fascinating things I can translate into music.
There’s some songs I wrote during quarantine where I was like, “I’m gonna go through this feeling of, like, you’re at a packed club, and you’re walking around. You’ve got a drink in your hand, but everybody’s bumping into you. Your drink is falling onto them, their drinks are falling onto you. It’s that feeling of getting bounced around this club maze, and your clothes are wet. Everything’s wet.” That’s what I wanted to capture.
When I play a show, I try to think about the night itself. Like, I look at the flyer and think what people are looking forward to. I’m like, “OK, give them what they want, then flip it on its head.”
I got the name Miss Twink USA when I started out because I had this really bad friend who was trying to insult me one time. They were like, “What are you up to tonight?” and I was like, “Oh . . . I don’t know if I’m up to anything.” And they were like, “Oh, I’m surprised Miss Twink USA doesn’t have anything to do!” But I thought that dig was, like, so genius. I don’t even look like a twink anymore? But it’s just stuck. It cracks me up. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. The other day somebody called me Miss Twink UK, and I was like, “Oh! We’re going international!” Miss Twink is complete superstar energy. The persona is kind of unwarranted and in-your-face—but a little dandy. It’s silly, it’s campy. She’s just a cool fucking girl.
It’s honestly the most self-reflective part of me—but it’s funny. It’s so funny to me. Also, more Black people should express their sexuality. I feel like we don’t because we are often fetishized in some weird fucking way. To take my own sexuality back and put it into a character that’s also some of who I am . . . that’s so fun. I’m stepping outside of myself every single time I perform. I’m embracing and trying to liberate myself. There’s so many things in the world we can get tripped up on, but I want to remind people that they are a fucking beacon and unstoppable and a superstar.
Chicago is heavily misunderstood. Like, most of the DJ art here came from mostly Black and Brown people of Chicago and Detroit. We don’t get our props, but the Black talent we have is still fucking impeccable. I’ve heard some crazy cool fucking shit on the dance floor that I’ve never heard before. Even right now, with my project that I’m doing with Fuj and Niiiiggggaaaaa at the Empty Bottle—Legion of Doom—we’ve been wanting to highlight Black artists as much as we can, because there’s not a lot of shows with an all-Black techno lineup! It’s really crazy.
I want there to be way more shows for all of us. There’s so many cool Black artists here that need way more lifting up. It’s a shame for people to just, like, not pay attention to everybody.
I wish people would be more imaginative about going out and what they want to hear, then follow and support these beautiful people. To live off your art right now is one of the hardest things to do in America, especially if you’re Black. So show up to these people’s shows. You might get a kick out of something, you know?
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