Rent party

Harlem Rent Party (1929) Mabel Dwight
Wikipedia - "A rent party (sometimes called a house party) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the term skiffle means 'rent party', indicating the informality of the occasion. Thus, the word became associated with informal music. However, many notable jazz musicians are associated with rent parties, including pianists Speckled Red, James P. Johnson, Willie 'the Lion' Smith, and Fats Waller, although rent parties also featured bands as well. The OED also gives boogie as a term for rent party. Rent parties were often the location of so-called cutting contests, which involves jazz pianists taking turns at the piano, attempting to out-do each other. ... Culturally rent parties are a places for the middle class African Americans to go on their nights off to get away from the everyday struggle. During this time the African Americans face high rent prices due to discrimination large numbers of people would be forced to live in small spaces for very high rent prices. ..."
Wikipedia
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Dancing in a Harlem nightclub, sometime in the late 1930s. The Cabaret Law was originally intended as a tool for cracking down on jazz clubs in the Manhattan neighborhood.