Elliott Matos

This interview with Elliott Matos was conducted at the HUB at 47 N. 5th Street in Hudson, New York on May 29, 2026 and June 3rd, 2026. Elliott has lived in Catskill since 2016. He works as the managing director of the Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition. In this interview, Elliott talks about growing up in a Puerto Rican-American family on Long Island, and spending time upstate as a young person. He discusses coming of age as a gay man in Puerto Rico and New York City in the 1990s, during the HIV/AIDS crisis. He talks about early involvement in LGBTQ protests, parades, and vigils, including an experience of being arrested alongside Silvia Rivera after an action to commemorate the life of Matthew Shepard. Matos discusses coming up in the New York nightlife world and eventually moving to Amsterdam to live and DJ, before returning to the United States and settling in the Hudson Valley. He discusses the tension between experiencing both liberation and racism in the queer and nightlife worlds, and how that experience formed his politics and ultimately led him to the advocacy work he's involved with in his contemporary life. He discusses the dynamics of working to advance the cause of Black liberation in the Hudson Valley, including navigating racial tension in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the displacement of Black residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. He discusses learning from longtime members of the Hudson/Catskill community how to most effectively use his voice as an advocate.