Music
DJ Minx
· DJ, producer, label founder
Detroit house and techno DJ who founded the Women on Wax collective, played the first DEMF in 2000 and is honored with a mural in Highland Park.
- Birth name
- Jennifer Witcher
- Also known as
- Minx
- Detroit years
- birth–present
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jennifer Witcher was born in Detroit, the youngest of five children, and decided to become a DJ in the early 1990s after watching the residents at the Music Institute. She engineered and hosted Deep Space Radio on Detroit's WGPR and a weekly show on CJAM in Windsor, then became a resident at Motor, the Hamtramck club that anchored Detroit's late-1990s scene. In 1996 she founded Women on Wax, a platform for female DJs from Detroit, and in 2001 its record label. Her first production, “A Walk in the Park” (2001), became a deep-house classic after Richie Hawtin's Minus label reissued it in 2004. She played the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000 and many editions of Movement since. The city gave her a Spirit of Detroit Award in 2018; in 2021 her portrait was painted on the Ruth Ellis Center, a shelter for LGBTQ youth, and she has played halftime shows for the Detroit Pistons.
Highlights
- Founded Women on Wax (1996) and Women on Wax Recordings (2001).
- “A Walk in the Park” (2001) was reissued on Minus in 2004 and remixed for its 20th anniversary.
- Named by Mixmag in 2015 among 20 women who shaped dance music history.
- Spirit of Detroit Award (2018); first BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix in 2020.
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · late 1990s
Motor
Closed
Hamtramck club, opened in 1996 in the former Falcon Club space, where Minx was an early resident.
Related place · 1988–1989
The Music Institute
Closed · 1988–1989
Watching DJs here inspired her to start DJing.
Memorial · 2021–
Ruth Ellis Center mural
Portrait of DJ Minx painted on the side of the Ruth Ellis Center by artist ggggrimes for Pride Month 2021.
Performed here · 2000–
African World Festival
She played the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival here in 2000 and many Movement festivals since.