Joann Seddon

Growing up in Johnston, RI in the 1960s and '70s, Joann Seddon always felt like an outsider. Through her older brother David, she became involved in the Providence music and club scene at a very young age. In 1986, Joann and some friends opened Rocket, a nightclub and concert venue owned by James McGrath. After Rocket was forced to close, Joann bartended at the Last Chance Saloon, taught environmental studies in Florida and Maine, and painted houses in New Hampshire before returning to Providence to bartend and eventually manage the bar at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel. She left Lupo's in 1999 and opened the Decatur Lounge on the West Side of Providence two years later.