The Blog will continue

Well folks I have really just begun to scratch the surface of House Ballroom music. In the weeks, months, and most likely years to come this blog will evolve from one of me asking clumsy questions into one where the community gets to speak through me. My intention is to create a massive oral historical archive that provides a historical understanding of the House BallRoom Community, The Scene, and, to do these things through the music. If you are a legendary dancer, Dj, MC, or someone who loves the scene as much as I do feel free to hit me up. I can't ain't to keep learning and hope to take you on the journey.

Work This Pussy

The musical form is called House Ballroom and it is intended to accompany Vogue dancing, runway challenges, and to bolster the spirit of those who do not compete but are there to watch. Mike Q’s opening salvo allows the listeners who are a part of the House Ballroom community to embody the spirit of “Cuntiness” (Mike Q). Cuntiness is the distinguishing characteristic that alerts the listener that they are indeed listening to House Ballroom music. In listening to the track, "Come on get you some pussy" we here the phrase "Work this pussy" repeated over and over. While this track does not encompass the full range of Q's sonic output it is important in that it gives the new listener access to that "cunty vibe" that is the signature of the sound. The commands to "work this pussy" and " To come on give me some more" operate on multiple layers. It is important to remember that the track is meant for voguers to battle to. Thus the command is on one level one to bring your a game. In the video clip we can see the battlers mouthing out and acting out the commands against one another. In this sense the music alludes to a narrative between the performers. However, we must not lose sight of the scene. The House Ballroom scene being comprised of young black and Latino queer men and women, is also a pedagological site. In addition to being trained on how to vogue many of these folks are also learning the inter-workings of how to approach queer romance. with gender roles so rigidly and heterosexistly defined, the command to work this pussy can also be interpreted as a sexual common meant to heterosexualize queer desire. In this way, the chant provides on a second level access to a form of sexual agency that opens up the possibility of passive sexual roles and allows those men or women who fulfill them to claim active agency. Work this pussy!!!

Landscapes Of Leisure

In This Heaven Gives Me Migraines: The problems and promise of landscapes cultural theorist Stacy Warren observes, “What were once treated as separate, self-contained places within which once could escape from the rigours of daily life now are seen as not so much segregated cites but modes of representation that permeate virtually all landscapes and hence are inseparable from daily life” (1). In her essay, Warren highlights a uniquely Western phenomenon in which “the lines between leisure, entertainment, and commodity become blurred” (2). Indeed, Warren’s observation allows us to re-imagine the House Ballroom scene as more than a pastime. It is the “backcloth against which almost all” of the ballroom participants’ “everyday cultural geographies are lived” (Warren 2).  In my research, I am considering the House Ballroom scene as an artefact of “pop-culture” that needs to be taken seriously. (Warren 2) Warren would identify the House Ballroom Scene as a culture that “incorporates the notion of struggle to construct” itself as “a fluid entity always being created, contested, and recreated” (Warren 3). It is my intention through my Renegayze to create for the viewer a landscape that features this community, in order to contest the notion that this culture because of its connection to commodity is somehow only “mediated” through “mass culture” and some how always already a form of just leisure (Warren 2,3). It's an issue of necessity that folks who have experienced historical exclusion from all meaningful avenues to mainstream acceptance that they create and maintain their leisure. In this sense leisure becomes more than a pastime for entertainment it becomes the essence and meaning of life itself. To achieve this I seek to objectify the robust history of this culture practice so that the contemporary participants featured in my images are acknowledge as part of rich cultural historical tradition that begins in the 1920s and innovates through to today. It is of extreme importance that future generations of queer people of color understand the breadth of innovation that their community is a part of and I assert that the House Ballroom scene is at the nexus of these meaningful contributions to American culture. I will “situate the dynamics of” of House Ball room musical “practices within the confines –and resources- of a mass mediated world” that comprises the ballroom and the heterosexual white world of capital against which it must imagine itself (Warren 3). The interplay between the real, the imagined, and the performed is the mechanism through which one can comprehend the sonic output of House Ball Room musicians such as DJ Mike Q and Vaughn Allure.

Fashion Labels as Houses

Fashion Labels as Houses

White Folks Gawking at Black Queer folks on Christopher Street winter 2012 photo by E.B. Bratton

Kennedy Karavas Pizza & Pita Winter 2012 photo by E.B. Bratton

Kiki Awards Ball spring 2012 photo by E.B. Bratton

Krystal and Daniella Wig Shopping Winter 2012 photo by E.B. Bratton

Stardasia on Christopher Street Winter 2012 photo by E.B. Bratton

Today Ballroom scene participants also walk fashion categories as diverse as the apparel industry itself. Labels, Sneaker vs. Sneaker, and other Labels categories demand that in order for one to get their tens they must be dressed head to toe in the best of the best and latest of what mainstream design firms have to offer. Moreover, if we go back to the hosts Jack Mizrahi and think about his chosen last name we see that not only are participants wearing the labels on their body, but also have adopted these labels as part of their Ballroom identity. Jack is the Overall Father of the House of Mizrahi, named after the famous fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.  Ballroom houses generally feature the names of famous mainstream fashion design corporations such as St Laurent, Garcon, and Dior. These fashion houses are predominantly European clothiers and are also multi-national brands. They are the epitome of privilege and wealth and incidentally, places irony and camp at the center of the House Ballroom Scene’s construction. It is extremely ironic that a crowd of predominantly black and Latino folks who come from poverty usurp the names of White European super wealthy fashion houses. The very mobility that the names of these brands have in mainstream culture is in stark contrast to the lack of mobility experienced by the participants within the House Ballroom scene. This is not to say that each and every person within the scene is poor and unable to or even hasn’t traveled the globe. The musicians featured in my research Mike Q and Vaughn Allure each brought their music to over twenty countries. Furthermore, Legendary performers such as Twiggy Garcon, and Jack Mizrahi have been invited to many global capitals and traversed the United States bringing the Ballroom with them. Nonetheless, these folks are roundly anomalies. For most individuals I have spoken to Vogue Knights and the Balls in the New York City area encompass the extent of their travel and education. It is also necessary to consider the irony in calling a house a house. Houses in the House Ballroom Scene are ironic structures in that they mirror various social locations that have traditionally been hostile to queer black and brown lives. The Houses are in fact teams. They operate in ways remarkably similar to sporting outfits accept the members of House Ballroom teams are not expected to be heterosexual. In my own teen years I always played individual sports to avoid the discomfort of being a gay guy in the locker room. The Houses of the Ballroom are both a commentary on the team organizational structure of the heterosexual world and actual organizations in their own right. The house as an organizing principle is at the juncture of the separation between public and private space for families. In this way, the houses of the ballroom also operate as sights critique of the heterosexual familial structure. In context of race, much ink has been spilled in the recent past detailing the troubles black and brown queers face when they come out. My film Pier Kids: The Life is all about how gay black youth are forced into homelessness as a result of blood familial rejection, and how through chosen family find solutions to cope with that condition. I myself spent ten years homeless as a result of my family’s inability to accept my sexuality. Like the Victorian, Aluminum siding, and trailer homes that line American neighborhoods the houses of the Ballroom scene are composed of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles, and cousins. This irony positions the Houses of the Ballroom as a solution to the worst consequences of black and brown homophobia in that young queer people of color are able to experience family within a totally queer environment and at least at the creative level gain a home. However, not every ballroom house is named after white fashion conglomerates. Some are named after black corporations like “Ebony.” Others are original names like “Labeija.” In this way, all Ballroom Houses are a commentary on white supremacy. In the case of those who choose multi-national corporate names, they challenge a socio-economic global hierarchy that assumes people of color are not present or even relevant to these companies’ interests. In the case of those who choose conglomerates of black origin, the names serve as a statement of the value of black creativity and business acumen. In the case of original names, we see the affirmation of local traditions and language as a rubric through which those queer bodies recover their identity within their root communities and in spite of those communities’ homophobia or transphobia. However, in the interim between Hughes’ observations in the 1920s and my research, the balls have developed a new feature, the Vogue dance form. Further, the expansion of categories since the twenties also includes the expansion of the Ballroom function. Moreover, the House Ballroom scene with the capital of non-profit AIDS service agencies like the Gay Mens Health Crisis and Gay Men of African Descent has accommodated the youngsters in the community through the erection of the Kiki scene. It features younger participants and its categories are not as bounded by high-end consumer culture. At this year’s Kiki Legends Ball, I witnessed a winner of Kiki Labels who stated that her effect (outfit) was “found at a thrift store” and “on the street corner.” The fact that a club or a Community center or even Christopher Street are the sites upon which the notion of a Ballroom House is situated raises these sites beyond the realm of leisure and into the realm of necessity.

Get Your Tens

“Get your tens”

The judging panel is often composed of those who have achieved legendary (ten years of winning categories) or iconic (twenty years of winning categories) status. The panel is made up of elders. It is their duty to uphold the high standards of the Ballroom Scene through the dispersal of “tens.” For one to “get their tens” means that for at least one round of competition the individual meets the standard of “realness” necessary to compete within the ballroom, and to win the category means that the individual meets the standard of the daytime. This particular feature of the Ballroom scene extends back at least to the 1920s. In A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem, Eric Garber notes notes, “Harlem costume balls,” were places “where both men and women could dress as they pleased and dance with whom they wished” (5). According to Garber, noted queer Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes coined the term “spectacles in color” (5). Hughes claimed in, “This dance has been going on a long time,” asserted Hughes, “and is very famous among the male masqueraders of the eastern seaboard, who come from Boston and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Atlantic City to attend” (Garber 5). Hughes insight informs my research. I have traveled to each of the cities listed to film Pier Kids, and have also included Atlanta, and Hollywood Florida to witness the current iteration of Hughes’ “spectacles in color.” It is important to note that Vogue Knights is the second evening event at Escuelita’s targeted towards the Ballroom scene. On Sunday nights one can also witness Rumble Ball where one can witness or participate in “beauty contest[s], in which fashionably dressed drags would vie for” various titles from Femme Queen Realness, Femme Queen Sex Siren, Thug Realness and so forth. The fashionable element is also an important aspect of the Ballroom scene to highlight.

What is a Ball?

What is a Ball?

A Ball operates in much the same way as one would see in the films Paris Is Burning, How Do I look, and Leave It On The Floor. In these films, we are greeted by scenes that depict the competitive circuit upon and within which men and women both cisgendered (sex at birth matches the gender by which they are perceived by society) and of trans experience (where one transitions from the assigned biological sex into the opposing gender) compete in categories where one is judged based upon their ability to be credible and real. The timing of the event is instructive in that competitors in categories such as Femme Queen Realness (trans women), Butch Queen Realness (pretty gay men), and Trans-Man realness “walk” their categories at the Ball at night, yet their realness is based off of their ability to exist in the day time without being “clocked” or “spooked.” Being clocked or spooked means that they have been identified by the heterosexual world, and sometimes the gay world, as their original birth sex in spite of their particular choice in dress, hair-style, or make-up. In this way the daytime is ever present during a Ball. It is the standard by which your “realness” is judged. As you see in the attached clips contestants in these particular categories perform as living mannequins or models.

Time

Time

The event begins at night, late night. One of the funnier exploits of my research is my inability to properly predict when a Vogue Knights event will start or even finish. This particular event is a celebration of Monea’s birthday at which you will be able to secure reduced admission with a text. Also on the flyer, we learn that one must be at least 18 years old to “vogue” and 21 years old to “drink.” The flyer itself features two male dancers in brightly colored leotards in mid pose. These leotards are similar to those that one sees in popular culture worn exclusively by women. I am thinking a “Let’s Get Physical” era Olivia Newton John, and even those worn by Beyoncé Knowles in her latest video for the song “Blow.” Nonetheless, the flyer mentions no official start or end time. On this night, I arrived at 11pm to find an empty club. Well empty accept for Louis, the man responsible for taking checking patrons’ identification, and Leo the trusted bouncer who provides patrons with appropriate wristbands that separate voguers from drinkers. I asked Louis on this night, “What time should I come if I want to photograph dancers?” He shrugged his shoulders, and replied,” They get here when they get here. Last week people didn’t really start showing up till one or two [in the morning], and I didn’t get out of here till like five [in the morning].” It is this very relationship between time and space, which establishes the foundation of how the Ballroom Community produces the Ballroom Scene. Timelessness is the defining feature of the Ballroom scene. Further, this characteristic carries down from actual Balls. It is necessary to clarify the distinction between a Ball and Vogue Knights.