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.

Vogue Knight's at Escuelita's

After All this you won’t have to hang out with that faggot kesiner any more

Hi killer why you on your knees?

You queer or something?

Doesn’t this cafeteria have a no fags allowed rule?

What’s the matter you goin faggot?

You turn fag on me or what?

Why you a big tough country fag ain’t you?

You’re a faggot

Butch Queen

You’re a faggot

Cunt

Butch Queen

You’re a Cunt

You’re Fag

Butch Queen

Fuck You Faggot Fuck You queer

Who is this faggot

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/40698555

These are the opening refrains that DJ Mike Q played on November 11^th 2013 at the Vogue Knights Event. Literally, taking place underground, the event space can be found in the basement of Escuelita’s nightclub in Times Square Manhattan. To the uninitiated, these lyrics would seem offensive. In a time where popular musical artists are consistently maligned for homophobic content, lyrics such as these appear to be begging for vitriolic critique. However, in the House Ballroom community refrains such as those featured in Mike Q’s music are the soundtrack for folks who are queer of color subjects. Yes, the crowd is predominantly homosexual, lesbian, transgender, Black, and Latino. In addition, the revelers who attend Vogue Knights come from the various black and Latino ghettoes that surround Manhattan. In so doing, Vogue Knights at Escuelita’s is one of the few events in Manhattan catered to lower income of color clientele. The event itself is the brainchild of Jack Mizrahi, and it is a corollary to the House Ballroom scene. The notion of scene is quite important to this community. Upon close observation, I have come to the conclusion that in order to grasp how the House Ballroom community defines the limitations and possibilities of a House Ballroom scene, it is important to think about time, location, and individuals.

Why is the soundtrack of the House Ballroom Scene the competitive sound of House Ballroom music?

Hello World,

This is Elegance and this is my new portal ReneGayze. It's a blog dedicated to underground culture. I am starting it because I just don't see enough writing about the things that I hold dear. What are those thing, you ask? Precious to me are those hidden places and spaces where people seek refuge from what's expected, the norm,so that they can become themselves. Vogue Knights at Escuelita's is one of those places.

Tucked away in a basement in Times Square NYC, on 8th Ave between 39th and 38th street is The Event. Its a weekly competition where primarily black and Latino gay and people of trans experience compete in Vogue dancing battles according to categories (More on this in the following blog with videos). More than that though Vogue Knights is the lone environment in New York City where if you are young black wearing a hoodie and jeans you will be granted admission with no hassles. I know this because of how I came to find out about the existence of the event.

For the past three years I've been making a documentary called Pier Kids: The Life. Its a story about how I come to make peace with ten years in exile spent homeless after my mother pushed me away because I am a homosexual. I come to understand this troublesome past through following Casper, Krystal, and DeSean three young black queer folks who I met while they were homeless in the summer of 2011. They were homeless on the Piers at the end of Chrisopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. The same place I went to in the mid-1990s after my initial break with my family. At the center of my film is a very simple question, "Where and what is home?" Theologian John O'Donohue in his  AnamCaro:The Book of Celtic Wisdom answers this question. He says, "Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul” (Anam Caro). With this in mind, my film is really about me coming to terms that the Piers represented home for me and countless other queers of color because this is one of the few places in the world where the streets are filled with people who look like you, love like you, and most importantly, show up in this space because of blood familial rejection. I guess its impossible to avoid that when we begin to think about home we invariably end up on the subject of Family. Blood family are your heterosexual family. Fr me, Casper, Krystal, and Desean our blood families let us down in massive and unexpected ways. However, the family we found on the Piers, our gay families picked us up and gave us new folks to belong to. For nearly four years I have attempted to locate to place this gay family on the piers but thanks to Krystal La'beija I became exposed to the inner workings of her various House Ball Room families. Ahhhhh this phrase again.  Specifically, I was first brought to Vogue Knights by Krystal "Labeija" Dixon, who if you catch the T (see terminology page) with the name in quotes is a member of the House Ballroom Scene. The Iconic House of Labeija as featured in Jenni Livingston film Paris is Burning was started by Krystal Labeija in the 1960s after the brouhaha that you can see in this clip. Basically, the gay world back then was totally underground and almost unilaterally a white institution. Back in the day you were either a fairy cross-dressing (inverted) bottom or pervert, male identifiable top. So the drag competition that we see Krystal involved in had all sorts of extra pageant meaning. These guys were expected to dress in such ways to signal their sexual orientation so that their men could be seen with them in public without being clocked (found out). However, with the standard of realistic femininity being so heavily slanted towards a white norm, folks like Krsytal and her girl ( who I live for) were always already not the model. Hence comes the Ball room.

Ahh this is so terrifying. To go out on a limb and describe something as deeply nuanced and layered as the House Ballroom scene and the community that make it what it is, is quite literally the hardest thing in the world to do in writing. These bitches will come for me if Iam wrong. Worse yet, they'll all come across this page to finally see the images I have taken of them. Lord here Goes

Imagine you are at yur local department store you walk into th women's section or even the men's section. You are presented with a series of mannequins dressed to appeal to the different types of men and women who will enter the store to purchase close. You have items for the soccer mom and the businessman. Outfits for the executive woman and the sexy girl. Each one of these dressings is coded in a certain way. They exists so that the wearer can communicate something intrinsic about themselves to the world in a believable way. http://youtu.be/_UxYj9GR9tE

Now take the journey a step further. You have picked out your outfit and you are going to your local black Baptist Church's Sunday supper. After church everyone is fired up in the spirit. They feel elated, they grab their plate, and proceeed to fellowship with one another. They dance, they clap their, hands, and every once in a while you might hear Mother Johnson shout out loud "Yass Lawd."

Even a step further now the congregation meeting room has turned into a BET Hip-Hop Awards after party. Here you have facsimiles of the latest in and greatest in black entertainment. There's a guy in the center of the Runway who reminds you of 50 Cent, and the girl fixing her make-up in the mirror reminds you of Nicki Minaj. No you are almost there. The last piece of this puzzle is that each of these individuals you have conjured are not what they necessarily seem. The women are actually Femme Queens (women of trans-gendered experience) or Butch Queens up in drags (transvestites). that dude who looks like 50 Cent, he's actually the most popular bottom in all of black gay porn.

All of these locations are generally hostile to you if you are poor, queer, and colored. The black church is notorious in its dispensation of gay demons that lead wayward boys to the world of homosexual sin. http://youtu.be/1CJgHC15DBw, http://youtu.be/LNGLJspgNIw

And God knows if you are black and shopping.... well just watch your back http://youtu.be/MTQx8O0dOCY

And well if you can't dance and sing like this at the same timehttp://youtu.be/Vy5yeEa1dLs well forget about the BET Awards!

I'll define the Ballroom as a competitive environment where the limits of self gender identification are tested to see whether or not the carrier of said gender title or performance is credible within it. You say you are a sex siren? http://youtu.be/epzk0NPtBcQ Well are you real? http://youtu.be/yAiVAZSM79I Would any straight man look at you in the daylight and not clock that you were born with male genitalia. You a thug?http://youtu.be/yAiVAZSM79I Well, go roll up on that group of corner niggas, and walk past them without them clocking that switch at the end of your Bop.

Here's some history from the grand dame himself Paris Dupree  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMggFxR3YaM&feature=share&list=PLq_pDh-aqJYWVzz8CaLKtDF5YHcC0omDo

There's so much more and in the following pages I will attempt to make the categories clear for you, but nonetheless, these are the concepts I had to understand in order to tell Krystal's story. Rather it became clear after Krystal insisted I follow her to Vogue Knights two years ago, that to understand how she has coped and grown to understand herself as a woman that I had to make Vogue Knights a part of my life. Krystal is in the ballroom scene. When her family rejected her for being what they believed to be a black gay male-teen, the ballroom scene took her in, and with her new gay ballroom family she became the woman that you will soon see on the big screen.


I spent so much time filming at Vogue Knights that it was easy to convince myself that I was only here for work, but it would be less than honest to leave you with that impression. Watching this event unfold and seeing these young black and brown people overcome the laws of physics has imbued my soul with the fortitude I need to complete my film. If Leyomi Mizrahi can launch herself 10 feet into the air and land on her neck and get back up and do it again, well then a gay black boy like me can finish his first feature length.

I spent to years looking at the femme queens, the butch queens, the voguers, and especially at the thug realness categories. It wasn't until this my senior year at Columbia that I even noticed that I continually tapped my feet. Well, when your ethno-musicology professor says to you "Write a thesis about music." I guess you'll start to notice the sounds that surround you. In this case the music of Mike Q and Vaughn Allure began to envelop me.In three years of filming on Christopher Street, at Vogue Knights, and really where ever I was with people who vogued their sounds filled the footage. My professor challenged me to develop a research question.

To ask that question I had to take what I already knew into account.
The music sounds like House Music
Its really fast and beat heavy.
While it contains so many different references to other popular forms of black music (hip-Hop, R&B, & Soul) it sounds unique.
This is the music you Vogue to.
This music is made by Black People
I've listened to hundreds of hours of this music and I have never heard a House Ballroom Ballad.

It was readily apparent that this is a novel form of black music. It might even be developing into a new genre of black music, but there was one missing element.

Why isn't there a HouseBallRoom Music Ballad?

To answer this question I have consulted with the Mike Q, and Vaughn Allure two of the forms pioneering artists. They told me because the music is for vogue battling. You can't have a vogue battle with slow music. It's a competition.
The next question then became, "Why is the music so many folks listen to outside of the ballroom, the soundtrack to competition," and "What does this tell us about their life.

For the foreseeable future I will deploy this blog to answer this question. For now I will provide introductory information. We will trace the development of the musical form through the interviews with Mike Q and Vaughn Allure. My intention is to develop this conversation out into an oral history. If you are passionate about this music please contact me and feel free to correct me. Here we go.