New York House Ballroom Cultural Expression
Resiliency of an underrepresented community.
Pictured: Webster Hall, located in Greenwich Village, hosted several Drag Balls during the 1920s. The events were wildly successful and it was one of the few times when revelers were allowed to openly dress in drag. Credit Karyl L. Truesdale
“Good Morning revolution: you’re the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on.”
House Ballroom culture, having originated in New York, is comprised of African Americans, and Latino gay men who represent a resilient community that has encountered many of the darker facets of society. Despite the many challenges and setbacks life puts forth, the members of this community have endured and acquired fortitude along their story arc life journey to persevere and help others with which they identify inside the struggle. The choices for gender fluidity and sexuality create a diverse dichotomy of obstacles they must transverse and survive in their battles to be true to their identity.
Often confronted with early childhood trauma, teenagers and young adults are ostracized from their homes once they reveal they are gay. Forced to become homeless, they find comfort and guidance in the cultural scene of the house ballroom. A ball has a theme and a location where they will compete with other houses and their members in certain categories in front of judges who are a part of the community. The ballroom cultural expression lends to the competition of face, fashion, voguing, pose, and catwalking in just some categories they compete in. An example is the category "Pose," which focuses on half and full turns, walking in different personalities, struts, rhythm, and head pivots. And with Vogue, there are three styles of dancing, Old Way (pre-1990), New Way (post-1990), and Vogue Fem (circa 1992). They are done within the performance frame to captivate the audience and win a favorable score from the judges.
The intense mixture of an underground culture that has been in existence since the Harlem Renaissance and even before then expresses their defiance of the hetero-societal norms and allows them the freedom to strut into the person they desire to become and demonstrate to the world at large.
Picture Credit Ballroom Rising - The LOFT: LGBTQ+Center
Many black men are born with two strikes: being born black and a man. The members of the ballroom community are given a third strike identifying as gay men in a world that does not care for their opinion or struggles to be recognized. In the performance of self in ballroom culture to be accepted and matter, they build houses that are affiliations with mothers, fathers, and siblings that are made out of choice and not bloodlines to reconstruct a family that is nurturing and reflective of the competitive human condition we all can relate to as life test to live fully.
As part of the internship I received from Arts Westchester in partnership with City Lore, I have participated in interviews with community members. These interviews have revealed stories that open the heart to the understanding and revelation of what it is to wrestle with multiple confrontations of unfortunate circumstances. Through the sharing of these stories, experiences, and emotions, we are brought closer to a truth that empathizes with kinship in humankind. Your support and partnership have been instrumental in making this project a success, and I am grateful for your continued involvement.
