Whether your house alliance is rock solid or you still think “ballroom” means the foxtrot, an event Friday at UMSL is sure to curl your hair. The Inaugural Black Ballroom Expo: THEN & NOW is a party, a master class, and a love letter to an art form that’s having a moment in the spotlight.
In this context, ballroom (or just ball) is a competitive and highly stylized event—part fashion show and part dance-off. Contestants, who are overwhelmingly LGBTQ people of color, vogue down the runway in spectacularly creative outfits that may include elements of drag. They belong to a specific “house,” which is a family-like structure of mentoring in ballroom and in life. The popular FX series Pose highlights ballroom culture in 1980s New York, and there’s evidence of it occurring much further back in history.
“Black LGBT history is black history,” says event organizer Rakeem Golden. By day, Golden is a recruiter for UMSL, but he also walks ballroom for the House of Revlon and has connections in the thriving St. Louis scene. He wanted to find a way to culturally engage LGBTQ students of color on campus.
“We were trying to figure out a way to do an event for Black History Month,” Golden says. “People often forget that LGBT people play a role within black history. We’re not always included in Black History celebrations.”
The event, 5 p.m. Friday at the Millennium Student Center (doors at 4 p.m.), is free and open to the public. (But get tickets ahead of time.) And it’s much more than just a ball. After mingling for a bit, at 6 p.m. learn about what ballroom culture has meant throughout the years with a video presentation and a panel discussion on the contributions of LGBTQ people of color and those with HIV within the black community.
Golden says the event wouldn’t be possible without community support. Youth services drop-in The SPOT is presenting, alongside St. Louis Effort for AIDS, QTPOC:STL, Prizm, and more. The legendary Maxi Glamour and Logik Eboy host.
Once everyone’s up to speed on the serious legacy, the walk starts at 7 p.m. Contestants will walk in competitions channeling Wakanda, sexy R&B stars of the '90s, and the funkiest diva ever to live—Grace Jones. Unlike the sometimes bar-centered balls out in the world, this one works for the under-21 crowd, and starts and wraps up early.
“Ballroom does that, it taps into the younger crowd,” Golden says. “Drag is older now. When you look at the history of ballroom, there are kids, like 13, within ballroom. It gives us access to young people. You get to connect to a range of people.”
Golden figures getting the ballroom scene onto campus will be a two-way benefit—for queer kids on campus to see what’s out there for them, and for ballroom kids to get a look at the academic life.
“Just have a place to connect,” says Golden. “Ice cream socials only take you so far.”
