Brave Spaces

- [Host] For generations, queer and trans communities have celebrated the chosen family, non-biological bonds that offer support, guidance, mentorship, and love.

And no community offers a chosen family quite like the Ballroom Scene.

Meet Alex and Taje, the brains behind the Buffalo Ballroom Revival.

- This is like the Ballroom version of like the birds and bees talk?

Is that what it's called?

(Taje and Host laugh) - The creation of Ballroom is, in a sense, that exact idea of pushing against status quo.

- [Alex] And it is the pen that continues to stroke on pieces of paper as folks try to embrace our history.

- Black and Latino queer and trans folks are leading the Ballroom resurgence, recognizing a need for it now, just like we did in the '60s.

Let's go underground to see firsthand how this radically inclusive community provides Black and Latino queer and trans folks with chosen family and a space to be brave.

(house music) - [Emcee] It's important because it's not just about a ball.

It's not just about a category.

We're being robbed of our culture.

It's not just about Ballroom, it's about activism too.

- So Ebony Johnson, who recently, the late Ebony Johnson, she passed away last year.

She actually went to New York City and experienced the Ballroom Scene, (light house music) and was so enamored with it, she wanted to bring it back here.

So she was one of the people that brought Ballroom directly here and I believe hosted the first ball in Buffalo.

- And so was like in the club recently, giving, you know, tutorials about Ballroom, and it's just like the word spread it on and on and beyond.

Here I am, and what, 20 something years later.

- [Taje] It's a part of the reason that there's a huge connection between the Buffalo gay scene and the Rochester gay scene.

And there's a huge connection between us and Toronto.

Ballroom has a really unique story that obviously always connects back to New York City.

- [Host] Balls can be traced all the way back to Harlem in the 1800s.

The main attraction?

Drag queens who performed for a panel of judges.

We can't talk about Ballroom without talking about Crystal LaBeija.

Crystal was a legendary black trans woman and a drag performer who changed the course of ball culture forever.

(trumpet music) While competing in a ball contest in 1967, Crystal objected to a white contestant winning the pageant.

She felt the competition was rigged against its Black and Latino contestants.

In protest, Crystal created a ball of her own and the House of LaBeija, the first ever Ballroom House, was born.

It was a huge success and inspired others in the ball scene to create houses of their own.

- There was this huge exodus of young LGBTQ kids that were coming to New York City, you know, coming to California, coming to these more progressive places with nothing but the bags that they were able to take with them.

And we would see people five, ten to a house.

And what happened is is when this ballroom culture emerged, those houses then became the teams that you would be competing with.

(emcee chanting) - [Host] These houses, often led by elders in the Ballroom Scene called Mothers or Fathers, were created to provide shelter and safety for homeless queer youth.

Mothers and Fathers provide guidance, love, and support for their house children, the youth they've taken in.

Do either of one of you pose as a a house father or house uncle to any houses or any folks?

- Yeah, my kids put a hard stop on any new kids like a couple years ago.

- [Host] Oh wow.

(chuckling) - So there are the nights of lost sleep and the sitting in the car until four o'clock in the morning reassuring you about something that feels like the end of the world, it's probably not going to be that big of a deal in a couple years.

But it's that matter of just being there for someone and being that person that I, you know, I didn't personally have.

- I was introduced through one of my closest best friends through neighborhood that I've always hung out with, Taje.

And then that's where I developed an interest in Ballroom shortly after.

And then he's helped me tap into that side of myself.

- So you would consider him almost like your father or father figure?

- Yes, very close too.

None of my family really knew or had anyone in their life that were LGBTQ+.

- [Host] Oh wow.

- [De'Air] So I was like one of the first.

(emcee chanting) - How has Ballroom helped you navigate your family life at home?

- A lot of self-reflection in Ballroom.

A lot of critiques, a lot of construction, you know, and fixing myself up and being able to have a space that I can be myself in.

When I was lost and trying to find myself and being able to take that home and say, "Okay, well this is who I am.

This is what I have to offer.

This is what I want to do with my life."

(emcee chanting) - I think Ballroom is restorative work and it gives us control of the narrative, and it brings the resources back and lets us control our outcomes, our fate, and our future.

- [Host] As this community face racism, violence, homelessness, and disproportionate HIV infection rates, the formation of Ballroom was an act of resistance.

A social movement, a creative community, and a chosen family.

- But also it was a way to settle issues.

You know, voguing, a lot of times, was like the much more passive version of a street fight.

You know what I mean?

- It teaches conflict of resolution, right?

Because many of us are not taught to even communicate who we are in the most basic way possible.

You know, I think in this work that we've done, we've really stared into the heart of darkness.

We've seen people go through some of the worst tragedies that anyone can go through, that I mean, once you witness them you hope that nobody has to go through that.

But also things that we've experienced in our own lives, right?

Many aspects of Ballroom are an imitation of life or even an interpretation of life that many people felt they could never have.

- Even though I have my fun here and we engage, when I go home, I still have these same people to count on.

It's so many people that has really helped me.

TuTu being one of those people due to she's like a icon in like Ballroom community.

- You don't need all of the like the curves and all of this stuff.

Just like, you know, to do what you got to do.

That's what Ballroom and Vogue is, is to create the illusion.

You know, that fantasy that you don't really live, you live it here.

(emcee chanting, quick house music) - It's like we all doing the same thing.

We're all learning like the same five elements for performance, but when everybody come out, it's so different for each person.

It's like you can see their personality through their vogue.

(house music, group chanting and clapping) - With Ballroom and the Kiki scene providing such critical support to the LGBTQ+ community, it's no surprise we're seeing a massive resurgence.

We're also in a new era, a golden age of black and brown storytelling, and Ballroom has come back full force, this time in the mainstream.

We're seeing its influence in fashion, TV shows like Pose, Legendary, and RuPaul's Drag Race, and music like Beyonce's album Renaissance.

But it's happening now for a reason.

(emcee chanting) - We not only have had one of the deadliest years in recent times, this year alone, we've had the most anti-LGBT legislation introduced.

(emcee chanting) - But we do this all for the love of you all and the love of the community and for you all to have better opportunities than we had.

(group chanting) - Black and Latino pride is one pillar of a collective vision that I see for the whole community.

Not just the LGBT community, not just the black and brown community, but perhaps the Westside in general, the city of Buffalo in general.

And it's our fight, it's our shield, it's our sword, in the face of so much oppression.

- I've always been a really big history buff, right?

So I always thought it was really cool when you would talk about these philosophers in Rome who would get together at social gatherings, like normal parties that people were at, just having conversations about how to change the world.

I realized a long time ago that I wasn't going to wait for anybody else to do it.

It was just going to make it happen.

You know, we're going to going to go out and create these spaces.

- It was in Ballroom that I saw a possibility of who I could be.

During my teenage years as a member of the House of DaVinci, and later the House of Prada, I met and became chosen family with many other massive centered people, several of whom would go on a transition.

It was the first time I had seen any black transmasculine people and their journeys inspired me to live as my own authentic self.

(group cheering, emcee chanting) - [De'Air] The journey for discovery, the journey of discovery for me, started a long time ago and it's still going.

I feel like it's never going to end 'cause it's endless opportunities that I'll always have and doors that will always open for me.

Being found for me became the moment when I was introduced to my Ballroom family.

It took some time but I'm so grateful for the people I have now.

(house music)