Drag Ball Culture

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 20. Chapters: Ball culture, Banjee, House of Xtravaganza, How Do I Look, Imperial Court System, Jennie Livingston, Kevin Aviance, Paris Is Burning (film), Susi Graf, Venus Xtravaganza, Vogue (dance), Willi Ninja, Wolfgang Busch. Excerpt: Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground LGBT subculture in the United States in which people "walk" (i.e. compete) for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Those who walk often also dance and vogue while others compete in various genres of drag often trying to pass as a specific gender and social class. Most people involved with ball culture belong to "houses" led by a single leader. "Houses," also called "families," are groups composed primarily of the LGBTQ Community, the majority of which are African American or Latino, banded together under a respected "house mother" (sometimes a drag queen or a transgender person, but not always) or even a "house father." The best known houses are New York City groups, especially those such as: among others which were shown in the 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning. Other houses function similarly in other states but mainly focused in major cities on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in the South (e.g., House Of Infiniti, House of Mizrahi, House of Aviance) According to the Village Voice: ...houses are loose-knit, typically same sex, confederacies of "children" who adopt a family name, usually swiped from a fashion designer, and adhere to rules set up by a presiding "mother" and "father." Members of the house led by Willi Ninja, for example, adopt "Ninja" as their surname within ball culture, members of the house led by Angie Xtravaganza used the surname "Xtravaganza," and members of the house led by Avis Pendavis used the surname Pendavis. One theme discussed in Paris Is Burning is...