Intro [Introduction]
"(insert quote here)"
In the wake of Paris is Burning and the subsequent mainstream 'awareness' of the queer of color ballroom culture, we ask ourselves, what has now become of the once-alternative scene that has since been taken up by performers from Madonna to RuPaul? Once positing as the queer space for community, a facilitating space for what Foucault would call a 'new way of life', a new way of sociality where dominant hegemonic practices may be made illegible for a few ephemeral moments - what has become of it now?
We interrogate this question by engaging in an archival relationship with REACH LA, a local community organization that serves queer youth of color who are at risk of HIV/AIDS since the 90's in the Los Angeles area, to document a specific ball event they sponsor each year called 'Ovahness Ball'. With much of the REACH LA organizers of this annual event being former participants in the L.A. ball scenes of the past, the Ovahness Ball occupies a very unique position. Is it a nostalgic thing, signaling the days of the past? Is it a continuance of this subculture in L.A.? How does this ball's intimate relationship to an organization complicate its status as a subcultural, alternative phenomenon? Or perhaps, does it signal a new hope for queer community, as a sort of post-ballroom scene that does not merely 'resurrect' or continue the subculture of Paris is Burning, but in fact serve to bring out a new type of queer engagement? And lastly, what would an archival engagement with this organization and scene look like with the aid of new technologies like born-digital video footages and Scalar itself?
We seek to entertain these questions through our archive in this chapter. This archive is composed of an interesting mix of various sorts of ephemera, from oral histories with participants from the scene to grainy sex ed instructional videos once intended to be displayed during the balls themselves. Through this queer assemblage of materials, we take seriously Alexander Weheliye's declaration that new social possibilities for minorities are already being re-imagined - the point is not merely to pay closer attention, but 'to pay different kinds of attention to perceive them more clearly'.
This page has paths:
- ReachLA Promise Li