And the Category Is.
Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A 2023 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Nonfiction
An Electric Literature “Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2022” Selection
A love letter to the legendary Black and Latinx LGBTQ underground subculture, uncovering its abundant legacy and influence in popular culture.
What is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations.
Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. With each chapter framed as a “category” (Vogue, Realness, Body, et al.), And the Category Is . . . offers an impressionistic point of entry into this subculture, its deeply integrated history, and how it’s been appropriated for mainstream audiences. Each category features an exclusive interview with fierce LGBTQ/POC Ballroom members—Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and more—whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category.
At the height of public intrigue and awareness about Ballroom, thanks to TV shows like FX’s Pose, Tucker’s compelling narratives help us understand its relevance in pop culture, dance, public policy with regard to queer communities, and so much more. Welcome to the norm-defying realness of Ballroom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Art critic Tucker debuts with a lively if disjointed "love letter" to New York City's ballroom community and its LGBTQ Black and Latinx performers. He describes the stylized dancing, or "voguing," of ballroom participants as a manifestation of the idea that "bodily freedom can be a path to personal and social freedom," and ballroom culture as "the invisible creating visibility for themselves." Analyzing the structural framework of ballroom, Tucker contends that the "house" system, in which young people join adoptive "families" led by older members of the community, has its roots "in the human need for lineage and legacy," and that performing in and attending balls helps make up for the spiritual loss of LGBTQ people who grew up attending church, but have been ostracized by their biological families. Tucker also discusses the evolution of the "realness categories" on which ballroom dancers are judged, and delves into how TV shows such as Pose and the funding of balls by big nonprofits have transformed ballroom culture. Extended, analytical interviews with influential dancers and activists including Lee Soulja shed valuable light on the history and meaning of ballroom, but Tucker's lengthy forays into memoir occasionally distract from the larger themes of the book. Still, readers familiar with the ballroom scene will cherish this earnest and enthusiastic survey.
