“Ride Wit Me” by Nelly blasted through the speakers of a lively studio in Brooklyn filled with ballroom stars in shiny wigs getting their makeup done and singing along to the lyrics of the song.
The reason for this studio take-over? House Lives Matter is producing a calendar for 2020, which will feature a different ballroom icon serving their best look of 2019. House Lives Matter was created for and by the house-ballroom community, and is comprised of LGBTQIA+ people of color. Their mission is to improve health, build alliances, get back to their roots and take direct action for social change in order to create a world where everyone can live in peace, love, and positivity. The calendar is set to release around Dec. 1 on Etsy.
Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary “Paris is Burning” introduced people to ball culture. Ballroom legend Jack Mizrahi, founder of the House of Mizrahi and consultant on HBO’s Pose, said the documentary did more harm than good. “Our community locked our doors on the rest of the world after ‘Paris is Burning’ came out. Although not everyone in it knew how documentaries could work, they got the short end of the stick. Paris ended up dying penniless. Misrepresented; that’s how the community felt after ‘Paris is Burning.’ Now we’ve been accepted by everyone, now everybody wants to know more.”
Mizrahi spoke about how he loves how open ball culture is now. “I love it. The world now knows about the vampires and now we can walk in the sun freely,” he said.
Mizrahi will be featured in June, which is themed “Tradition.” Mizrahi will wear a custom Gucci outfit designed by Dapper Dan. “This is such a family affair. We all have different last names, we all have such history, but we all come from the same tree,” Mizrahi said.
“Ballroom has expanded. It started in New York City for the need of expression. But now it’s become globally accepted, from Paris to Japan and Russia and Italy and even China, we’re growing,” Mizrahi said.
Honey LaBeija is a rising star in the ballroom scene, part of the Royal House of LaBeija. LaBeija is a trained professional dancer who was introduced to vogue by his ballet teacher.“I just fell in love with the art, I fell in love with the shade, the queerness, all of it was amazing I wanted to be a part of something bigger because the way I lived my life before, I didn’t see the world how I see it now. Before it was just so underground, I didn’t know that many people that were just like me.” Although he would rather be part of August, his birth month, LaBeija will be featured in July, which is themed “Empower.”
Legendary for All American Runway, Social Director of Community Engagement at Hall Brown Health — the leader in health care for the LGBTQIA+ community — and member of the House of Miyake-Mugler, Zoliy Miyake-Mugler will be part of the calendar as well. “I’m December which is Innovation, which also happens to be the month of my birthday. I like that I’m going to be innovation because I like to think that I’ve been an innovator in my category, always raising the bar.” Mugler also said that he thinks “this opportunity is pretty amazing to not only show the many talents of ballroom, but it also gives it some depth. The way they break down the calendar and explain what each word means and how this person is representing that word is pretty amazing.”
The mastermind behind the entire operation is Gorgeous Jarrell Gucci, who just joined the recently created Gorgeous House of Gucci. He has been in the ballroom scene since 2004 and fell in love with it immediately. “It allowed me to express my creativity and become someone different that I couldn’t be in my normal life, so over the years I’ve been able to walk and excel to a level almost like stardom,” Gucci said.
Gucci thought it was time to give back to his community. “Instead of having holidays like Memorial Day, the calendar will have the dates of balls and people can pay to put their ball in my calendar. It’s a way to raise money for HIV awareness for the community. It also gives people who have worked hard [a chance] to have a spotlight on the runway.”
Although the house-ballroom scene has expanded and finally opened its doors to the rest of the world, according to Jack Mizrahi, the power is still kept within the community. “This energy is contagious, this creativity is contagious, the vernacular is contagious. And it’s organic, this is who we are and what we are,” he said.