Monday February 11 2013
06:30pm–09:00pm
For The Oncoming Corner #4, visual artist and filmmaker Sara Jordenö and ballroom performer and Kiki house founder Twiggy Pucci Garçon will talk about the site specific art project The Reincarnation of Rockland Palace (using video and images that are part of a forthcoming book project) as well as show excerpts from the work-in-progress documentary Gesture (KIKI, released 2016). Using these projects as a framework they will lead a discussion on how, in The Kiki Scene, femininity and flamboyance are celebrated and family and community leadership re-imagined, as well as insider / outsider collaborations and the challenges in representing and documenting these subcultures in the past and present.
Emerging out of the New York City House / Ballroom community, the Kiki Scene is a highly organized and youth-led movement focusing on personal and professional development as well as community leadership. These organizational efforts respond to the adversities that this young demographic faces (primarily African American and Latino LGBTQ individuals between 14-25), stemming from a lack of acceptance from life’s institutions: home, church, school, and government. In the past eight years, the Kiki Scene has been highly underground, with ten currently active houses in the Tristate area. At the center of the underground Kiki Scene are the Kiki balls, where performers create unique looks related to a theme to compete for a prize awarded to their Kiki house.