🏳️🌈🏺 Ballroom (Harlem Legacy)
🏳️🌈🏺2-Gay in History🏺🏳️🌈💅🏾
It’s Non-Binary Visibility Day—and while distinct, many non-binary people have found identity, expression, and community within the drag and ballroom scenes.
Long before voguing hit music videos and RuPaul became a household name, Harlem’s drag balls were already breaking barriers and creating not just survival spaces, but vibrant centers of culture and resistance.
The first documented drag ball in NYC was held in 1869, but it was during the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties and thirties that Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ communities truly carved out space through the ballroom scene. Fraternal groups like the Black Odd Fellows helped sponsor early events at venues such as Hamilton Lodge and the Rockland Palace. Harlem was one of the few places where Black queer folks could gather openly.
Houses like Xtravaganza and LaBeija—founded by Black trans legend Crystal LaBeija—weren’t just runway teams; they were supportive chosen families. Without them, there would be no ballroom. No voguing. No “realness.” No language of “slay” or “shade”—all of which was beautifully dramatized in the series POSE.
Harlem ballroom culture didn’t just shape queer history—it helped shape Harlem itself, influencing fashion, music, language, and community dynamics. Madonna’s exposure to the scene came through legendary voguer Willi Ninja. She later hired José Gutiérrez and Luis Camacho, both members of the Latinx House of Xtravaganza, as choreographers—bringing voguing to the global stage, just as drag would follow in the next decade.
To celebrate these legacies and ongoing joy, check out RVA Black Pride and especially the Blacktopia events happening this week—details are on their Facebook and Instagram pages.
