KUOW

As part of this month's Pride festivities, a ballroom competition will be held Saturday, June 10 at Julia's on Broadway on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

The cowboy-themed Strike a Pose Ball Rainbow Hoedown Pride Edition will be a mix of model walking, voguing, and other competitions. Doors open at 10 p.m. and the event is slated to start at 11 p.m.

House music is bouncing off the walls and dance floors of a high vaulted room filled with sunlight at the University of Washington's Meany Center for the Performing Arts.

In it, Tweetie and 10 other performers are practicing their model walk. They’ve been split off into groups to build their own group-model walk together. Tweetie's helping make choreography for how they’ll perform once the groups come back together.

She's also one of the youngest here, being 16-years-old. But her instructors say she's advanced so much in the few months she's been showing up.

Tweetie hopes to compete at this weekend's ball.

"I knew that I loved the spirit of the battle, I just could never ... get grounded enough and let the adrenaline go down to perform at my best," she says.

These social gatherings, known as Kiki sessions, are a way for young people like her to practice their craft. These classes are free — they're meant to teach a new generation of performers. Organizers take donations to keep them going and provide other resources.

This weekend's ball means a lot to Tweetie. She says she's found her people, and she's excited that she's found a space to express herself through the ballroom scene.

The influence of ballroom can be seen in the mainstream at Pride pageants and drag shows, which have borrowed liberally from the culture.

But as Tweetie learns more about ballroom and its history of creating community spaces for Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people, she worries that its history will be sidelined as people appropriate and profit from the culture.

"Ballroom is for everybody, but not everybody is for ballroom," she says.

She's been learning from Julian Everett, member of the legendary Xclusive House of Lavin, and West Coast Mother of the Kiki house of Mattel.

Everett is also the producer for this weekend's cowboy-themed ball, which Tweetie hopes to compete in.

Everett has been doing this for years as a performer, and often passes along insight about the craft to the beginners he teaches.

The group training sessions are important, he says. It helps inspire creativity and boldness.

"Yes, I am the one that is considered to be the expert within this actual category, but sometimes you may learn more from your peers. And that also helps to also build relationships," he says.

He's only one part of this ballroom scene, and is building onto a legacy much older than when he arrived here from Baltimore years ago. When people come to his classes, he's honored.

"That means I have a responsibility to make sure that I'm upholding the integrity of ballroom, but also that I'm teaching people the correct way of runway and the fundamentals, and making sure that I'm instilling that sense of ambition to continue outside of these sessions so they can get better."

There are also voguing lessons taught by others, and community resource drop-ins that are all hosted by the Playground Kiki. Part of that culture involves providing mutual aid, with a focus on Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people.

All of this was pulled together by Chi-Chi Khaos, founding mother of the Kiki House of Khaos.

When they were working at the Pierce County Aids Foundation in Tacoma, they were looking for a way to connect with Black gay men, and held community listening sessions.

"It was like a group of Black folks just discussing what they wanted, and ballroom came up."

Khaos says that since then, the Playground Kiki has grown into a thing of its own and has expanded to Seattle — but they still work often with the Pierce County Aids Foundation offering HIV testing and safe sex materials.

They say ballroom is important for building community — it builds confidence. But it also works to address the violence that trans and queer people of color may face for just existing, they add.

"Like the one category, 'realness' — it's all about survival. You have to walk down the street and it's based on your survival to not...be clocked by someone else and beat up for X, Y, and Z."

This weekend's ball is special because it's Pride Month, but there are many other events hosted and attended by others in the region throughout the year.

Everett, in collaboration with Khaos and others, will host drop-in sessions where they’ll work to connect queer and trans BIPOC youth and young adults to housing, employment opportunities, mental health services, gender affirmative health care, nutrition support, and legal aid services. Those sessions are scheduled to take place on June 17 and July 15 from 1-5 p.m. at the Seattle Central College Fine Arts Building.

Gustavo covers the intersection of race and identity for KUOW, writing stories that center voices often not catered to in typical news. He's most interested in covering how communities effect the levers of power they hold, to effect change.