Ballroom

Ballroom is an illustrated history and celebration of the culture that Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ people built around pageantry and community. The scene began in Harlem in the 1960s, when queer people of color needed safe, welcoming places of their own. Family-like groups known as Houses competed at performance-driven balls, giving members of a marginalized community a stage on which to shine.

Shows such as Pose and Legendary have helped turn Ballroom into a global phenomenon. It still offers refuge from the threats and violence aimed at LGBTQIA+ people, and its pageantry and chosen families stand as proof of the radical nature of queer joy.

Subtitled A History, A Movement, A Celebration, the book is a thoroughly researched account of where Ballroom started and where it stands today, and of what it has done for the Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ community. It draws on photos, interviews and personal stories to tell a well-documented and engaging story about how to survive, and to do so with style and glamour, in each other's company.