Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

This presentation unpacks the complexities in centering queer POC knowledge sets, dance formations, and cultural practices to understand community resiliency in the US imagination of the “Southwest.” I use the Festival event “Come As You Are” (CAYA) a 3-day Festival in Phoenix, AZ as a case study. “Come As You Are” is shaped as an educational platform through the University where participants are inspired by vogue Ballroom culture and life through film screenings, fashion shows, embodied workshops, individualized mentorship sessions, and the culminating Ball event. In some ways the event is a space to experience community building, art making, and performance in the socially-complicated, conservative space of the “American Southwest.” The event seeks to re-imagine identity and place using queer performance offerings and social dances vogue and whacking as a way to reveal and uncover resiliency and community impact. The event had largely been produced and reproduced by University students evacuated from local LGBT and queer communities in Southwest. As the projects newest PI, I was interested in how to center queer POC knowledge in understanding the forms in relationship to the region as well as vogue Ballroom culture more nationally and globally. Moreover, the resurgence of house culture and the claiming of Ballroom with no prior history or influence in the region was created in direct response to the shifting social and political climate within the Southwest United States.