KIKI documents a performance-based artform, ballroom, which was made famous in the early 1990s by Madonna's music video Vogue and the documentary Paris Is Burning. Twenty-five years later, a new generation of LGBTQ youth of color has formed an activist performance subculture called the Kiki Scene. KIKI follows seven participants in New York City's Kiki community over the course of four years, documenting their spectacular performances at events known as Kiki balls and their political organizing around homelessness and HIV prevention.
The event is scheduled for 6:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, Nov. 30, at the George Peabody Library.
A panel discussion will delve into the history of Baltimore's ballroom community. Panel discussants are Lloyd Jones, Deandre Jones, James Conley, and Micheal Hayes. The panel will be moderated by Keith Ebony Holt, youth outreach coordinator for Baltimore City Health Department and father of the House of Ebony; and Joseph Plaster, curator in Public Humanities for the Sheridan Libraries.
