ARIKA Ep 6 Pics & Videos

Well THAT was amazing!! Mike's set was a beast, and the dancing was incredible - and, of course, it being Glasgow the crowd went off. Here's some pics:

Kia Labeija

Miss Priss, Queen of Krump

The Legendary Pony Garcon Zion.

Here's footage of Pony's hands routine:


And here's Kia's incredible routine to CHVRCHES, one of the best vogue routines I have seen in a long, long time:

ARIKA Ep 6: Make A Way Out Of No Way

Arika returns to Glasgow at the end of the month, and this time they're bringing over MIKEQ for an exclusive 4 hour set! Also on the bil are dancers Pony Zion, Kia LaBeija and Miss Priss. THis is going to GO OFF!!   

Black, queer and trans bodies tell stories.  Often they are multilingual – talking to numerous cultures, telling many stories simultaneously.  Portraying a sense of ‘realness’, appearing to conform to a set of socially prescribed norms so that you can walk down the street safely, is a form of self-defence. But at the same time, realness and passing call those norms into question – they expose race, sex and gender as politically invented fictions that all of our bodies are asked to perform. ‘Realness’ recognises the need to make a way in a culture defined by these fictions - it insists that bodies in all their differentiation exist prior to these norms, no matter how violently they’re imposed. And in doing so, ‘realness’ works to explode the sheer possibility of any norm-based normality.

The Icon Ayana Christian was the Overall Mother of the House of Khan in the Ballroom community, and is an Icon for walking Femme Queen Face. From the same community, Legendary Co-Founder Michael Robertson Garçon is the father of the House of Garçon, a public health practitioner, advocate, activist and leader within the LGBTQ community.  He created The Federation of Ballroom Houses, co-created the USA's only Black Gay research Group, The National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Group, and the Nationally Diffused CDC Behavioral Change HIV Prevention Intervention Many Men, Many Voices. Reina Gossett is Activist-In-Residence at Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women, and Membership Director at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Charlene Sinclair is the Director of Centre for Race, Religion and Economic Democracy at Union Theological Seminary and co-organiser of the Cell Blocks and Border Stops conference. Fred is one of the great poets, educators and theorists of blackness and fugitivity.

Reina and Charlene will be taking part in the From Subjection to Subjection event on Sun 28. Fred Moten will be in conversation with Saidiya Hartman on Sat 27 in the Fugitivity and Waywardness event and will close the Episode with Storyboard P in Mutual Instruments on Sun 28.
- See more at: http://arika.org.uk/events/episode-6-make-way-out-no-way/programme/realness#sthash.UGwJRXHI.dpuf

MORE INFO HERE.

BERLIN VOGUING OUT

KILLER line up for House Of Melody's Berlin Voguing Out this year!! I need to get to this next year - maybe even sneak my way onto the bill? ;)

SASS Pics

AWESOME Party! Thanks to House Of Anita for asking me to dj, let's do this agian and soon!

SASS @ Kraak Gallery, Mcr, Sep 12th

I'm delighted to have been asked to play for FIVE fucking hours at the House Of Anita's new drag party SASS - YAS this is going to go OFF!! Expect lots of dirty hip-hop & filthy R'n'B, the sort of stuff you don't normally hear me play. Love the PR too - see you there...

VJUAN ALLURE "Anaconda Bump" (Nicki Minaj remix)

Vjuan does it again!! Much superior to the original - which is good for the first 90 seconds, until it becomes incredibly annoying - Vjuan turns this into dancefloor dynamite. His upcoming EP for Knightwerk is going to be HUGE too! I have a copy but have been told not to share. Watch this space!!

PURPLE CRUSH ft RAJA & JOSH PEACE "Shock & Awe" (CVNT TRAXXX Remix)

Cheers to the peepes at Do Androids Dance? for sharing this exclusive - my remix of LA's Purple Crush (ft Drag Race winner Raja and Moustache Mondays resident DJ Josh Peace), on a more tribal tip. Other remixes come from Tittsworth, ShyBoy and Josh himself - you can pick them up on iTunes.

QWEEN BEAT mixtapes piece for FACT Mag

My latest ballroom piece for FACT Magazine is a look at 3 recent mixtpes put out by heavy hitters at MikeQ's Qween Beat label - namely Beek, Byrell The Great and Divoli S'Vere:

What Brick Bandits are to Jersey club and what Teklife is to footwork, Qween Beat is to ballroom.

That is, unquestionably the number one production and djing crew, who set the standard for the music and culture in a scene that’s currently booming in popularity.

Headed up by the formidable MikeQ, resident at New York’s weekly dance showdown Vogue Knights and recording artist for LA’s Fade To Mind, Qween Beat counts among their ranks a dozen different members, with skills ranging from the usual production and remixing, to DJing and MCing (in particular the uptempo, in-your-face styles known as “commentating” and “chanting”, unique to ballroom and distinct from other rap-based vocal forms).

This past summer, three of the main members of Qween Beat – Divoli S’Vere, Beek and Byrell The Great – have all released their latest mixtape installments, showcasing each producer’s individual style and their take on the ballroom sound. While the genre is very much rooted in ’90s house and current East coast American club styles – with recognisable signifiers like the Kenlou “HA”/krash and vocal snippets from the like of Kevin Aviance (“cun-ty”) and Loleatta Holloway (the instantly recognisable “woop” vocal from Armand Van Helden’s “Witchdoktor”) – there is much more to ballroom than just a specific set of samples married to a minimalist club/house aesthetic.

I spoke to Divoli, Beek and Byrell to get the low down on what makes a track “ballroom”, but also to find out how exactly these talented producers differ from each other, and what else the Qween Beat crew has in store for us in the future.

READ THE REST HERE.