BALLROOM HAS SOMETHING TO SAY Featuring Jason A. Rodriguez & Pony Zion Announced At Live Arts

As part of its Open Spectrum community dialogue series, New York Live Arts presents Ballroom Has Something to Say--curated by activist, leader in the LGBTQ and House I Ballroom communities, and adviser to FX's Pose, Michael Roberson. On Sunday November 10 starting at 2:30 pm, the event kicks off with a voguing class, followed by a lecture/performance/discussion, and ends with a single Ballroom category Vogue Femme "open to all" (OTA) with a $1000 cash prize for the winner.

The Art of Performance voguing class at 2:30pm will be co-taught by FX's Pose cast member Jason A. Rodriguez and Ballroom Icon Pony Zion. It will lay an introductory groundwork for the day's programming, as well as lead participants through an adventurous exploration of the highly stylized form originating in the 1980s that evolved from the ballroom scene of 1960s Harlem. Rodriguez specializes in the subcategory Vogue New Way and Zion in Vogue Fem.

At 5pm, the lecture/performance/discussion titled Ballroom: Trans Sounds of Black Freedom explores the history of the House | Ballroom community as a Black Trans-Womanist theological discourse, a freedom movement, and its spiritual formation responses to race, class, sexuality, and gender oppression. Taking place during Transgender Awareness Month, the discussion examines how a community reimagines itself through Performance, Fashion, and Intentional Kinship, and features Ballroom singer and Minister Ken Altson Jr., and others to be announced.

The day will culminate with the ballroom competition The Category is Vogue Fem (OTA), curated by Michael Roberson. The ball will focus on a single category of Vogue Fem and is Open To All, requiring no registration, and features Commentator Precious and others to be announced. Presented in partnership with House Lives Matter and the Arbert Santana Ballroom Freedom and Free School Project, the competition's $1,000 winning prize is sponsored by The Musagetes Foundation.

Open Spectrum: Ballroom Has Something to Say takes place at New York Live Arts Studios (219 West 19th St New York, NY 10011) November 10 starting at 2:30pm. The Voguing class is $15 to attend, spots can be purchased here. Sold together, the 5pm lecture and 7pm competition tickets start at $15, which can be purchased here.

New York Live Arts' Open Spectrum Community Dialogue Series provides space for reflection on the most vital issues facing communities today. Open Spectrum offers an intimate conversational platform founded on the belief that cultural institutions can and should be catalysts for societal transformation by participating in a world of ideas.

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