Black Fantasy Weekend: ‘It’s More Than Just Pose’

As we covered last week, Black Pride Colorado will be hosting Black Fantasy Weekend through October 2 to October 3, starting with The Black Fantasy Summit on October 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by The Black Fantasy Ball, starting on the 2nd at 10 p.m., and ending on the 3rd with a Black Fantasy Brunch from 1 to 3 p.m.

I recently sat down with Tara Jae, the founder and executive director of Black Pride Colorado and Youth Seen, along with Moonlight, who will be co-hosting the aforementioned events alongside Xango Alain Mikli.

Moonlight: “Tara and I met three or four years ago. We actually met at an executive director boot camp for programs who were leading LGBTQ young people. And so we met there, we started talking about the work that we were doing. I was, at the time, leading an LGBTQ-specific, anti-violence organization. And so, a lot of my work was centered around doing anti-violence work, doing harm reduction work, all of that. And we just happened to start talking about the ballroom, because I’ve been involved for about—I want to say nine years now—mostly being a leader, going to a lot of the community meetings and events and also throwing balls, then diverting funding resources into the ball community.

“But anyway, we started talking about ballroom and had this grand idea that one day, we were going to partner and have a ball. And so that was four years ago. I actually left the organization I was working for and started my own organization with my partner. And so my work now focuses more on healing and transformative justice, so a lot of my work has been creating frameworks of healing and accountability within communities, as well as facilitating spaces of healing and love and joy and celebration for black, queer and trans folx specifically. Then Tara developed Black Pride Colorado in Denver, so that’s closely aligned with my work as we work for the black community specifically.”

Moonlight and Xango Alain Mikli represent the House of Alain Mikli. In my conversation with them, Moonlight, who is nonbinary, emphasized the importance of creating space for nonbinary folx in the ballroom scene.

Moonlight: “One of the newest categories, and one of the newest movements in ballroom, is to add nonbinary folks. The thing about ballroom is that it is nonbinary. So you have Butch Queen, which is a gay man who dresses more feminine, but not in drag. And so there’s very specific categories and very specific elements of those categories that align along this nonbinary line.

“However, there’s no space for someone who identifies as nonbinary to walk. And so, we made sure that with this ball, we created categories specific to folx who identify as nonbinary, and there’s still some conversations that need to be had in ballroom about what it means to be nonbinary. And because everyone’s looking for a look, it’s like, ‘What is nonbinary?’ and we’re like, ‘It’s not the same as androgynous.’ The whole idea of ballroom is to break out of the binary, but in a sense, there are still categories that are historical to the pioneers and the leaders of ballroom that we don’t want to change. And so, we kind of just wanted to add additional categories.”

Moonlight, who started walking four years ago, spoke to their own experience as a nonbinary performer.

Moonlight: “I started walking Women’s Runway (a category traditionally walked by cis women), and that was when I was like, ‘Oh, you know, I kind of want to push the lines and, you know, sort of became like this radical act in runway.’ And so I walked Executive Realness at one ball. Executive Realness is basically for a gay man who is passing as a Wall Street executive. And so I walked in with the idea of like, ‘If a gay man can rock this and pass, then what about someone who is nonbinary, who presents sometimes as a cis woman?’ And so just kind of, you know, being a rebel in that.”

When asked if there was one thing they’d like the community to walk away with from Black Fantasy Weekend, something they’d like OFM readers to know, Tara and Moonlight had this to say:

Tara Jae: “You know, there’s always a conversation around why we bring in other people from different communities to be able to do things. The big reason why Black Pride Colorado and Youth Seen are doing this is like Moon is saying: We very much want to build resiliency within the community. Oftentimes, people get really excited—it’s a one-time-out-of-the-year thing—and this is something that we need to acknowledge as a year round thing. And that Black Lives Matter, supporting Black events, Black organizations, and just Black people’s lives, that’s huge.

But it’s also about that accessibility, and sustainability for our community as a whole. How we can come together as queer folx, how we can all be coming together and working to build that collective power and mobilizing, because when it comes down to it, we are all fighting the same fight, we’re all doing it individually. And each of our stories are important for that overall collective. So that’s the big thing that I want to keep putting to the forefront: That resiliency for Black folx, and specifically for queer, trans, and nonbinary Black folx. Indigenous folx. That’s the big part.”

Moonlight: “I think the thing that I hope we can walk away with (from Black Fantasy Weekend) is building collective power for BIPOC, queer, and trans folx. Building collective power, creating frameworks of accountability and healing and transformation. Transforming harm. So yeah, there’s a lot of things, but building collective power—I would say that’s definitely number one. Because that’s in any movement, understanding and recognizing how to move within that collective, and I think that sometimes there can be a disconnect, because you get a collective of people and everybody’s everywhere, but how do we still maintain our autonomy and move collectively at the same time?

“I think part of this weekend is actually giving the community space to let leaders know what the needs are, so that we can mobilize and organize around that. I think that’s a huge part of this weekend—to facilitate building those relationships within the ball community, within the leaders of the Denver community, and being able to recognize the needs and supporting those needs, and developing frameworks on how we continue to show up for community and divert funding back into community.

“The ballroom is one of the most historical black, queer, BIPOC, and trans spaces. And so I think it’s more than just Pose. It’s more than just this glamorous thing. It’s more than just fetishizing us, our community. I’ve had ballroom kids who were houseless, who I’ve had to house, and that’s what it looks like to be a ballroom leader. That we’re taking care of those who are coming after us, and also those who have come before us as well. So like, how do we create space in supporting our elder generation within the community, as well as the young people, and I think that’s the biggest push for us in alignment with the work that you’ve seen, is creating these spaces to support young people and allowing them to identify what that looks like.”

If you haven’t already, you can get your tickets for The Black Fantasy Ball here. It’s sure to be an incredible weekend.

Photo credit to Eboni Boneé Coleman of EB Pixs