Love Is The Message

It's been a minute since I updated. I've been keeping very busy, there are lots of changes in the air. Exciting stuff, trust me.

Anyway, last night I went to the Love Is the Message Ball. I received some calls about it after I sent out my newsletter and most people have the wrong idea of what exactly a ball is. To most women, a "ball" is a dress-up affair with gowns and what not, but what I went to last night is more in the vein of "Paris is Burning" replete with voguing and high fashion.

This particular Ball is a ball with a message. It's an annual affair done to promote safe sex and HIV/AIDS preventative messages.

I love the energy of Balls. Especially in the beginning. They have a frenetic, high-spirited energy reminiscent of that moment in church when everybody starts falling out from the Holy Spirit.

The Houses included that of Omni, Ferragamo and the now-defunct Rodeo (don't ask, I'm not up on Ball drama), they strutted, twirled, vogued and gave serious runway. Fabulous. And those kids carried on until 4:30AM (and I with them. :))

There were several highlights during the Ball. A few controversial "chop"s, dueling houses, the femme queen scandal at the end and a few others, but overall it was a really fun and well put together affair with a cause. There were at least 200 in attendence although not many of them "natural" women which is a shame because the ballroom kids always make an effort to include women categories and there isn't really ever anyone there to participate despite the effort. Maybe that'll change, I hope so I'd like to see more sistahs give runway.