The Queue: #6: PARIS IS BURNING

The late Dorian Corey and Pepper LaBeija of Paris is Burning

Writer and existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said, "Life has no meaning a priori...It is up to you to give it a meaning, and a value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. "

Echoing the post-modernist perspective, it's a theory that represents a daunting freedom, fueling the human mind to embrace their existence as their own complete invention. While to the average individual this may insinuate a more chaotic, uncontrolled approach to life, Sartre's theory illuminates the passionate vision of the cultural pioneer who chooses to move against the illusion of conformity and social expectations, even if it leads to life of inflated intolerance, tribulation and pain.

The late Octavia St. Laurent in Paris Is Burning

In Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary feature film, Paris is Burning, the film encapsulates the layered and inspired perspective of the influential "ball culture" that took place throughout the dimming, post-modernistic late-eighties of New York City. Over the span of seven years, Livingston immersed herself within the fiery and influential subculture of the gay, transgender, African American and Latino "Ballroom" community, capturing the unabashed celebration of expression, style and non-conforming beauty. The practice of the ballroom competitions (which originated out of Harlem in the 1920s) would feature various categories of contestants who would "walk" across the ballroom floor, judged based on their interpretation of style, the realness of their "drag" and the charismatic innovation of their movement.

The film captures a definitive, influential era of New York City and a morphing extension of urban culture that was steadily fed to the mainstream attention; while Livingston's film introduced the vocabulary of "reading", "shading", and the cheeky practice of "vogue" (the source to Madonna's iconic 1990 track). While many of the film's indelible characters have since passed, such as Octavia St. Laurent, Dorian Corey, Anji Xtravaganza and Willi Ninja, the New York City Ball community still remains as one of the city's most eminent subcultures.

The subjects of "Paris is Burning"

In the October 2012 issue of Paper Magazine's Nightlife Issue, images from photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders were featured in a modernized (with a hint of early-ninties throwback) reflection of today's existing NYC Ballroom scene.

Paper also featured documented images of today's "Kiki" Ball Scene, featured in a series titled "The Reincarnation of Rockland Palace", with photographs by Sara Jordeno and Twiggy Pucci Garcon.