Key Frames: Kiki

This African Heritage Month, Key Frames presents KIKI, a 2016 documentary film that explores the lives of LGBTQ+ youth-of-colour in New York City’s underground Ballroom scene. Following seven youths over four years, the film explores how challenges can be overcome through artistic exploration, producing a community scene that validates lived experiences and gender expressions.  

“In New York City, LGBTQ youth-of-colour gather out on the Christopher Street Pier, practicing a performance-based artform, Ballroom, which was made famous in the early 1990s by Madonna’s music video “Vogue” and the documentary “Paris Is Burning.” Twenty-five years after these cultural touchstones, a new and very different generation of LGBTQ youth have formed an artistic activist subculture, named the Kiki Scene.” — http://www.kikimovie.com/synopsis  

In anticipation of Séamus Gallagher’s solo exhibition – opening in February – and in celebration of African Heritage Month, this film celebrates the histories and present experiences of Black Queer communities, whose legacies continue to echo in contemporary artistic practices.  

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