A crowd of roughly 25 people gathered in Redpath Library on Oct. 28 for a talk entitled “Kiki as Resistance: Shaping Black Queer and Trans Identities” by Vincent Mousseau—a social worker, PhD student in Health at Dalhousie University, and member of the kiki scene in Montreal. Mousseau discussed the role of kiki ballroom culture in shaping the identities of Black queer individuals and as resistance to systemic anti-Black racism. 

Mousseau first explained that kiki ballroom is a “youth-centred offshoot” of the ballroom scene that focuses less on competition and seeks to build community and foster self-expression among Black and Latinx youth in particular. They then presented their research, which explores the way Black and queer people understand their own racial and sexual identities. They argued that kiki ballroom culture influences identity development by affirming an understanding of Black and queer identity as one rather than being seen as split. Mousseau’s research found that when Black queer people report an understanding of their identities as one, they also experience better health outcomes. 

“[W]hen we consider human physiology and more specifically our central nervous system, it becomes clearer how our bodies hold onto trauma and stress,” Mousseau wrote to The Tribune. “Understanding identity holistically, without having to police parts of oneself, plays a significant role in alleviating that burden. This perspective is also deeply personal to me as a Black queer person, experiencing the fullness of my identity within spaces where I don’t need to hide or fragment myself.”

They went on to discuss how elements of ballroom are rooted in Africentric principles, such as the understanding of kinship outside of biological family. Mousseau also noted ballroom’s emphasis on embodied ways of transferring knowledge as another Africentric principle, which is a tool to “hold knowledge that has been taken from us.”

Later in the talk, Mousseau invited Father Ali Old Navy, a member of the Montreal kiki scene, to the front of the room to enact and discuss the significance of different moves and styles of walks in ballroom culture. For example, Ali explained that ballroom culture works to reclaim the “limp wrist”—a gesture that has been historically used to mock queer people—by incorporating this movement in voguing. For Mousseau, this element of the talk highlighted the conversational dimension of ballroom.

“Ballroom, and especially Vogue, is about dialogue. It’s a way of saying something powerful in response to the marginalization we face,” Mousseau wrote. “Working with Father Ali brought this out; the talk wasn’t just me sharing information, it became a space where people engaged in the conversation together.”

Mousseau’s talk was organized as part of Queer History Month at McGill. Amanda Wheatley, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, spoke to the choice to hold the talk in a library, highlighting the “collective” nature of the space.

“Libraries are often unique in that they are available for everyone, regardless of disciplinary affiliation. It makes sense to host these events in collective spaces on campus,” Wheatley wrote. “We hold talks about knitting, Voltaire, science dissemination, challenges to scholarly publishing, medieval manuscripts, and more. So why not kiki balls?”

Librarian in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library Michael David Miller, who introduced Mousseau at the beginning of the event, noted that it “might be the very first kiki ballroom talk at the university.”

Reflecting on what they hope attendees take away from the talk, Mousseau reinforced the joy that comes with ballroom’s opposition to societal norms and its celebration of this subversion. 

“It’s about honouring femininity in a world steeped in misogyny, uplifting Blackness and queerness unapologetically, and celebrating the ‘limp-wristedness of it all,’” Mousseau wrote. “This joy and defiance have an immense cultural impact, visible in how mainstream culture borrows from ballroom—even though it’s often misaligned or taken without respect. My hope is that attendees leave with a sense of this joy, resilience, and the power of community-based resistance.”