<I>The Audience at the Latex Ball, Roseland Ballroom, Manhattan, NY, August 2007</I>
date: label: Date
content: August 2007
name: label: Photograph by
content: Gerard H. Gaskin, Trinidadian American, born 1965
label: Subject of
content: GMHC, American, founded 1981
notes: label: Caption
content: "The balls are a celebration of black and Latino urban gay life. They were born in Harlem out of a need for black and Latino gays to have a safe space to express themselves. Balls are constructed like beauty and talent pageants. The participants work to redefine and critique gender and sexual identity through an extravagant fashion masquerade. Women and men become fluid, interchangeable points of departure and reference, disrupting the notion of a fixed and rigid gender and sexual self. My images try to show a more personal and intimate beauty, pride, dignity, courage, and grace that have been painfully challenged by mainstream society. All of this happens at night in small halls in cities all over the country. These photographs, taken in New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington, D.C., show us different views of these spaces as they are reflected in the eyes of house and ball members who perform what they wish these cities could be." – Gerard H. Gaskin
label: Description
content: A color digital image of the audience at the House of Latex Ball held at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan in August 2007. The image depicts a large, colorful crowd of people standing and facing forward, most with their attention just to the left of the camera. Some individuals are cheering. Round tables with colorful tablecloths are partially visible throughout the crowd. On one table near the center of the image is a vase of bright red flowers. Rows of white folding chairs are visible in the back. A person on the right-hand side of the photo holds a GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis) sign that is shaped like a STOP sign and reads [HIV AND AIDS ATTENTION NEEDED HERE AND NOW]. There is a person at the bottom of the photo who holds a video camera. At the bottom left edge of hte image is a table covered in an orange cloth with a statue of a gold hand in the center and papers and multi-colored feathers spread across it.
place: label: Place captured
content: Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Dance
label: Topic
content: Fashion
label: Topic
content: Gender
label: Topic
content: Health
label: Topic
content: Identity
label: Topic
content: LGBTQ
label: Topic
content: Men
label: Topic
content: Music
label: Topic
content: Nightlife
label: Topic
content: Photography
label: Topic
content: Sexuality
label: Topic
content: Urban life
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Portfolio/Series
content: Legendary
label: Classification
content: Photographs and Still Images
label: Movement
content: HIV/AIDS Activist Movement
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gerard H. Gaskin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2019.44.3
objectType: label: Type
content: digital images
label: Type
content: digital media - born digital
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Gerard H. Gaskin
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: digital
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 2912 pixels × 4368 pixels
label: Dimensions
content: 109.34 MB