Explore Black History

2005

"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
Gerard Gaskin commented on this piece stating, "One of the images in my book Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene is of a subject in a bright pink skirt with polka dots and a black top. His hair is bleached and he is wearing a veil. The subject has makeup on, but the makeup does not really make him very feminine at all. The makeup, skirt, gloves, handbag, veil, hair accessories, and other objects fail to deliver either a masculine or a feminine subject. Gender performances, through clothing, posture, and makeup, actually highlight how gender is constructed. He is male and female, is a man playing at being a woman, and a man failing to perform gender."

A color digital image portrait of Martez, captured at the Evisu Ball in Harlem in 2005. Martez is pictured wearing a flowing black top, a bright pink skirt with black polka dots, elbow-length black velvet gloves with multiple rings worn over top, and a fascinator and veil made of a black, netted material. Martez has cropped, bleached blonde hair, wears black lipstick and poses against a blue wall while looking directly at the camera.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Legendary

Photographs and Still Images

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gerard H. Gaskin

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2019.44.4

portraits
digital images
digital media - born digital

© Gerard H. Gaskin
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.

digital

H x W: 4368 pixels × 2912 pixels
100.71 MB

Title • Martez, Evisu Ball, National Black Theatre Harlem, NY, 2005

nmaahc_2019.44.4

NMAAHC

MARTEZ, EVISU BALL, NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE HARLEM, NY, 2005

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

2000s

New York City • Harlem • United States • North and Central America

Nightlife • Photography • LGBTQ • Communities • Music • Fashion • Sexuality • Dance • Urban life • Gender issues • Group identity

Locale • Harlem • City • New York City • State • New York • Country • United States • Continent • North and Central America

digital media - born digital • Portraits • Photographs

Images

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