get up and dance?!

music has always been a fusion of art, poetry, rivalry, and reflections of political unrest.

Here is a queer Hip Hop playlist, and below are links to some of my favorite queer artists’ and one of their albums. Queer music has a huge variety of sounds, tastes, genres, and stories that all each have their own place in music history. Different stories for different people all in different phases of life. 

• LUCY - Bktherula

• Something to Give Each Other - Troye Sivan 

• The Fame - Lady Gaga

• While We Wait - Kehlani

• Charm - Clairo 

Dancing is both an outlet for one’s own creative expression and a performance for the audience to gaze upon, to see and feel the message a mover is conveying. The Ballroom scene is a subculture in Black and Brown queer spaces. Also known as drag ball culture or the house-ballroom community, the subculture was cultivated by black trans and queer folks, demonstrating the fluidity and nuance of gender construct through performance: vogueing, competing, dance, lip-syncing, and modeling in rounds of different categories. One’s authenticity and commitment is then rated and scored to win prizes (and bragging rights). The glamor, fashion, makeup, music, and outfits all come together to set the stage for embodying different personas and “realness,” all in face of heteronormative gender expectations and oppression. This article by VAN VOGUE JAM does an excellent job of displaying the various aspects of the culture and its history.