House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens

House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens

A template for the current house/drag ball culture was practiced as early as 1888 by William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved person. Channing Joseph's book (to be released in 2023) presents the story of Swann, a queer community leader and resistor who had his own house and organized drag balls. People came to Swann's place to dance the cakewalk in contests much like the contemporary drag vogue dance depicted in the famous documentary Is Paris Burning? The queen's house was not just a residential space; it is a sacred space that offers refuge based on a moral system the queen dictates. Her drag ball takes on ritual proportions that heal, mesmerize and fascinate.

Channing Joseph http://www.channingjoseph.com/elements/discoveries.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Is_Burning_(film)

Fashion and race.org

Nitisha Currie, William Dorsey Swann, the Queen of Drag. Rediscovering Black History: National Archive. Posted In Post-Reconstruction, Tribute/News. June 29, 2020.
https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2020/06/29/william-dorsey-swann-the-queen-of-drag/

http://www.channingjoseph.com/elements/discoveries.html