This past January the Chicago Ballroom Council was launched under the leadership of Acting Co-Chairs Legendary Jahari “The Hippie” Revlon Stamps and Legendary Midwest Mother Myah “West” Brown.
Stamps said that the council’s origins are rooted in the community’s desire to have a central organization where people can share responsibilities. He added that the council “is a coalition of House Leadership here in Chicago coming together to provide events, share information and resources, as well as work together to bring more visibility and opportunities to our scene.”
The council is important to the community, according to Stamps, because it will provide a “safe space for those who have been oppressed, disenfranchised and ostracized from their families/communities because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.”
Brown said the council will also build bridges between housing and healthcare access entities and the various Ballroom communities in the city. She added that their goal is to “restore trust in healthcare organizations to ensure that communities feel affirmed in accessing services” with an emphasis on harm reduction and trauma informed care. The council is currently partnered with various organizations and has plans to bring those resources to their events so attendees have easy access to that information.
Stamps, who was recently appointed as a Chicago Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs member and is the non-profit Southside Health Advocacy Resource Partnership (SHARP) Chairperson, said he will utilize those other leadership roles to elevated the council and the work they do for the Ballroom community.
This visibility on the Chicago Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs is important to Stamps because as a full-time artist in Chicago he said there are “essential voices that are missed because they don’t ‘look the part’ or have credentials behind their name.” Stamps said him being at the table will add a “fresh perspective” and a “chance to be a marginalized voice inside a marginalized community. I’m so grateful to Mayor Johnson for choosing me, as I’m excited to be working in proximity to Director Antonio King who has been a mentor/father figure of mine for over 10 years.”
Stamps said that SHARP has been at the “forefront of some very innovative interventions for the community” and “through our engagement in Ballroom, we have been able to link over 400 people to care, including over the past three years testing over 300 people so they would know their HIV statues at our flagship event New Directions Ball.” He added that they also have sent entry level public health workers through phlebotomy school and created a creative expression mental health initiative called SONIC healing that uses music and testimony to cultivate a collective healing environment.
Brown, who was one of this publication’s former 30 Under 30 recipients and is the AIDS Healthcare Foundation trans and gender-nonconforming community focused FLUX Affinity Group Chicago Chapter Vice President, said FLUX’s role is to “raise the profiles of the trans community by leveraging social events, creating safe spaces and innovative advocacy initiatives.” She said that her FLUX role where she steps up in the absence of the President, supervises and controls the organization’s affairs as well as other essential duties dovetails perfectly with her new duties as the Chicago Ballroom Council’s acting co-chair.
Currently, the Chicago Ballroom Council hosts day parties that provide social networking opportunities with community partners. They also did a presentation at NMAC’s Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit that was recently held in Chicago.
Brown will also host the 2nd Annual Mother’s Day appreciation event “which will honor the trans women who mother our community.”
Their future goals, according to Stamps, are to include “the creation of a community advisory board that will not only come together to share resources and information but also cultivate opportunities for people to thrive, not just survive.”
Stamps said that one of the things the council’s work will do is to meet at the intersection of care and creativity. He said Ballroom has been a “mechanism of self-expression and family of choice so even if people have been turned away from their family, Ballroom has been here to welcome them with open arms.
“As we know traditional therapy is still stigmatized in Black and Brown communities, so when we are looking at it through the lens of art therapy and creative expressive output, it is an absolute harm reductive space where people can not only find their identity but also use their talents as an outlet for the challenges everyday life presents to us for simply existing.”
One of the ways Brown will “elevate the presence of the council and the ongoing work we are doing for the community” is through their soon-to-be created social media handles so the community can connect with each other, access information and be able to “volunteer alongside the council. We strive to build unity with the support of community based organizations, grassroot leaders and ballroom leaders.”
Brown said anyone who wants to financially support or get involved with the council in other ways should contact them at chicagoballroomcouncil@gmail.com.