"Kiki" (alternately kiking or a ki), a term which started in ballroom culture, and was also for decades used in lesbian lingo to refer to a woman who was neither butch nor femme.
been brought back to slang by the LGBT community, is loosely defined as a gathering of friends for the purpose of gossiping and chit-chat.
Now referring to a social gathering, kiki developed as categorizations within different queer subcultures of ballroom culture as well as a mid-century American lesbian scene.
[5] Historically, Harlem drag balls of the 1920s and 1930s New York, came from the migration of African Americans from the South to the North of the United States.
[citation needed] These Kiki houses, and modern ballroom culture in general, provide youths a space of shelter and love.
The term defined a new kiki scene created for younger LGBT individuals, between the ages of 13 and 24 years old, as a more economically accessible version of ballroom culture.
[9] Balls are events in which houses or representatives host in which participants compete to win cash prizes and trophies throughout multiple categories.
Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it portrays the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it.
The film explains how words such as house, mother, shade, reading and legendary gain new meaning when used in ways to describe the gay and drag subculture.
The film also covers the dangerous and negative aspects of the scene as it pertained to walkers' health and the lengths they go to walk the runways.
There is a powerful scene in the film where the "house mother", Angie Xtravanganza, is told the news of Venus's strangling by a dissatisfied client that truly shows the dangers faced at this time by the community.
Critics including feminist scholar bell hooks questioned whether Livingston – a middle-class, white, genderqueer lesbian – was playing the role of voyeur; an enabler of cultural appropriation.
In 2003, the New York Times reported that more than a decade after its release, Paris Is Burning remains a commonly cited and frequently used organizing tool for LGBT youth.
Modern media, such as RuPaul's Drag Race, take heavy inspiration from the film, Kiki, and ball culture today.
The mothers and fathers, who are platonically related, of these houses take more of a responsible mentor role, they provide love and guidance to their children.
They are the chief strategy officer of True Colors United, an organization that provides services for the LGBT and BIPOC homeless population, joining in 2014.
[18] Aisha Diori is an African American HIV/AIDS Activist who helped pioneer the kiki scene in New York alongside Arbert Santana.
She has worked with Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and the Hetrick-Martin Institute to promote and to host balls catered towards HIV prevention.
[26] These lounges along with community interaction from health institutes for queer youths helped form the kiki ballroom scene in New York.