What Is the
Peabody Ballroom
Experience?
What Is the
Peabody Ballroom
Experience?
The Peabody Ballroom Experience is an arts & humanities collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and ballroom, a nearly century-old performance-based culture composed primarily of gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming people of color. The project cultivates an exchange of knowledge between the university and ballroom communities in Baltimore and beyond by creating diverse opportunities for faculty, students, activists, and performers to come together as partners in education and creative expression.
The Peabody Ballroom Experience is coordinated by Dr. Joseph Plaster, director of the Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center, a public-facing arm of Special Collections, in collaboration with Legends and Icons from Baltimore’s ballroom scene. The project name “Peabody Ballroom Experience” was coined by Legendary Keith Ebony Holt in late 2018.
Photo by Saskia Kahn
Icon Londyn de Richelieu-Mugler, Icon Sebastian Escada, and Legendary Marco West plan the 2019 Peabody ball
Media coverage & essays
Joseph Plaster, “History and Performance Collide: the Peabody Ballroom Experience,” Humanities for All blog, National Humanities Alliance Foundation, Sept 2023
John-John Williams IV, “Posing at the Library: Baltimore’s Ballroom Scene Werks the Peabody Again,” Baltimore Banner, Apr 14, 2023
Kirk McKoy and Sydney Allen, “Photos: Scenes from the Peabody Ballroom Experience,” Baltimore Banner, April 18, 2023
Cara Ober, “The Library is Open: Baltimore Ballroom at Peabody,” BMore Art Magazine, Apr 21, 2023
Hub staff reporter, “Joseph Plaster of Sheridan Libraries & University Museums recognized by National Council on Public History,” Feb 22, 2023
Martha S. Jones, “The Peabody Ballroom Experience: Helping Us To Recall the Past and Build a Future,” Hard Histories at Hopkins substack, Nov 23, 2022
Rose Wagner, “Baltimore Was One of the First Cities to Celebrate Drag Culture,” Baltimore Sun, June 2021
Max Weiss, “Four Local Films to Catch at This Year’s Maryland Film Festival,” Baltimore Magazine, May 14, 2021
Joseph Plaster, “The Category Is: Opulence! Performing Black Queer History in Baltimore’s ‘Cathedral of Books,’” Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Nov 2020
Joseph Plaster, “Black Queer Performance in Baltimore’s ‘Cathedral of Books,’” The Abusable Past, digital venue for the Radical History Review, Oct 2019
Joseph Plaster, Sheridan Libraries blog series: part one, the ball; part two, Peabody Dance; part three, the oral histories
Bret McCabe, “Ballroom Glitz,” Johns Hopkins HUB, Oct. 15, 2019
Shannon Robinson, “New Room With a View: One More Reason to Love Baltimore,” Daily Beast, Aug. 14, 2019
Cara Ober, “No Glitter Allowed: Ballroom 101,” Bmore Art, Apr. 18, 2019
Cole Douglas, “Documentary Kiki Highlights the Ballroom Scene in Baltimore,” Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Dec. 6, 2018
In the words of ballroom participants…
In the words of ballroom participants…
ICON LONDYN MUGLER: “One of the exciting things about this Peabody Ballroom Experience is that it’s building on the dance program that’s here at the Peabody: it’s giving students a chance to learn voguing, and for voguers to learn a little bit about their classic ways. And there’s the film program that is learning about ballroom. So there is this mixture of the arts and creativity. One of the things that really got me wanting to really participate is that intersectionality of talent and creativity.”
ICON LONDYN MUGLER: “One of the exciting things about this Peabody Ballroom Experience is that it’s building on the dance program that’s here at the Peabody: it’s giving students a chance to learn voguing, and for voguers to learn a little bit about their classic ways. And there’s the film program that is learning about ballroom. So there is this mixture of the arts and creativity. One of the things that really got me wanting to really participate is that intersectionality of talent and creativity.”
Legendary Marco West, Icon Sebastian Escada, and Icon Enrique St. Laurent promote our 2022 showcase
Legendary Mother Monique West performs at the inaugural 2019 ball. Photo by Gerard Gaskin.
JANOL BALENCIAGA: “The purpose of ballroom is to truly love who you are as a black and brown, queer or trans person. It’s also a space where you are challenged to grow. I took away the purpose [of the project] to bridge the gap and start conversations on how Johns Hopkins can show up to be a greater ally for our community, recognizing the privilege that the institution has and knowing a lot of the challenges that our community faces. Knowing that there are a lot of challenges that continue to stifle our community, I really felt like the institution wanted to be an active change agent in that.”
JANOL BALENCIAGO: “The purpose of ballroom is to truly love who you are as a black and brown, queer or trans person. It’s also a space where you are challenged to grow. I took away the purpose [of the project] to bridge the gap and start conversations on how Johns Hopkins can show up to be a greater ally for our community, recognizing the privilege that the institution has and knowing a lot of the challenges that our community faces. Knowing that there are a lot of challenges that continue to stifle our community, I really felt like the institution wanted to be an active change agent in that.”
Londyn de Richelieu-Mugler, Icon Sebastian Escada, and Icon Enrique St. Laurent record a Facebook Live, 2019
LEGENDARY MOTHER MONIQUE WEST: “When I walked in [the Peabody Library], I was like, ‘This is gonna go down in history.’ What I like about it so much is that it’s gonna be documented. So years down the line you’ll be able to tell people, ‘If you want to learn about ballroom, you can go the Peabody Library and find out about it,’ and it’ll be here….It makes [ballroom history] just as important as everything else that’s in the Library because it’s here….I think that’s a really, really big deal.”
LEGENDARY MOTHER MONIQUE WEST: “When I walked in [the Peabody Library], I was like, ‘This is gonna go down in history.’ What I like about it so much is that it’s gonna be documented. So years down the line you’ll be able to tell people, ‘If you want to learn about ballroom, you can go the Peabody Library and find out about it,’ and it’ll be here….It makes [ballroom history] just as important as everything else that’s in the Library because it’s here….I think that’s a really, really big deal.”
In the words of ballroom participants…
ICON LONDYN MUGLER: “One of the exciting things about this Peabody Ballroom Experience is that it’s building on the dance program that’s here at the Peabody: it’s giving students a chance to learn voguing, and for voguers to learn a little bit about their classic ways. And there’s the film program that is learning about ballroom. So there is this mixture of the arts and creativity. One of the things that really got me wanting to really participate is that intersectionality of talent and creativity.”
Legendary Mother Monique West performs at the inaugural 2019 ball. Photo by Gerard Gaskin.
LEGENDARY MOTHER MONIQUE WEST: “When I walked in [the Peabody Library], I was like, ‘This is gonna go down in history.’ What I like about it so much is that it’s gonna be documented. So years down the line you’ll be able to tell people, ‘If you want to learn about ballroom, you can go the Peabody Library and find out about it,’ and it’ll be here….It makes [ballroom history] just as important as everything else that’s in the Library because it’s here….I think that’s a really, really big deal.”
Legendary Marco West, Icon Sebastian Escada, and Icon Enrique St. Laurent promote our 2022 showcase
JANOL BALENCIAGA: “The purpose of ballroom is to truly love who you are as a black and brown, queer or trans person. It’s also a space where you are challenged to grow. I took away the purpose [of the project] to bridge the gap and start conversations on how Johns Hopkins can show up to be a greater ally for our community, recognizing the privilege that the institution has and knowing a lot of the challenges that our community faces. Knowing that there are a lot of challenges that continue to stifle our community, I really felt like the institution wanted to be an active change agent in that.”
Londyn de Richelieu-Mugler, Icon Sebastian Escada, and Icon Enrique St. Laurent record a Facebook Live, 2019
Primary components
Special Collections workshops and youth research fellowships
Vogue workshops with the Peabody Dance Department
Oral history and archival documentation of Baltimore’s ballroom scene
Film screenings and roundtable discussions
Original documentary films by ballroom artists and university students
Ball competitions at the George Peabody Library at which ballroom artists interpret its historic collections through costume and stylized performance
Funders
THE PEABODY BALLROOM EXPERIENCE IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH FUNDING FROM:
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The MAP Fund
The Sheridan Libraries & University Museums
The Peabody Institute BFA Dance program
Johns Hopkins Office of Diversity and Inclusion
The Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts
People
BALLROOM ADVISORY BOARD / PLANNING GROUP, 2022-PRESENT:
Legendary Rhonda Carr
Icon Hall of Famer Enrique St. Laurent
Legendary Marco West/Marco Gray
Icon Sebastian Escada
BALLROOM ADVISORY BOARD / PLANNING GROUP, 2021-PRESENT:
Icon Hall of Famer Enrique St. Laurent
Legendary Marco West/Marco Gray
Icon Sebastian Escada
BALLROOM ADVISORY BOARD / PLANNING GROUP, 2018-2020:
Icon Londyn de Richelieu-Mugler
Legendary Keith Ebony Holt
Icon Hall of Famer Enrique St. Laurent
Legendary Marco West/Marco Gray
Icon Sebastian Escada
PEABODY BALLROOM EXPERIENCE DIRECTOR:
Joseph Plaster, Curator in Public Humanities and Director, Tabb Center
CURATOR OF THE GEORGE PEABODY LIBRARY:
THE PEABODY BALLROOM EXPERIENCE IS COORDINATED BY THE TABB CENTER AND BUILT ON PARTNERSHIPS, INSTITUTIONS, AND INITIATIVES ACROSS BALTIMORE AND BEYOND:
danah bella, Professor and Chair, Peabody BFA Dance Program, Peabody Institute
Marquis Clanton, international dancer, vogue master, and choreographer
Tim Perell, MA in Film and Media Program, Johns Hopkins University
Annette Porter, Co-Director JHU MICA Film Centre
Jason Gray, Film and Media Studies, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Renata Arrington-Sanders, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
George Ciscle, Founder of MFA in Curatorial Practice, Maryland Institute College of Art
Dr. madison moore, Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Peabody Ballroom Experience Director Joseph Plaster at the 2019 ball
