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Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society

Volume 11, Issue 3, 2009

Performance as Intravention: Ballroom Culture and the Politics of HIV/AIDS in Detroit

Performance as Intravention: Ballroom Culture and the Politics of HIV/AIDS in Detroit

DOI:
10.1080/10999940903088226
Marlon M. Bailey

pages 253-274

Available online: 14 Sep 2009

Abstract

After twenty-six years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the disease's impact on people of African descent throughout the world has been devastating. This essay draws from performance ethnographic research on Ballroom culture and HIV/AIDS in Detroit, Michigan. Ballroom culture is a Black and Latina/o queer community in North America. In this examination, I delineate how Black queer members of the Ballroom community create and engage in HIV/AIDS prevention strategies through performance. I argue that Ballroom community members deploy forms of intravention, strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention that are created by and emerge from within the Ballroom community, a so-called “high risk community.”

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Taylor & Francis Group