Legendary Looks: Preserving Our Legacy Exhibition extended until September 21, 2025 at City Lore Gallery

Image Courtesy of City Lore

Curated by Icon Ballroom Hall of Famer Founder Michael Roberson of Maison-Margiela, Legendary NYC Mother Jonovia Chase of Xclusive Lanvin and Icon International Mother Twiggy Pucci Garçon

City Lore is pleased to announce as a part of their 40^th anniversary programming, Legendary Looks: Preserving Our Legacy, entitled Legendary Looks co-organized by Arts-Westchester, Pioneer Works and City Lore, which focuses on the cultural legacy of House Ballroom. City Lore’s exhibit is on view now through September 21, 2025 at the City Lore Gallery located at 56 East First Street in Manhattan. Gallery hours are: Saturday and Sunday noon – 6:00 (and by appointment, 212-529-1955, ext. 22.

Legendary Looks: Preserving Our Legacy is curated by Icon Ballroom Hall of Famer Founder Michael Roberson of Maison-Margiela and Legendary NYC Mother Jonovia Chase of Xclusive Lanvin and Icon International Mother Twiggy Pucci Garçon. Roberson and Chase serve as a Cultural Ambassadors for City Lore’s Creative Traditions Residency Program and have engaged in ethnographic research, audio-visual documentation, and program planning focused on the New York City Metro area’s House Ballroom community, artists, and events.

Legendary Looks: Preserving Our Legacy at City Lore, will spotlight select House Ballroom community leaders, including Pioneer RR Chanel, Pioneer Alvernian Du’Mure-Versailles and Legendary NYC Father Joejo St. Laurent and their efforts to preserve House Ballroom culture and history. The multimedia exhibition will feature collections of ball flyers, archival photos, costuming pieces, as well as video and audio excerpts from oral history interviews collected by the curators. 

The 3 Part Legendary Looks Series provides visitors with an opportunity to delve into the extraordinary tradition and artistry of effects design in the LGBTQ+ House Ballroom community. This groundbreaking multi-media exhibition features more than sixteen unforgettable looks created by some of ballroom’s top designers, stylists and walkers, including Icon Overall Mother DeeDee Lanvin, Icon Founding Mother Miss Shalae Basquiat, Legendary Cameo Cameo, Legendary Giovanni 007, and DMV Father Drake Garçon. Exhibited costumes are accompanied by illustrations, ball flyers, photographs and video that highlight the creative process and inspiration behind each ballroom moment. The exhibition is curated by Icon International Mother Twiggy Pucci Garçon, Legendary NYC Mother Jonovia Chase Lanvin, and Icon Ballroom Hall of Famer Founder Michael Roberson Maison-Margiela. Exhibition text is written by Fatima Jamal and Mikelle Street.

The third and final installation of the 3 part multi site exhibition, LEGENDARY LOOKS, represents the largest retrospective of lgbtq house ballroom arts and culture.  This historic exhibition has been extended and will be on view through September 21st and is an official part of this year’s NYC Black Pride 2025.

For more information on all three exhibitions: https://artswestchester.org/programs/gallery/legendary-looks-the-art-of-effects-design-in-house-ballroom/

Major support for Legendary Looks is provided by the Coby Foundation, Ltd with additional support by the Mid Atlantic Folk and Traditional Arts – Community Projects program of Mid Atlantic Arts.

ABOUT THE LEGENDARY LOOKS: PRESERVING OUR LEGACY CURATORS

Icon Ballroom Hall of Famer Founder Michael Roberson, Maison-Margiela is a leader, public health practitioner, activist, artist, and curator within the HBC and is one of the most important figures in Ballroom today. He is the founder of three major Houses and is Father to hundreds of children in the community. Roberson works as Adjunct Professor at The New School and Union Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses on Ballroom history and Vogue’ology, a pedagogy that places Ballroom’s performance traditions within a politics of emancipation. He is also founder of The Federation of Ballroom Houses and co-creator of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Group, an organization focused on tackling health disparities within Black/Latino LGBTQ+ and HBC communities. For full bio: https://artswestchester.org/programs/gallery/legendary-looks-the-art-of-effects-design-in-house-ballroom/

Legendary New York City Mother Jonovia Chase of Xclusive Lanvin is a community stakeholder, producer, runway icon and creative force based in New York City. She represents House Lives Matter, an international initiative created by and for the House community and leads and collaborates with various organizations on initiatives focused on intersectional social justice and activism. Together with other community leaders, she co-founded the non-profit Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza House, aimed at providing housing, healthcare and educational support for the trans and LGBTQ community in New Jersey, in partnership with Garden State Equality, Hudson Pride and House Lives Matter. Chase proudly serves as the NYC Mother of the Legendary House of Xclusive Lanvin and works as a consultant for Arts Westchester, New York University and the NYC Kiki Coalition. She is an executive producer for I’m Your Venus and is the curator of Fem Queen Honors, taking place this June at the Apollo Theater.

Icon International Mother Twiggy Pucci Garçon is a community organizer, director, producer, culture curator and performance artist. She worked to develop and implement organizational programs and movement-wide strategy at True Colors United for nearly a decade, protecting rights for young people experiencing homelessness. She has collaborated with Gucci, Coach, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, GLAAD, Adidas, Reebok and many other brands, artists, filmmakers, academics and policymakers to increase visibility of both creative and sociopolitical agendas. Twiggy is the International Mother of the Legendary International House of Comme des Garçons, the Chief Ambassador for the Center for Black Equity and Co-Founder of All Tea, No Shade Productions. She co-wrote Sara Jordenö’s award-winning documentary KIKI, is the Executive Producer of the Emmy-nominated dramatic reading All Boys Aren’t Blue and Director of MnM, a short documentary film slated for broadcast on POV/PBS this summer. Twiggy is a 2023 Concordia Fellow, where she is developing her first feature-length documentary, CROWNED.

About the Creative Traditions Cultural Ambassadors Program – The Cultural Ambassadors Leadership program aims to equip a generation of cultural leaders whose life’s work is to further the cultural and artistic wellbeing of their communities, and to provide them with the tools they need to accomplish that. 

About City Lore Gallery – The City Lore Gallery is a cultural hub that celebrates New York City’s vibrant cultural atmosphere and provides a platform for the myriad voices that comprise the city. The gallery presents exhibitions and events on all the things that make New York “New York.” From the golden age of graffiti, to endangered languages and activist comics, City Lore finds the art in everyday life. 

About City Lore – Founded in 1985, City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs.  We document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions.  We work in four cultural domains:  urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself.  For more info: http://www.citylore.org.

City Lore is made possible with support from: Foundations: The Lily Auchincloss Foundation, La Vida Feliz Foundation, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, and The Sherman Foundation Public: The Institute of Museum and Library Services, The New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and generous individual donors.