Photography: Prisma Compositional
Video: Paradox Productions
Interview: Paul Hofman
She walks into the Pride Amsterdam office laughing. Amber Vineyard has just landed from Oslo. These months she’s flying across Europe to judge, take part in, and share her knowledge at various balls organised by ballroom communities across the continent. Voguing, the famous dance style, is part of ballroom culture. “There is still a lot of work to do.”
Although Amber felt deeply honoured when she learned in February that she had been chosen as Pride 2019 ambassador, she was also thoughtful about how to shape her ambassadorship. The community she belongs to is mainly people of colour, who often face racism within the LGBTQ+ community and have not always felt represented at Pride. The essential contributions of people of colour are also often forgotten when discussing Pride history. “I stand for radical inclusivity.”
Mother
Amber is the ‘mother’ of the House of Vineyard, under which name she organised her first ball in 2013. She founded the house—the first Dutch ballroom house—in 2015. A house functions as a chosen family for people in the ballroom community.
Vogue
“Voguing is a stylised dance form that originated in the Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ scene in New York. It’s the dance style that belongs to ballroom culture. Many people know the dance, but know nothing of the culture behind it. Raising awareness of that culture is an important part of my ambassadorship.”
Oppression
“If you want to celebrate the glamour and spectacle of balls and voguing, you must also include the communities for whom this culture exists. We cannot forget that the ballroom scene was created by and for Black and Latin communities who face systemic oppression.”
Lifestyle
People think Madonna invented ‘vogue’ but nothing could be further from the truth. For her it was a phase; for us it’s a lifestyle. Critically: “Madonna passed through and borrowed elements of voguing, but she gave nothing back to the voguing community. I don’t dislike her, but she simply isn’t from the scene.”
Safe
For LGBTQ+ people those houses provided a safe haven, particularly for Black people and other people of colour. And they still do. There are now fifteen houses in cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels and Antwerp. The largest ballroom community in Europe is in Paris. Within the ballroom world she has become a recognised figure. Amber: “Because here LGBTQ+ people who fall outside society’s norms have a place to be the norm themselves. Trans women of colour, who worldwide belong to a group facing particularly violent oppression, are the superstars of the ballroom scene. Many people in the ballroom scene were not understood by their families and surroundings and ended up in those houses where their ‘house-mother’ played a role model.”
Condemn
She softly recounts that as a young person she fled her parental home. As a child she always felt ‘different’ from others. Her parents looked on disapprovingly at her ‘strange’ behaviour. They didn’t like that rebelliousness and stubbornness. “I was really out there.” She bubbled with creativity. Her father hated her for it. To to this day she has no contact with them. “House of Vineyard shows me what it means to form a family. It is a safe space where I can freely express myself and be boundlessly creative,” she says. Her house became a place where everything Amber loves and cares about comes together. “Everyone can be themselves and has room to shine. Looking back to the eighties she notes that it was then difficult for LGBTQ+ people to dress and behave without being judged, or rather, condemned.”
Open-minded
Times have changed, but there is no place in the world where you can be more yourself than at a ball. Nothing is required and everything is allowed. “Freedom and differences are celebrated there. We think we live in an open-minded society, but trans people, and especially Black trans women, still have to hide or present differently to be accepted.”
Fight
The LGBT community has had to fight hard for its rights. She emphasises that we are far from finished. That’s why it’s so important that the balls have endured. They enjoy enormous popularity, but this is certainly not mere entertainment. “Ballroom is a space where art and activism meet. Ballroom is, in that sense, a form of protest, of resistance, and a radical celebration of our existence and our right to occupy space.”
Horrible
She now has eighteen kids in the House of Vineyard. Last year something terrible happened to her and some kids after the Canal Parade. That experience is etched in her memory. She falls silent for a moment: “We got into a taxi after the party. We were beautifully dressed with lots of glitter. When we stepped out the driver accused us of leaving his car covered in glitter. He attacked us not only verbally, but also physically assaulted the Black trans woman in our group. The police even had to get involved. In one word: horrifying.” Despite that experience she looks forward to the coming Pride.
History
She recognises the enormous responsibility she has as ambassador. “You’ll see me in many places.” On the theme ‘Remember the past, create the Future’: “You must never forget history, why we are here and how earlier generations fought for our rights. Take a moment to reflect on how we got here.” On Pride: “Besides being a celebration it is also a reminder that a lot of work still needs to be done. The community cannot change the world on its own. We need allies to jump on board, not just to celebrate but to raise their voices together with us so we can create not only a brighter but also a safer Pride and a clearer, more inclusive future for all of us. That’s what I stand for!”
Pride ambassador since 2019
