BaddieBards presents: LaBeija's Ball

It's pride month and Baddie Bards is going the extra mile this year to honor the black queer folks who came before us through their Labeija’s Ball Event! LaBeija's Ball is a charity event to benefit For the Gworls, an organization dedicated to housing BT folx. The gang is hoping to raise $2,500 for FtG! We encourage y’all to get to know FtG and donate to the cause!

"LaBeija's Ball is our tribute to Mother Crystal LaBeija, to our Black Queer and Trans Elders, and to community joy and celebration that was found in both ballroom and block parties." Bluu Smith, one of Baddie Bards founders, states as part of their mission statement.

But who is Crystal LaBeija you ask? Well, she was a pioneer in queer ballroom culture, the progenitor of the House and Family structure for ballroom houses. 

The Ballroom scene has been around since the mid-1800s. Despite Black and Latine people being the primary developers of ballroom culture, balls in the 1960s were run by white queers and often excluded Queer folx of color. Crystal LaBeija saw a space where Black queens were often excluded from, despite being some of it’s founders, and lovingly crafted a space where they could be celebrated and honored instead. Her love created a safe harbor for Black and Brown Queer and Trans people to find respite, joy, and warmth. Crystal and Lottie LaBeija created House of LaBeija and would be the cause of several other houses developing. This is how "Houses" originated, and they are still  beacons in communities for LGBTQIA+ beings, a place of refuge, family, joy, and resistance.

In that same breath, we look at the history of block club party's. In 1973 at Sedgwick Ave in NYC, First Lady & Muva of Hip-Hop Cindy Campbell, and her brother, DJ Kool Herc, threw a Back-to-School Jam that was wildly successful. What started as a party in the rec room of Cindy's apartment to raise money for her to have a dope back-to-school wardrobe, began a long tradition for folx to gather in and celebrate community. Block parties celebrate the spirit of community. Block parties have been used to raise money for it's community members, local schools, and churches as well as host food and clothing drives.

Like Mother Crystal, like First Lady Cindy and DJ Kool Herc, BaddieBards follows the long and rich tradition of carving out joy in the most adverse circumstances. For the Gworls follows the same recipes, using parties to raise money for BT folks to keep roofs over their heads, food in their bellies, and access to life-saving care. That is community. That is Blackness. And that is why WE ARE HERE.

Now for the fundraising!  Baddie Bards isn’t one to come to the cookout empty-handed, and they have worked hard with many wonderful volunteers and storytellers to serve up some tasty games filled with Black Queer joy.

Post Likely to Succeed

A brigade of mail carriers are tasked with not just getting packages and letters to their destinations in their small town, but also connecting the community in magical ways. Matchmaking pen pals, delivering gifts in terrible weather, and handwriting thank you's at the end of each day, this cozy take on what we owe to each other aims to provide light in dark times and a reminder to always reach out. 

The Drag-tectives!

The Drag-Tectives are on the case!

The House of Spyglass are a group of psychics working within Zener City, taking on cases too strange for mundane solutions and for people that the police department are all too willing to ignore. These dames and dicks are hardboiled and setting powder baked, ready to take on any case.

Watch our investigators look into a case around a string of shop front vandalism cases in the entertainment district. Which shops are they smashing... and why?

Legends & Legacies

Today is the last day that Legends & Legacies will ever exist. It wasn't a perfect game, but it was everything that they could hope to have in their teens. The servers are being shut down after the latest wave of “kid’s safety” legislation that’s been passed (we all know its bullshit). 

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t affect this group of late 30-something working-adults… but today they’ve received some dice and a letter. One of them is going to die if they don’t do something. Join 4 friends who upload into their favorite dead game, right as it’s being shut down–all to save someone they’ve never met (IRL). 

LaBeija’s Ball also has several sponsors which have donated plenty of items that are available via raffle to receive, by donating to the cause! Transplanar RPG, Moonforge & Brightleaf, Kobold Press, Evil Hat, Roll 20, Dispel Dice and others have donated fantastical dice, core rulebooks from various systems and more! If you're curious about what's available, check out the Tiltify campaign!  You can catch these incredible storytellers every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in June on our Twitch. Find the schedule on all our socials and in our Beacons!

Hope to see y’all at the party!