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Kate Hutchinson of Time Out London has a great article about voguing just in time for the release of the new book and CD release “Voguing and The House Ballroom Scene Of New York City” which was released on Soul Jazz records.  The book has great high detail pictures of ballroom shows with the houses of the early 90′s in New York along with a separate 3 CD compilation with a mix by Junior Vasquez (including Body Drill – Body Drill, a Sound Factory anthem and one of our favorites of all times). While sprawling the interwebz, we found a link to a article written by Kate talking about voguing and we thought we’d share.  Here is an excerpt:

The balls were a crucial support network for the black gay community. ‘Their houses were surrogate families for them because many of them lived on the streets and had been kicked out by their families,’ explains Regnault. ‘So the balls were a space where they could be totally free to express their fantasies and be appreciated for it.’

The voguing story is inevitably tinged with sadness. Out of all the people that she photographed, says Regnault, two-thirds of them had passed away when she revisited New York to interview its founders for the book in 2010. In the late ’80s, as voguing was booming, so too was the Aids crisis, which destroyed many of its stars.

The Soul Jazz compilation is as visceral as the book. It stretches further back, to 1976, and rounds up the major house ballroom tracks up to 1996. You can picture the likes of Jose and Luis from the House of Xtravaganza, who appeared in Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ video, framing their faces in time to ‘Love Hangover’ by Diana Ross, an early vogue icon. Or popping and spinning to Cheryl Lynn’s ‘Got to Be Real’, which was co-opted by the scene as an anthem for ‘realness’. Some of the raw, low quality beats and brash vocals, however, wouldn’t sound out of place at Dalston Superstore today.

Check out the full article by visiting Time Out London: http://www.timeout.com/london/clubs/article/3096/en-vogue-again