This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the urban phenomenon known as Ballroom culture that first gained notoriety in the documentary Paris Is Burning in 1990. Butch Queens Up in Pumps uniquely explores the ways in which Black LGBT people in Detroit use performance and other cultural practices—such as alternative identity, kinship, and community formations—to contend with or alter the conditions in which they live.

Butch Queens Up in Pumps is as much an examination of Black queer cultural formations as it is an ethnographic account of Ballroom culture in Detroit. Marlon M. Bailey’s rare perspective as both participant and observer in the Ballroom scene makes for compelling reading and lends his analysis an uncommon immediacy and authenticity, producing a remarkable performance ethnography that delves deeply into this subcultural phenomenon. The book will appeal to scholars and students across a wide range of disciplines, including African American studies, gender and sexuality studies, performance studies, dance, and anthropology, and to anyone interested in the politics, prevention, and activism surrounding HIV/AIDS.