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The Symposium
Someone's Favorite Dandy

Click here to see the entire gallery TRADE, April 2018 (Reproduced February 1, 2021)

On Friday, October 21, 2022, way too early in the morning for me, I attended an online symposium (no wine, of course.. IYKYK) entitled Dandyism in the 21st Century, hosted by Paris+ par Art Basel. This was a very informative and interesting discussion about how dandyism plays into art and fashion in the past as well as in the present, but what got my attention the most was Jeremy, a black queer dandy originally from Baltimore, emphasizing the importance of black queer dandyism.

Epiphany Moment

I do black queer dandyism, well, because I am Black, I am Queer (Gay to be sexually specific), and I am a Dandy (get it?). While my dandyism has been influenced primarily by Goth, Steampunk, and Drag, it is none of those things; it is black queer dandyism at its very core. I envisioned myself in flamboyant outfits as a child; I've always had this inclination within me, and only now in the past several years have I found a means to provide myself an outlet to express the black queer dandy that I knew that I could become. It is art that ultimately has its roots somewhere in West Africa and among those who rejected heteronormativity and Eurocentric gender and sexual normality. It is black queer dandyism heavily influenced by Goth, Steampunk, and Drag.

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