NYC NOW - July 10, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

Heavy rainfall and flooding wreak havoc in Hudson Valley, prompting Governor Kathy Hochul to declare a critical situation. WNYC's Karen Frillman reports on the ensuing destruction, with a death toll of one and several people missing. Meanwhile, New York City bolsters its "Right to Counsel" program with an extra $20 million, offering free legal assistance to numerous renters. Also, New York is among the states that could see the aurora borealis this week. Lastly, WNYC’s Precious Fondren shines a light on the enduring ballroom culture in New York City, a haven for the LGBTQ+ community.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, July 10. Here's the midday news from Lance. Torrential rain last night hit many Hudson Valley communities, especially hard. Up to eight inches of rain fell in parts of the region, destroying homes, roads, and train tracks. Governor Kathy Hokel told CBS New York last night that there have been some tragedies.

We have one confirmed fatality at this time, there are some missing individuals and literally in one situation a house was swept away. Abandoned cars and washed out roads are testaments to the torrential rains that hit the Hudson Valley last night. WNYC's Karen Frillman traveled 20 miles through the Hudson Valley this morning. She says the destruction is directly linked to the region's geography. The Hudson River is the river valley and it's cut through the Hudson Highlands and so the water just pours off the mountain. Eight inches of rainfall.

fell in spots. One woman drowned and several more people are missing. Governor Hokel declared states of emergency in Orange and Ontario counties. The Department of Transportation is warning many roads are closed. New York City is adding about $20 million to its right to council program, which provides free legal representation to tens of thousands of city renters. WNYC's Charles Lane reports the new money comes after warnings from Mayor Adams that painful cuts were necessary. The budget announced last week cut homeless services, reentry programs for Rikers detainees, and left many agency staff positions unfilled. Still, council member Sean Abraeu from Manhattan's 7th district, says right to counsel was a big priority for the city council. This 20 million to council is pretty

significant. Also, when you consider the fact that 20 million is baseline, which means that we're getting 20 million in perpetuity from here on at least. Legal providers say they appreciate the funding, but add that it's still not enough for all tenants facing eviction to have a lawyer. New York is among the states that could see the northern lights this week. The University of Alaska Fairbanks says the region is in for a geomagnetic storm later this week, which means we could see the aurora borealis, though there's a better chance outside the city where there's less light pollution, the best times for viewing it between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. 78 and mostly cloudy now those clouds this afternoon,

and just a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm in near 82. For WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Ballroom culture has a long history in New York City. It arose among black and queer drag crowds who packed underground clubs in the 1960s. It's changed and grown since then, pushing its way into the mainstream. But Ballroom still provides a safe space for the LGBT-plus community, and provided you know where to look and that you can stay up late enough. Here's WNYC's precious fondron.

It's a little past. 1.30 a.m. on a Tuesday night at $3 bill, a bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn. And honestly, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. That's not the case for the hundreds of people around me. The energized crowd, many wearing their best black skirts, colorful mesh shirts, and bikini tops, are waiting for the night's main event. As each performer stretches to center stage, they twist and turn their hands, legs, and heads, contorting their bodies to remain onbeat with a thumping dance music. Their dance style is commonly known as Vogueing, a highly stylized dance that hit the mainstream in the 90s. As the performers spin, dip, and twirl, the crowd erupts for the people with the most

impressive moves. All the slightly chaotic energy is part of the bar's weekly ballroom night known as Open to All, or OTA. The weekly event and competition series invites people to express themselves creatively through dance and performance. There's no pressure to follow traditional ballroom etiquette like sticking to a strict dress code or theme. It also fosters a safe space for the LGBTQ plus community. The people that come to $3 bill are there to socialize, to watch, or compete in categories like face, hand performance, and body. But mostly, it's a way to build community in a way that many say they can't find at other events.

Jalen Remsey used to watch YouTube clips of people sashaying competitively in a category. known as runway. He moved to the city in June and says OTA is where he hopes to make friends and to finally start walking the runway category himself. I'm from the south, you know what I mean? So I never really saw myself like doing anything with it, but I just like fell in love with it. And then like very recently I just made the push to come up here and I was like, I'm going to try to do this. At a time when state and local laws across the country are targeting the LGBTQ community and similar spaces have come under attack. Open to All is a haven, a place where people can fully be themselves.

Open to All was created by legendary Lego Jovera, a well-known commentator in ballroom in July 2019. Jovera tried to put on a large-scale competition or ball a few months earlier. That event didn't work out, but Frankie Sharp, another promoter, decided to take a chance on OTA. He was the event that I worked at $3 bill, and him and the club agreed to, like, offer me a weekly event, considering I wasn't, you know, able to do my ball.

But rather than focusing on socializing, like other weekly parties, Jovera wanted to spotlight the talent in the LGBTQ community. I was just like, what's something else that I can have that can, you know, get the girls out there and it'd be beneficial. In addition to the main competition, Jovera incorporated a pre-show where patrons can take part in friendly competition, drag queens can lip-sync songs and up-and-coming singers can perform.

Icon Bugs has performed in the ballroom scene for over 20 years. He appreciates how open to all is less toxic than other ballroom events. Instead of judges intensely scrutinizing participants, Bugs says OTA is more about providing exposure and opportunities. OTA gives the space for those who really, really are ballroom. to get noticed and get singing and get gigs and stuff like that. And I love that because I come from an era where a ballroom is all we had. People rarely could get jobs because we was gay or trans and black.

And back then, people didn't want to hire a lot of us. So all we had was ballroom. Balls were once places where gay men and trans women who made up the scene found their chosen family, becoming members of a house. Nowadays, aspects of ballroom culture can show up almost anywhere. You can see kids vogueing in school hallways on TikTok doing death drops, where they collapse into the floor like a broken doll. TV shows like Rupal's drag race, pose and legendary, have brought ballroom to America's living rooms,

and university student groups are offering instructional classes on how-to vote. The ballroom scene many people know now began to take shape in the late 1960s, after New York drag queen, Crystal LaBeaja, walked out of a drag pageant. She comes in third place. She thought she should have came in the first place. She walks off state in protest. And she does interest in soliloquy kind of reading the girl that she wanted reading the system. Michael Robertson is a professor at the new school Eugene Lane College and teaches a class on the history of Vogue.

He says at the time of LaBajia's exit, most drag pageant participants were white. LaBesia argued that the judges were racist towards black performers. Her outbursts was captured in the 1968 documentary, The Queen. Because you're not going to get it. And that's why all the true beauties didn't come. This moment led La Baja and other trans women to throw the first houseball in 1968 in Harlem. That historical moment would kickstart the current ballroom scene in New York, where competitions consist of entire categories, dances, and slang unique to the culture.

In 1990, two major works put a spotlight on voguing in the ballroom scene. Paris is burning, a documentary about ball culture among the black and Latino community in New York, and Madonna's hit single, Vogue. Not everyone felt the pop icon was just popularizing a dance move. Here's Robertson again. I felt like a white person was stealing because she never, had she said, you know, this is Vogue, this is from the Baldwin community. I would have felt that Baldwin was going mainstream.

I thought that she took something from Ballroom and made it mainstream. And those are two separate things to me. But Madonna has continued to recognize the ballroom scene, and in April, she made an appearance at OTA. OTA creator Jovara says he doesn't take the support lightly. I'm very, very grateful that people see it on that level, which they see it important enough for them to, you know, make OTA a stop on their calendar when they come up here. Back at $3 bill, Michelle Thompson is closing out her Pride Weekend with her girlfriend at OTA. She says spaces like this let her escape the monotony of work and school life. After a week of cosplaying as a corporate drone or, you know, just being whoever you have to be in the real world, it's nice to be yourself.

Legendary Lollipop doesn't perform as much as he used to, but he still shows up at OTA regularly to make sure spaces for black and queer people continue to thrive. For us, this is where we can be celebrities and not have to worry about judgment from heterosexuals or other different communities that don't agree with our lifestyle. Open to all host balls every Monday night at $3 bill in Bushwick. But if that doesn't suit your schedule, in August, OTA will host Vogueing classes and the competition in Times Square. Precious Fondren, WNYC News. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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