House of Avant-Garde waiting backstage for their exhibition performance
at the J&B Chicago Voguers' Ball, The Vic, September 27, 1990, Chicago, IL
I moved to Chicago from Michigan in the Fall of 1986, having missed the legendary Warehouse club days. I didn’t know a single thing about Chicago House & Underground Music, but did grow up hearing classic R&B tunes that later formed the basis of this important genre. Eventually, I would run into people who survived that dynasty, even up to today.
Even later, I would inadvertently discover “Vogueing” from a Malcolm McLaren video in early 1989 (“Deep In Vogue”). Little did I know about its origins from a specific sector of the already marginalized NY Black Drag & Gay community of the ‘60s, historically adored for its Rikers Island holiday pageants and Harlem drag balls. I started trying to learn this dance from any glimpse of its recognizable movements in music videos of the day, until I felt confident enough (almost a year!) to attempted to execute “live” at any of the dance clubs I was starting to explore.
THAT was until I ran into Father Wardell Avant-Garde. It was one night at The Rage, a short-lived Clark Street nightclub. Casually scanning the sparse, early-evening crowd, a figure suddenly transformed from an unassuming club patron to an exaggerated mannequin, frozen in an asymmetrically, statuesque silhouette, centerstage on the dance floor! With an unconscious jaw-drop, I immediately recognized the expressive gesture. It was one of my earliest, rare treats to witnessing a live Vogue sighting.
Up to that moment, I had been loosely inducted into the House of Iman, the earliest Chicago rival of the House of Avant Garde. But the chance encounter at The Rage marked the beginning of Father Wardell taking me under his wing and bringing me into the Avant Garde family.
Established in 1986 by Wardell Ford, Thomas Sampson and DeRico “Tracy” Reed, Avant Garde’s posse developed from a background of Fashion Design, Dance and Performance. Wardell began to mentor me, sharing his experiences with all things creative and “Avant Garde”.
Father Wardell began his “edu-vogue-cation” from chance encounters with visiting East-Coasters at local dance clubs. Combining research, we began scrapbooking and archiving any references that sprang up throughout various underground and mainstream fashion/society periodicals. We were building up our own reference library as we embraced this new creative culture. In the natural evolution of dance, something had been taking shape, finally emerging with precise and intentional fanfare onto the masses. He wanted it to garner interest here in the Midwest and I wanted to be a part of that process.
Prior to actually joining Avant Garde, I collaborated with then-Public Access TV producer Danny Tagg and my new mentor Father Wardell Avant Garde to submit a video contest entry for “MTV Vogues2Vogue”. This kickoff promotion for Madonna’s 1990 “Blond Ambition” tour would end up picking our entry as one of the ten $1000 winners, airing in rotation on the music network throughout that January. For the video’s production, Wardell would recruit a few more Avant Garde members to join us on the studio shoot in Elmhurst, Illinois. The session would last until dawn the next day. Sick of the song already, we shipped off the VHS tape and waited to hear the results. Our win sealed my induction to Avant Garde and my fellow house brothers and sisters accepted me with open arms.
Before leaving the group to start House of Enigma in November 1992, I was an active Avant Garde member: everything from helping make costumes and performing at various nightclub and charity events around the city, coordinating our first three House and Vogue Ball events with Ka-Boom! Nightclub and creating our internal newsletter that later morphed into CUT Magazine. Avant Garde was an integral part of my creative development, providing a supportive environment and family-like orientation. When I branched off on my own, I was prepared to pay the mentorship forward, remaining supportive of the developing Chicago House Ball Community.
Copyright © 2002-2024 Aaron P. Brown. All rights reserved.