Seatavern

Salon Kewpie is returning to the District Six Museum Homecoming Centre this November! In collaboration with the District Six Museum and the GALA Queer Archive, we invite you to join in our work of sharing and celebrating the vital legacy of the gays and girls of District Six.

Hosted by Cheshire Vineyard, mother of the South African chapter of the International House of Vineyard, this year’s ball will be the most fabulous family reunion you’ll ever attend, bringing together our Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project 2023–2025 alumni with gay, queer, and trans elders; members of the District Six community of remembrance; and iconic members of the local ballroom and drag communities.

DOORS OPEN at 5pm.

In the tradition of a snack dance or a bring-and-share Christmas dinner, join us at 5pm with your canapé platter or finger-food dish of choice, as we gather round the table to celebrate and sustain our community.Drinks will be available to purchase from the Homecoming Centre bar.

BALL STARTS at 7pm.

IS ANYBODY WALKING?

CATEGORIES:

Act 1The Golden Gays And Girls have paved the way for us all, and our coming together as a community must centre on honouring those who have always walked their own path. While we still have the privilege of sitting at your feet, we invite our esteemed elders to bring it to the runway and receive your flowers.Let’s have a kiki! Back in the day, Kewpie and the girls would patsy until Monday morning at the Queens Hotel. It’s time to lock the doors tight and make some noise for The House Of Queens: our amazing SK Legacy Project alumni, who are going to spill the tea and dish just desserts in their first ever Production as a House.The category is Best Dressed. In District Six, the whole community would gather in celebration. Whether the occasion was Christmas, Eid, or Auntie Hazel’s third wedding, the girls would turn it out with the help of their trusty seamstresses and the beloved gay hairstylists who they would wait for hours to see. Before a very necessary smoke break, because we know being around family is a lot, we invite everyone and their mother to come walk the runway in your festive best.

Act 2When she declares, “people can’t say I’m a man, they can’t say I’m a woman, I’m just Kewpie, I’m just me,” Kewpie calls on us to reclaim realness as self-definition. Tonight, we want to see you bringing us Realness With A Twist. First, serve us realness: the art of passing and being unclockable in the performance that is cis-het society. Then, twist: show us how your gender expression exists beyond the binary.The category is Vogue Performance OTA. It was by “always dancing around” in District Six that Kewpie says the people came to love her. Since we are here to keep Kewpie’s legacy alive, give the people what they want and vogue the house down boots mama!Back in District Six, chosen family took many forms. At the same time as ballroom house culture was being birthed across the ocean in New York, District Six gays cast out from their family homes were taken in by aunties and chosen mothers, and also created their own homes together, eventually welcoming younger gays into the fold. In celebration of the communities now emerging in Cape Town’s growing kiki scene, we invite the Kiki Houses of today to bring it to the floor with your Production As A House. Show us what makes your house one to watch.