Miyonnee: Boom. So this is the Ballroom Portrait Series interview. I would like for you to tell me your name, your pronouns, the category that you walk, and how long you’ve been in Ballroom.

Khaos Balmain: I am the Legendary Midwest Overseer Khaos Balmain. My pronouns are he, him and his. I have been in Ballroom since 2009.

Miyonnee: And are you—did you say what category you walked?

Khaos Balmain: Oh, and I’m legendary for Thug Realness.

Miyonnee: Perfect, perfect, perfect. So the next question is, what community do you come from? Like, where does Khaos Balmain reign from? The streets, the suburbs? You know, like that. Like, what made Khaos?

Khaos Balmain: Yeah. So I was originally born and raised in Louisiana, moved throughout the Midwest throughout most of my life, living in different cities. Eventually ended up in St. Louis as a freshman in high school. From there, I basically grew up and was raised on the streets of St. Louis. That’s where I learned my different crafts, my different trades. That’s where I learned the streets. That’s where I learned how to survive.

Miyonnee: That’s amazing, that’s amazing. Okay, so ... what’s your Cinderella story, like how did you get to the ball?

Khaos Balmain: I ended up in Ballroom on an accident. For me it started off as a sense of family and camaraderie. At the time, my gay father, who took me in with my biological mother, put me out. He was the first one to actually introduce me to Ballroom. And from then I just gained an interest based off the family aspect and the camaraderie and the support within our community. And through that I just learned all I could, contribute all I could, and ... eventually told myself that I was gonna—if I was gonna do this, I was gonna be one of the best at it. And I feel like I’m on the road of accomplishing that.

Miyonnee: Period.

Okay so, this question they just threw in here on me like recently, but basically they wanted to know everybody—what everybody’s daytime job was.

Khaos Balmain: Oh okay.

Miyonnee: And then that will lead into the next question.

Khaos Balmain: So I am the director of prevention and care for a nonprofit, the Community Wellness Project, that specifically deals with barriers and sexual education, HIV education, STD education and prevention, and the LGBTQ+ community. Along with that, I am also an outreach specialist with the Freedom Community Center, which is a nonprofit that focus on abolition work and abolishment of our social systems in today’s society that hinder—the barriers for African Americans and other minorities.

Miyonnee: That’s amazing. That’s amazing, thank you for all the work that you do. Um, okay—

Khaos Balmain: And in conjunction with that, I am also a personal trainer, and I own my own personal training company as well.

Miyonnee: Period. There we go. Gotta get that plug into your own jack, baby. Your own entrepreneurship!

Okay, so how did you find your role in the community, and what is your role and what does it entail? Like how did Khaos Balmain become legendary overseer of, you know, the ballroom house and then, your lead—your role in community as well. How did you get into that?

Khaos Balmain: So throughout my life, I feel like I’ve been very blessed. I’ve been blessed—I mean, there are things we always feel like we want or need. But I feel like I’ve never had as many wants as individuals around me, and/or needs. And I feel like I’ve always been blessed in life. And eventually I came to a point in my life where I feel like despite all the money I had made and all the things I was doing and the life I was living, I feel like I didn’t have much of a purpose. And then I started focusing on what I wanted my purpose to be and my legacy to be.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Khaos Balmain: And I wanted that to be something of positivity. I grew up with having a negative—with some negative things attached to my name, such as fighting and violence, and I wanted to change the narrative of who I was. So I began with volunteering in my community, doing activist work, HIV testing and recruitment, condom distribution, things of that nature just to bring some type of positive feedback into my community. Then that led into me gaining more knowledge around the HIV epidemic and how it directly and acutely affects our community. And then I just took it upon myself to really engage and dive in it only because it hits so close to home to me because I have been HIV positive for 22 years now.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm. Okay, thank you so much for sharing that, and then the last question is—where do you see the legendary Overseer Khaos Balmain in the next ten years?

Khaos Balmain: In the next ten years, the legendary Midwest Overseer Khaos Balmain will probably no longer exist.

[Laughing]

Miyonnee: Okay, you can go. [Laughs]

Khaos Balmain: I feel like when it comes to Ballroom, I have accomplished a lot of the things I’ve set out to accomplish. I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve. I will never stop giving and contributing to Ballroom, but as far as my full-out participation, as far as walking balls and attending multiple balls, that probably will decline within the next few years. But I’ll still always be an activist for LGBTQ, educating on HIV, doing this work, just—anything engaging and interacting with my community I will always be doing.

Miyonnee: That’s amazing. And with that being said, that concludes our interview. Thank you for doing the Ballroom Portrait Series and thank you for being a part of it. We really appreciate you so much.