Miyonnee: Welcome to the Ballroom Portrait Series interview! [Laughs]

Logik: I would say—

Miyonnee: [Laughs] It’s just a “answer this” audio interview.

Logik: Oh!

Miyonnee: I’m just gonna ask you a few questions, but the first questions are: what is your name, your pronouns, your category you walk, and how long you’ve been in Ballroom.

Logik: My name is ... Logik, in Ballroom. Even though I feel like Maven is kinda like … [laughs] People have started to use that, even in Ballroom. But Logik is my Ballroom name.

And my categories are ... my main categories are All-American Runway and Bizarre. But I’ve walked several categories.

Miyonnee: Your pronouns?

Logik: My pronouns are he/him, they/them, and in the context of Ballroom, whatever the fuck!

[Laughing]

Miyonnee: And how long have you been in Ballroom?

Logik: Hmmm … gosh …

Miyonnee: Like make you show your age, why dontcha?

[Laughing]

Logik: I think ... the first time that I walked the ball was in 2008, and the first time that I won a ball was in 2009. So how many years is that? Cause my math is not—

Miyonnee: Close to 15?

Logik: Yeah!

Miyonnee: Like 14, 15, almost?

Logik: Yeah.

Miyonnee: Cause I start—I walked in one of my first ball 2008 too, so it’s been a while! What community do you come from?

Logik: What community do I come from?

Miyonnee: Like, where ... Basically like, where are you from, like what—you know, where do you come from?

Logik: In the [inaudible] area? I mean—

Miyonnee: Like in—yeah! Right, that’s the question, right? What community you come from?

[Background speech]

Logik: Um, I don’t—I mean, I—ugh! [Laughs]

So, I guess, going—I guess back in the context of Ballroom, I kinda came from outside of some of the social communities or areas that I think a lot of other people that were in Ballroom here in St. Louis came from. So I was like a church kid—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: A church kid, a musical theater, dance kid, so ... you know, when I grew up—I come from Pine Lawn, which is like, you know, one of the hoods.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

[Digital notification sound]

Logik: Well, shoot. [Laughs] Uh, Pine Lawn, which is one of the hoods in St. Louis I guess. And, um ... Normandy, you know, that was like, you know. And ... yeah! So [laughs] I think that’s it.

Miyonnee: Okay, so ... what’s your Cinderella story? How did you get to the ball? - I love that question, Gracie came up with that question -

Logik: [Laughs] Um, my Cinderella story—

Miyonnee: I love that question, like, that—Gracie came up with that question, I love it.

Logik: It’s a beautiful question. I don’t know if all of our stories were Cinderella. [Laughs] But—

Miyonnee: Exactly.

[Laughing]

Logik: It might have been a few different people!

[Background speech]

Logik: [Laughs] Yeah, could have been one of those! You know.

But .. no, so Ballroom for me, I think—when it started off anyway, it was me, you know, coming from a very religious family. Who, you know, I just—I really—I wasn’t around a lot of like gay people, or gay people that were really flamboyant or outwardly queer or whatever you want to call it.

Like, even when I went to high school, you know, I went to Normandy and I went to Hazelwood East at the time—so even—so Normandy definitely, you weren’t like “out” and gay—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: —at Normandy. [Laughs] There were gay people there but like, they only were dancers. Like you knew that they were gay because they were dance, so that’s what you—they danced! So that was their way of saying they were gay. You know what I mean? {Laughs] But you weren’t like ... openly gay I guess. But when I went to Hazelwood East, that was like the first time that I experienced like really openly gay and—and queer people. And from that, I actually discovered Ballroom. It’s when I met Jennea.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: And then from there I met this guy named Joel, and then I learned about this place called, um, “HAY”—I think that’s what they called it at the time—

Miyonnee: The Harambe Center.

Logik: —the Harambe Center and stuff like that. And so that’s how I got into the Ballroom scene, through that connection. And then, um .. yeah, ’cause I was seeing all of these people just flamboyant and gay as hell!

[Laughing]

Logik: And I was like, “What are y’all doing?? Like y’all doing that out loud?” and “Like, chill—”

Miyonnee: Hazelwood East was the scene!

Logik: Yeah! They—

Miyonnee: They would—they had all the open people—

Logik: It was—

Miyonnee: —and I’m like “Damn, I wanna go there!”

Logik: It was the—Yeah!

Miyonnee: Cause they don’t get bothered and teased at Hazelwood East!

Logik: It was the one! And they—or they’d beat people up. Like—

Miyonnee: Yeah. Yeah.

Logik: —like that was the thing, like they were out and proud, but they will beat you up. So like, it was a ... a life-changing experience for me, because I’d just—I’d never experienced that. And I—at the time I was a lot more masculine than, you know, I—well, masculine in a way of like, “this is what people perceive masculinity to be”—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: —is kinda how I presented myself at the time. So I just was—I just wasn’t used to ... people, you know, being free like that! I was like, “What is this?” And so I was fascinated by it. It was kinda the first time I was able to ... be around folks that way. And then that just … got me into Ballroom, I guess.

Miyonnee: That’s amazing, Gracie, do you have any questions you’d like to ask?

Grace: I guess ... you have such a rich history—

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Grace: —with Ballroom, especially as an organizer, as a leader … can you just go through sort of like—your timeline of your different roles, within Ballroom? [Laughs] Like it doesn't have to be so in-depth, and you don’t have to name every single project, or—

Logik: Yeah. Cause—

Grace: —or ball that you’ve worked on, because—

Miyonnee: It’s been a fuck ton of them!

Grace: Yeah. But just for people who don’t know, just give kind of like a brief bio of your history and leadership roles.

Logik: So ... again, like, I came into Ballroom very differently than a lot of people—a lot of my peers, and so I think that my journey in it was significantly different because of that. And—you know we all have trauma, and I also think that some folks that came into Ballroom had different life or lived experiences than I did, and so the way that we interpreted and existed in Ballroom was very different.

And so when I first came in, I came in very timid, very shy, I really didn’t talk to a lot of people, and a lot of people perceived that in all different kinds of ways, but it was really because I was, you know—I don’t even want to use the word scared, but I was just a little ... like overwhelmed, I was like “what do I do? how do I show up?” And so, I just resorted to just ... just silence. I was just there, you know?

And so ... while I was there I observed a lot. I paid attention to my gay father at the time, his name was—I already talked about him, Joel, JD, whatever you want to call him—and my gay mother, Pebbles, [Dani/Danny]. And so I basically just watched them—they were leaders at the time. And I watched them, watched how they did things. I just—I was an observer, I was looking at everything. How they threw balls, how they threw drag shows, how did they throw events, you know. Their family aspects, because there were these different families, there was like the Mazzaraties, and there was the Efficacies, and there was the Envys, and the Vuittons, and like [laughs] all of these different families and houses and things, and I was watching the way that they were like interacting with each other. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. And ... just paying attention.

So, once I felt like there was an opportunity for me to like assist with throwing the balls, I jumped on it, because I had been observing for so long. And I loved it. I just—it was a way for me to feel like “okay I’m doing something,” I’m a part of—you know—I’m contributing, ’cause for a long time I didn’t feel like I was really contributing to Ballroom in the city, because I was so different than everybody else. And so I felt like the way that I could give back was through throwing the events or organizing because I was good at that, you know?

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: I knew what I was doing, you know, and so ... um, I just started to help out. And then from there, the helping became more and more!

[Laughing]

Logik: And like—and for a long time I was shadow-throwing events, to be honest. Like, a lot of events—some events that people, you know, know of, I probably did a lot of the behind-the-scenes for those events and they had no idea.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: You know what I mean? And ... so once JD left, which is—was my gay father at the time, he just kinda was like “keep going, you know, keep doing it. And I just—I started throw balls with him but my name got on the flyer a couple times and I was like “OOoh!”

[Laughing]

Logik: And then I threw a couple more and ... you know by that time, I was able to start throwing them on my own. And I just was, you know, throwing balls here and there, helping create the kiki scene, here, which is a—kind of an alternative Ballroom scene.

And so ... I’ve probably thrown about … gosh. More than 20 balls? Maybe like 30?

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Logik: I mean, if you count like, from here—

Miyonnee: If you count the TENS, everything, all of it

Logik: It’s like [inaudible] majors, mini balls, kiki balls, all of that, like, it’s been—it’s like ... double digits.

Miyonnee: Yep.

Logik: Which is insane, you know what I mean, to think of. I mean, and I’ve also been been a parent of several—I’ve been in—okay let’s just—I’ve been in a lot of houses.

[Laughing]

Logik: You know, it is what it is. One thing I know about those houses is that every house that I’ve been in I’ve won, I’ve been successful, and I’ve brought people into Ballroom within those households, they’ve been winners, they’ve went and did their thing. And so I’ve been a father, I’ve been an overseer—I’ve never been a mother.

[Laughing]

Logik: I’ve been a father and an overseer of houses ... I guess nationally I’ve been a leader, I’ve helped and cultivated a lot of people outside of St. Louis, I’ve lived in other cities. And so even when I lived in Detroit briefly, I threw one or two balls, kiki balls, I was thinking like with a major ball or something like that, so ... you know I’ve done balls in St. Louis outside of the city, um, I’ve … yeah! [Laughs]

Miyonnee: He’s—he’s a staple of the community.

Logik: Yeah!

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Logik: I mean, I don’t wanna say I’m—you know—I don’t know …

Miyonnee: You definitely are a staple of the community. And you—like you said when JD, Mechees and JDs and the Marks and like Mekos, like they were always the people that we came up under and they were always the ones putting the balls together for us to walk, but then like they took their break, and it was like okay, so ... after when they stopped, we didn’t have no balls.

Logik: Right, what do we do?

Miyonnee: For years. So then it was like “Oh, the kiki, this—this—the Ballroom scene dead in St. Louis!” And then Maven was the one that got the Ballroom scene back jumpin’ and then he threw that ball, that “one night only” ball and it just went from there. And it’s just ... it’s been up ever since.

My last question that I have for you is, where do you see Maven—well, Logik, Maven—in the next ten years?

Logik: A doctor. Um ... [laughs]

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm, that’s right. Doctor Maven Lee.

Logik: Doctor—um, I wouldn’t even say Maven Lee, because, you know—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: I think that ... Maven Lee, Logik, whatever name you use, I think was a time. It was a moment in time that I have grown to—to be proud of and also say that it was a part of my history.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: Not my future.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: And ... I, you know, really had to dig deep inside to look at the work that I’ve done and be proud of it and not feel the need to go back and try to rewrite and change history and do this and do that and—and just be like, the good the bad or the ugly, I did my best.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: And I, you know, I’ve finally found that kind of peace. It took a—a really long—it took a HELLA long time to feel that way. But I do. And so because of that, you know, I don’t see Maven Lee anywhere in—in, you know, the next five, ten years because Maven Lee was an era, it was a time, and it’s over.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Logik: I know that, you know, my name is Trent, and ... I wasn’t always proud of my name. And [now] I am. And I have had the opportunity to ... just re-enter, you know, school and think about like my education and what—what that wants to look like, and so, you know, looking back on this moment, I’m telling—I’m like acknowledging that I’m going to be Dr. Trent Ramsey—

Miyonnee: Oooo!

Logik: —you know, within the next [laughs] you know, ten years—way before that!

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Logik: [Laughs] Like I’m going to be existing—

Grace: Yes!

Logik: —and living in that, you know—

Miyonnee: As Dr. Trent Ramsey.

Logik: —as Dr. Trent Ramsey, like—you know, in the next ten years, and who knows what that looks like, what other things that I’m interested in because there’s so many things that I want to do. I’ve always been in love with politics. I’ve, you know, been in love with art in a—on a philosophical level. And so my mind is just—I’m a creative! I’m always thinking, I’m always thinking about new stuff. And so I just don't know what it’s going to look like in the next ten years. But I do know that I transition out of the Ballroom space, and I am just going into like this—I don't know! Like [laughs] I want to be like a scientist of like, art or some crap!

Miyonnee: [Laughs] You can!

Logik: You know. So ... yeah.

Miyonnee: Well that is amazing, and with that being said, that concludes our interview.

[Clapping]

Miyonnee: Thank you so much for participating. You had a very good interview, the most detailed and in-depth interview we even did—

Logik: [Laughs]

Miyonnee: —and I live for that. Um ... but thank you! Yayyy!

[Clapping]

Logik: Yeah!

Miyonnee: Thank you so much for coming, all of it.

Logik: Of course!