Miyonnee: So I’ve started the audio, I mean, the recording, and I am Miyonnee Hickman with the MO HO Justice Coalition. And this is the interview with—for the Ballroom Portrait Series, and I’m gonna let you say your own name.

So the first question is “What is your name and your pronouns?” And when I say your name—your name in Ballroom, you know, like your name and your name in Ballroom and your pronouns.

Mark Infiniti: All right, my name is Mark Ingram, and my Ballroom name or moniker is Mark Infiniti. My pronouns is him/his/he.

Miyonnee: Okay, and how long have you been in Ballroom and what category or categories have you all walked?

Mark Infiniti: So I have been in Ballroom now for close to … 25 years? Overall, during my time in Ballroom, I have walked multiple categories, but my main category that brings me to my iconic status is Runway. That is my primary category. I have walked other categories such as Commentator vs. Commentator, I’ve walked Drag’s Realness, I’ve walked Drag’s Runway. And I’ve dabbled in a few others such as Drag Space, etc. But my primary again is Ballroom, it’s Runway.

Miyonnee: Okay, thank you for that. And what community do you come from? Like where did you grow up, you know, and stuff like that?

Mark Infiniti: Oh, wow. So I hail from the southwest side of Chicago. I’m an inner city youth. I grew up in the Auburn Gresham area that is nearest 79th and Ashland there in Chicago, Illinois. That is where I started my journey. I also attended high school there in Chicago, on the southwest side of the City. And that is also where I began my Ballroom journey in Chicago as well.

Miyonnee: Awesome. And that, I’m glad that you said that because it leads right into my next question. And that is, what’s your Cinderella story? How did you get to the ball?

Mark Infiniti: So I attended my very first ball in 1999. I was a very, very young individual. And I had just experienced the passing of my eldest sibling. After that time, I had a friend that … that is kind of known in the Chicago community, by the name of Eddie Whitehead. And Eddie Whitehead kind of—he was a big brother to me at the time, he kind of took me under his wing. And he would take me different places to show me things.

One of the places that he had taken me to one night, he said, “Well, we’re going to go to this event.” I didn’t know what it was. They took me to a place called Michelle’s Ballroom, which was up north in Chicago, where they were having a ball.

Now obviously I didn’t know what that was, and I didn’t know what I was seeing, but I just saw all these people with all this attitude and all of this competitiveness going on. And I also … it was the first time that I saw Silvan Johannes, also known as MC McDeborah.

Later after that, some years later, I had attended a house meeting, and I had a friend who had joined a house. Had gone to a house meeting, just to support my friend, and when I got there, Deborah Silvan Johannes was there. And Silvan told me—he says at the end of the meeting, “So, you’re in.”

And I said “Well I’m in what?”

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: [Laughs] He says “You’re in the house.”

And I said “Well I didn’t apply to be in the house!”

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: You know, because I still was new, very green, didn’t know what it was. And he said, “You’ll understand later. You remind me of myself.” And so that’s why he had selected me. He said that I had the right attitude, and I had the right look, and that he felt like he could build on that. And that’s what happened. And that’s how I actually joined Ballroom.

So I literally joined when I was green, had no prerequisites, no prior experience, no coursework, no thought of history or anything. It was just one of those things, where I just joined, not even knowing what I was getting into.

Miyonnee: That is amazing—

Mark Infiniti: And it developed into something like—

Miyonnee: That is amazing. Okay, what do you do now, professionally?

Mark Infiniti: Oh, so professionally, I’m a consulting general manager for hotels across the United States and the world. I work for a private and an individual consulting company, and in this consulting company we go around the US and we help to—

[Recording cuts off]

Miyonnee: Okay, so we’re back recording, and the last question that I asked you was “What do you do now, professionally?”

Mark Infiniti: So professionally, I am a consulting general manager. And what that means is that I work for a private consulting company that goes to all [inaudible] country in the world, and we assist at different hotels, depending on what the need is, the job is to bring the hotel at or above standard for whatever the class or the representation of the hotel should be. And then we do this and—with 350 different brands is who we partner with, and we’re not exclusive to anyone but ourselves.

Miyonnee: That is awesome. Um, and okay, so what communities do you serve now?

Mark Infiniti: Oh, wow. Um, I think the better question is what communities don’t I serve now.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: I’m always looking for a cause or an event. If there’s a community that has anything remotely to do with me, I am serving it, whether that’s the LGBTQ+ ABCLMNOP—

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: —you know, whether it is African Americans for—for reasons, whether it’s the youth for reasons, any organization. So I belong to quite a few different ventures currently, at this point. There’s even work ventures, mentorship programs. And I consider all of those my communities—

Miyonnee: And they are.

Mark Infiniti: —because I have [inaudible] in them all. So if the question is—if there’s one that I’m not aware of, that’s the one that I don’t serve. All of the other 99, I do.

Miyonnee: [Laughs] That’s amazing, and we thank you for your service, we absolutely do. And the last question is “Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?”

Mark Infiniti: Oh, goodness. Um, a ripe old man.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: In the next 10 years, I see myself in a calming and very, very peaceful environment. I hope to see myself looking at you all, the new legends, and you guys facilitating Ballroom and bringing it to its best that it has ever been.

In 10 years, I definitely won’t be retired. But I want to shift the focus less from working personally for myself and more working with the community. So right now, I’m about at a “75% Me, 25% Community-Based” kind of algorithm. I’d like to see that dynamic change to 50/50 and then 75/25 the other way, then 80/20. And eventually, when it’s all said and done, which will probably take more than 10 years, but I would love to see myself 100% engulfed in the efforts in the community and me retired from a professional standpoint. So that is what I would like to do.

Miyonnee: That’s incredible. Oh my god. And I can’t wait to see it happen, and help—help make it happen however I can.

Well, that concludes the interview for the Ballroom Portrait Series. Thank you so much Uncle Mark. Um, like I love—like especially with you and Meko’s, like and that’s why I’m so kinda upset that I didn’t get Kevin’s, because I wanted, you know, to really get into the history. Like the background from … before our time, you know, like the—and Meko, you—yours, I knew yours and Meko interview will be really good because—and it will be very informative for the community on like, how everything went back then. Like Meko told us, at his first ball they—it was in Chicago and they got dressed in the Burger King bathroom. And I’m like, see, that right there was like, fun Ballroom—like we didn’t get it in that era, but we still got it in that underground era.

So I think that’s why we really got to experience real Ballroom and that’s why, you know, we know now that this is not, you know, how Ballroom used to be and we are trying to, you know, take the reins and do balls and things like that, and you know—

Mark Infiniti: We can take the reins. I always tell everybody this, honestly, I tell everybody, bring what you can to the party. Show up as yourself and bring what you have.

And I think that, as times change, and as people change, so will Ballroom. The—the trends might be different. It’s just like eyebrows. You know at one point everybody wanted skinny eyebrows. Then everybody wanted thick eyebrows.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: Then everybody wants different shapes and different colors of eyebrows. I think of Ballroom kinda like that.

It was true that we came up as the last dying breed of Ballroom, meaning that we came from meager humble beginnings, we didn’t have any money. So we had to do things that—and also, you know, we came from a world where a grand prize of one thousand dollars would never be the case. Your grand prize worth twenty dollars, you know, or twenty-five dollars.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm, and [inaudible].

Mark Infiniti: And you battled just for the trophy. Just the trophy was your thing. And if you really were saying something at a ball, they gave you your admission fee back is how they used to do it. Like, if you—your grand prize would be the trophy and your admission fee, you know, for whatever you paid to get in which at the time may have been ten or fifteen dollars.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: You know. Um … I can also tell you many, many stories of … I got changed in the bath—a gas station bathroom many, many times. On the road, traveling from state to state, because I knew it was important. Because you wanted the name, you wanted the fame, you wanted the Ballroom life, but there were a lot of undercurrents that went with it. So a lot of us did get changed in things like Meko said, Burger King bathrooms. We didn’t get—I didn’t get the Burger King bathroom, that was too much of a luxury and I like to eat!

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: So I didn’t get the Burger King bathroom. When I went, I got changed at a gas station bathroom. And I can even tell you where it is. It’s—the gas station still stands today. It’s right off of Halstead and 75th in Chicago.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: And … we went in the bathroom and the bathroom was the outhouse bathroom. It wasn’t even an in-house. It was a bathroom, it was separate from the building. It was on the side of the building where you needed a key. And I remember they—we got a key, from the clerk, and we went in. One at a time, ’cause the bathroom wasn’t big.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: We went in the bathroom, one person watched the door while one person changed, and when you got done, you switched positions. So you have me, Donovan, Kyla Solomon—you had us changing in the bathroom, trying to get to the ball. Because we were coming into the ball with what it was that we were wearing. And a lot of us, because the lifestyle was different—a lot of our families didn’t condone or consent what we were doing. So you couldn’t leave the house in what you intended to wear to the ball. Because what you wore to the ball was far too jazzy. And it screamed for attention at a time where you will be killed, literally, you know … for being unique, and nobody understood, you know, the straight world wouldn’t have understood Ballroom. At that time. So you dare not.

So all you had was each other, and sometimes all you had was a bathroom. We changed in the Walmart bathrooms. Before Walmart used to be 24 hours, we would go to Detroit, we would travel ’cause Detroit was the first … mega center of the Midwest, it was not Chicago.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: It was Detroit first.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: And whenever we would go to the Tom Phillip POST, which is legendary in Detroit, which is where they used to have the balls at. We would go—there was a Walmart, off the highway—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: —not that far from the Tom Phillip POST. When you got into Detroit, you would stop at that Walmart, and you would go in the bathroom and you would change into your Ballroom effect in that bathroom.

And sometimes you would even—some of them would even steal, and—and mop, what they call mopping, they would mop the supplies out of the Walmart, take it to the bathroom, use it, and walk out in your effect. And then go run to the Tom Phillip POST. And then you would walk your ball and then hope that your car wasn’t broke in by the time you got out the ball.

Miyonnee: Well, that’s terrible.

Mark Infiniti: [Inaudible] It is.

Miyonnee: That’s terrible—

Mark Infiniti: And we would also walk together.

Miyonnee: —but it sounds so fun. [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: It is—you know what, it is, because you know what, there was a real sense of community.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: There was a real sense of … and, this was a time, Miyonnee, where everybody knew everybody.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: So it wasn’t separation of the classes yet. You had your different houses. But for the most part, everyone knew everyone. And because we were all kind of in the same boat in terms of living this lifestyle, having this dream of being, you know, famous in our community … we all went to and from events, so it wasn’t uncommon for you to see 20 or 30 people hitting up the same Walmart at the same time.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: And we all went out and left together, and we’d be in all different houses!

Miyonnee: Right.

Mark Infiniti: Or we would go to the Tom Phillip POST because we knew what kind of neighborhood we would be in. We would all walk—you would see a great migration of people going into the ball together and when the ball was over, everybody would congregate at the front doors—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: —and they would walk and go back to their cars together.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: Because you have to have a unit. You know. If it was one or two of you, you may get tried—

Miyonnee: You’re a target. Yeah.

Mark Infiniti: But it will be 20, 30, 40 of you … who’s gonna try it?

Miyonnee: Exactly.

Mark Infiniti: You know. So a lot of times, that’s an unconscious thing that people used to do. We would leave, you know, talking to one another while we were going to walk to our cars. And for most of us, especially the ones of us that traveled to be there, we would pile up in a car. It’d be like six of us in one little two-door car. Remember—Donovan had a two-door Sunfire, if you remember those cars.

Miyonnee: Yeah, I do.

Mark Infiniti: He had a little Sunfire. It was—Donovan’s dad gave it to him when he was like 17.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: We were really, really young. And we would go to the Tom Phillip POST and we would be in Donovan’s two-door Sunfire. And it would be like six of us—

Miyonnee: Oh my God—

Mark Infiniti: —piled up in a car. And not to mention the effect. And Solomon walked Bizarre so you know what the effect would be.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: So, we would be piled up, stacked up to the roof! And when I think about it, we never got stopped by the police.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: And I just think about—God gave us a lot of traveling mercies.

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Mark Infiniti: We never had flat tires. We’d never worried about, oh, how are we gonna pay for gas? We never—we never got stopped by the police. And sometimes, we didn’t even have a hotel room booked or nothing. We didn’t know where we was staying at. We just knew we had to get there.

Miyonnee: Yep.

Mark Infiniti: We just knew we had to get there.

Miyonnee: Absolutely.

Mark Infiniti: We didn’t even know where we were staying, or who we was staying with. But for some reason, no matter whenever we traveled, and we drove there, especially in Detroit—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: You can always feel the love in Detroit. Whenever we would travel, no matter where we would go, somebody from that ballroom—whether it was Goddess, or whether it was Jeynice, or one of those—for some reason, they would always stop us at the end and be like “Oh, where y’all staying? Come over to our room!” and we would make it an all-night affair.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: It was always “Oh, come over to the room!” They didn’t know that we hadn’t booked a hotel room. We hadn’t even begin to book a hotel room ’cause—hell, we were teenagers.

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Mark Infiniti: So we didn’t have no money, okay? Um, I worked at White Castle’s when I was 16 years old. And that’s the only check we had!

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: Donovan didn’t have a job. He was living off his daddy. And I was working at White Castle’s. So I had a few dollars for my paycheck, ’cause we got paid every Friday—

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: —but not enough to call home. I didn’t have no credit cards. I certainly didn’t have a bank account.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: So, you know, we would go and we would just be like “well we have to get a room,” we just put our money together. But for some reason, people liked us.

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: They favored us, and they would be like “Oh yeah, just come on over.” You know, to the—to the Afterstay. Or, this is what—oh, it would be Nieman Marcus sometimes, and … “We staying at this hotel, y’all just come over to the hotel.” And it would be okay!

Miyonnee: Mm-hmm.

Mark Infiniti: And they wouldn’t ask us for a dime. Not for a nickel.

Miyonnee: That’s love—

Mark Infiniti: We would be up all night, and time would fly as if it never happened.

Miyonnee: Yep, that is love. That is what I miss so much.

Mark Infiniti: That is the Ballroom—that—that was my era. And I guess it’s—it’s one of the things that keeps me connected to Ballroom, because I do remember those times, you know, that we had when … when everybody stuck together, and when everybody had a sense of community, and it was a lot of—it was a lot more decorum, I would say. In Ballroom. A lot more decorum and tact. Things were stricter, yes. But … that’s what we needed for that time.

Miyonnee: Yeah.

Mark Infiniti: You know, Ballroom was—was starting to branch out and we were the It people. So that’s what you want it to be!

Miyonnee: Absolutely.

Mark Infiniti: And it makes—it makes me feel like, you know, my investment in Ballroom can benefit somebody in a future generation. So that’s the reason why I continue to—to keep kind of attached to it. I won’t let it go. It is a part of who I am.

Miyonnee: Absolutely, it’s definitely ingrained, once you get a part of it and you get in it—blood, sweat, and tears. You know how like, how we, back in the day, how we did, baby, sometimes we traveling no money or … we all be like, okay, well we never had to worry about gas neither, everybody put five dollars in. Gas was cheap back then!

Mark Infiniti: That’s right, gas was cheaper!

Miyonnee: You know, like everybody got five dollars, you know, so let’s everybody put five dollars in. We can fill the tank up and we can go wherever we need to go—

Mark Infiniti: That’s right.

Miyonnee: —you know, like we absolutely always made it happen. And baby, it’s everybody come staying at my house. If you’re ever near, and everybody’s in my one-bedroom apartment for the ball, and we will take trips—

Mark Infiniti: That’s right!

Miyonnee: We will pile up in a car and drop people off and come back and pick up people, pile up somewhere—

Mark Infiniti: That’s right—

Miyonnee: Like if we had to take three, four trips, everybody was getting to the ball and everybody was safe.

Mark Infiniti: Everybody got there,

Miyonnee: So I absolutely understand what you say—

Mark Infiniti: Everybody got there. That’s right.

Miyonnee: —because it was definitely camaraderie, you know, what we were shown and how we did it when we was brought up as well. And that’s what we try to instill in our young and our children and great-grandkids and great-great-great-grand—oh my god, like I got great-great-grandkids, saying like time has just flown by, like what? But, um—

Mark Infiniti: What—what happened to time?

Miyonnee: It’s been really—it’s been a beautiful ride. It’s really been a beautiful ride, and I can’t—like I take my moments and pauses away from Ballroom, but it’ll always be in me, and it’ll always be something that I always come back to. And like I said, we are starting to, you know, throw balls and Kiki Wednesdays and Vogue Nights and stuff like that.

Mark Infiniti: [Inaudible] What is the next event going on, now that I’m in St. Louis? What is the next thing that’s going on here?

Miyonnee: To my knowledge? Um, it’s a Vogue Nights every night—every month, every third Thursday of the month? At the Handlebar, and the Grove, and it’s called Fab Vogue Nights. It was the Shade—the TENS project at first. But then—

Mark Infiniti: Yeah.

Miyonnee: —they stopped, and then FAB picked it up—FAB is Finding Allies in Ballroom, and it’s basically ran by the same people without Maven. And my sister Imani, she runs it, and Dom and Kira Bodega, they are still over it—

Mark Infiniti: Yeah, ’cause Kira did tell me! So wouldn’t that be tonight?

Miyonnee: No. The next one—we just actually had the one last week. So the next one will be, um—she said May 24th. Is the next one.

Mark Infiniti: Okay, it’s possible that—oh, no. I’ll be in … Dallas, ’cause Kira, she did tell me about—she invited me a long time ago. And she had been trying to get me to enter last time I was in St. Louis, she was talking to me about it. She had been trying to get me to come to it for a while, but you know how my schedule is. I’m traveling. So it—sometimes, it doesn’t work with my—the way that my schedule is. I can tell you right now on May 24th, I have two nephews that are graduating on the same day in Dallas, Texas.

Miyonnee: That’s impressive.

Mark Infiniti: So I will be in Dallas, Texas. I told you, I’m—I’m part of that community too.

Miyonnee: [Laughs]

Mark Infiniti: [Inaudible] too!

Miyonnee: Ain’t nothing wrong with it.

Mark Infiniti: So I got—I have so much going on, I feel like I need an assistant!