Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project is using the history of a gay hairdresser to inspire the next generation
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE CREDIT: SALON KEWPIE – THE LEGACY PROJECT PARTICIPANTS AT THE 2024 LEGACY BALL. PHOTOGRAPH BY COURTNEY RABBIT
In the midst of apartheid in 1960s Cape Town – a time when neighbourhoods like District Six were being turned into “Whites-only” areas – a gay hairdresser named Kewpie was making history. Despite the upheaval around her, Kewpie was set on making a better life for herself and the queer community around her, coined the “girls and gays”. Despite being over 7,000 miles from the emerging ballroom scene in New York led by House Mother Crystal LaBeija, Kewpie was creating something like her own ball culture in the heart of Cape Town. We know this because she documented her life religiously through a series of 600 photographs, now stored in the GALA Queer Archive’s Kewpie Collection, which show the lives of Kewpie and her friends during apartheid.
This monumental piece of queer history is being remembered by the Salon Kewpie collective, in partnership with the GALA Queer Archive and the District Six Museum, which aims to celebrate her legacy and make the archived collection of photographs more accessible to wider audiences. In preserving this legacy, Salon Kewpie – The Legacy Project emerged in order to use the frameworks of ballroom and the Kewpie Collection to inspire a new generation of queer youth.
The Legacy Project provides queer youth in Cape Town with a history, something which they have previously been denied. Through a variety of workshops, the mentors at the Legacy Project are able to give participants vital life skills and confidence to help them not only succeed, but feel able to dream.
Cheshire Vineyard, a performance artist and cultural architect at the heart of the Legacy Project, explained to me why this initiative is so vital. “What happened the day I connected with the Kewpie collection was this complete homecoming. It was the first time in my life that I realised I was part of human existence. I have a history. It completely reorganised my nervous system. It recontextualised everything about my life. It felt like I had been born again.”
“I felt this immense passion to resurrect the legacy, and I knew we had to bring it back to life,” they continued. “I knew I wanted to be a vessel for this legacy to be brought back to life. Our bodies are actually what carry the bulk of memory. This project was an unfoldment of the genetic memory that was catalysed in me when I saw the archive. This couldn’t unfold in a silo, it had to be in community. I knew the children needed to see this. The Cape Flats need to see this. We should have been learning about this in school. This is my history! I had a queer ancestor living her best life during apartheid.”
Dr. Ruth Ramsden-Karelse, who has dedicated her research to excavating the legacy of Kewpie and supporting the Legacy Project, stresses the importance of making the Kewpie Collection accessible to all. “These histories already belong to the participants that we work with,” Ruth added. “They should not be histories that exist in an archive that people have to come to and leave empty handed. We want to cultivate a space where participants embody the history to feel that sense of ownership and inhabitation, and understand that it’s not something you just engage with cognitively. The community aspect is really important.”
In order for the Legacy Project to keep inspiring future generations of queer youth in Cape Town, they need your help. Earlier this year, The Legacy Project printed their first zine, reflecting on the powerful history of Kewpie and the work the initiative has already completed.
You can download the zine and donate to The Legacy Project to continue to support their work here: gala.co.za/salon-kewpie/
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