Anji Xtravaganza
Encyclopedia
Angie Xtravaganza was born 'Angel Segarra' in Puerto Rico. Angie was a founding member and the Mother of the House of Xtravaganza. Consistent with the tradition of New York's gay ball scene
Ball culture
Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground LGBT subculture in the United States in which people "walk" for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Those who walk often also dance and vogue while others compete in various genres of drag...
, in 1982 Angie took the House name as her surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
. A transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
performer, underground superstar and an active member of New York's gay ball culture
Ball culture
Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground LGBT subculture in the United States in which people "walk" for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Those who walk often also dance and vogue while others compete in various genres of drag...
, Angie was featured in Jennie Livingston
Jennie Livingston
Jennie Livingston is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.Livingston was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles where she attended Beverly HIlls High School. She graduated from Yale University in 1983, where she studied photography, drawing, and...
's 1990 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
'Paris is Burning
Paris is Burning (film)
Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African American, Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in it...
'. By the time the documentary screened to rave reviews the House of Xtravaganza, the first primarily Latino house within New York's gay ball scene
Ball culture
Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground LGBT subculture in the United States in which people "walk" for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Those who walk often also dance and vogue while others compete in various genres of drag...
, was almost ten years old and had taken the Harlem ball scene by storm.
Arriving on the streets of New York City at the age of 13, Angie nurtured a family of 'children' during her days on the lower westside Navy Pier and the streets of Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
. Throughout the 1980s and until her death in 1993 Angie and her adopted House children would influence popular culture through the nightlife
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
scene, the performing arts and through the fashion and the recording industries. In 1988 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winning author Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.-Early life and education:...
wrote "The Slap of Love" about Angie after interviewing her and her sons Danni
Danni Xtravaganza
Danni Xtravaganza was a founding member of the House of Xtravaganza , the first primarily Latino house in the underground Harlem ball culture. Born July 14, 1961 in Puerto Rico, Daniel Camacho was raised in Brooklyn, New York by his mother until he left home at 16...
and Hector Xtravaganza for his novel 'Flesh and Blood'.
Angie died in New York at age 27 from an AIDS-related liver disease. Almost three weeks later The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an article on the ball scene on the front page of the Sunday 'Styles' section, featuring a large photo of Angie Xtravaganza. Entitled "Paris Has Burned", the accounting of then current status of the underground ball scene and the untimely passing of many of its central personalities. In 1994, the year following her death, Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, , is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.-Career:...
released a house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
single simply titled 'X' which bore a dedication to the memory of Angie Xtravaganza on the record label. The record remains a popular club anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
today. Angie Xtravaganza's legacy endures through the House of Xtravaganza which remains an active part of New York City's gay ballroom, nightlife, and cultural scene.