Who is Paris Dupree?
While Paris Dupree wasn’t formally interviewed in Paris is Burning, I wanted to make her our first stop in our journey to learn all about the cast because she’s the individual behind the film’s namesake. Paris Dupree hosted the annual Paris is Burning ball featured in the film, just one of many endeavors in her illustrious career as founding member and mother of the House of Dupree.
The Mother’s Mother
Dupree was born in 1950 and grew up in Philadelphia before making it big in New York City. In the past she has stated that the balls started in Harlem when she was coming up in the 1970s, and that she started the very first Brooklyn-based house - at the time known as The Brooklyn Ladies - in 1978. Over time, that house split up into several other houses including the House of Dupree - where she gets her name - the House of Ebony, and the House of Revlon. Being not only the mother of the house of Dupree, but the mother to the umbrella of Brooklyn houses, she was known as the Mother’s Mother.
One of her house children, Michael Dupree - known for competing in the Face category at balls - had the following to say about Paris on The Luna Show NYC:
Photo Credit: The COLOURS Organization
“She was very strict. And she didn’t take a lot of crap. She didn’t want me - being younger than the rest of the house members - to be lax...She wouldn’t let me get involved with some of the things that the other older members of the house were getting involved with, like drugs...She kind of kept me under her wing...[She’d say] ‘You can’t just be out there stealing, and running the streets [and] the clubs. Finish your school.’…Paris really kept that foundation there. She really pushed me to do something much much better for myself. And that, I’ll never forget.”
Her support and generosity towards up-and-coming performers extended past her own houses. When she discovered a talent for fashion in Raphael Excellence (father of the House of Excellence,) she began sharing with him her expansive knowledge of sewing.
“She would teach me in a one-room — not one bedroom— one-room studio apartment…I would sit there for hours with her and help her bead gowns to get ready for haute couture evening wear. And she’d win her $1,000, then she’d give me $100…She was hard, but if she liked you, she really, really liked you.”
A Voguing Legend
Imagery from Paris is Burning
According to ball legend, another significant mark made by miss Dupree was the moment she brought voguing onto the scene. During a night out at an East Village after-hours club called Footsteps, Dupree was amidst a group of queens throwing shade at one another. She decided to cleverly take things to the next level by grabbing the copy of Vogue magazine that was in her bag, opening it to a page with a particularly eye-catching pose, and mimicking the position, as a way to show off and subtly throw shade at her rivals. As she flipped the pages of the magazine, she mimicked the different poses she saw, matching up her movements with the beat of the music playing. At this point, another queen joined her trying to one-up her pose, to which Dupree responded with another on-beat pose.
According to DJ David Depino of the house of Xtravaganza, this competitive style of throwing shade at one another was at first simply called posing, however over time it became known as voguing, named after the magazine from which many of the poses originated.
“I know Paris was an early pioneer of voguing. But I believe that vogue existed in some other form through other people as well. I also think that a lot of voguing poses come from African art and Egyptian hieroglyphics.”
Paris is Burning
Imagery from Paris is Burning
The House of Dupree hosted its first ball in 1981, which was known for being the first ball to feature set categories. Dupree is considered the originator of many well-known categories.
Her 1986 ball, Paris is Burning was the main event featured in the documentary of the same name. Dupree is not interviewed in the film, however she is seen frequently emceeing categories, commentating on performances and even voguing and walking the runway herself. Her most famous moment in the film is when she removes a hairpiece and announces the next category of Butch Queen: First Time in Drags at a Ball to the emcee, while simultaneously explaining it to the entire room: "That's right! I said it! Butch queen! Boy in the day, girl at night.”
While the film Paris is Burning is how many have discovered Dupree over the years, according to ballroom historian Kevin Omni, she was nowhere near a fan of the film. Dupree had expressed in the past that she felt “ripped off” by Jennie Livingston, as she had used Dupree’s ball theme for the title of her film, without Dupree’s consent. After Dupree’s passing, Livingston was asked to speak on behalf of Dupree at the 2011 Latex Ball, which considered controversial due to Dupree’s feelings on the film.
Her Legacy
Dupree passed away in August 2011 in New York City, where she was living at the time. The cause of her death is unknown to the public. She was the last surviving member of the group considered to be the Big Five founding house mothers, which included Dupree, Angie Xtravaganza, Dorian Corey, Avis Pendavis and Pepper LaBeijia (although the House of LaBeija was originally founded by Crystal.)
To this day, Dupree’s legacy lives on in multiple facets. In addition to her immortalized appearance in Paris is Burning, the children of the ballroom circuit honor her memory - some without even realizing it - by maintaining categories she established and spreading the art of voguing world-wide and to the next generation. There is also a distinguished lifetime achievement award for work in the ballroom circuit named after Dupree, which Monica Monroe Xtravaganza excitedly announced her acceptance of, to The Cut in 2018.
Because it’s difficult to find many photos of Dupree via the ol’ Google search, I wanted to share a couple of videos made by her friends and colleagues from the ballroom circuit. They include touching homages to Dupree’s life, as well as rare images of her throughout the years.
While I am personally grateful to Jennie Livingston’s film for teaching me who Paris Dupree was, I also want to make sure that Dupree’s wants for her legacy were taken into consideration for this article. My hope is that knowing the breath of work Dupree accomplished in the circuit and appreciating her influence will help us all to reframe the way we watch the film. It’s important that viewers know that part of why we are able to enjoy these unforgettable artforms and much of the subculture surrounding it, is because of the queen in the black beret and sequin sweater.
