By: Ryan Lee, Southern Voice Reporter
Being mr. nice guy in a world of shade isn’t always easy, but Ajmar Millar is learning that it has its perks.
The 21-year-old Morehouse College senior first learned about the local house and ballroom scene when he was in high school and visited family who lived in Atlanta. During one of his trips, Millar came across YouthPride and started a friendship with someone who introduced him to the world of gay houses and ballroom competitions, where mostly black and Latino gay men walk the runway to battle in fashion, voguing, make-up and gender illusions.
“I met a friend there, and we’re still friends to this day, and he was involved in ballrooms,” says Millar, who eventually joined a gay house when he moved to Atlanta for his senior year in high school.
Over the past four years Millar has become part of the backbone for Atlanta’s House of Balenciaga — a trusted brother and friend to his fellow house members, and a fierce runway competitor who is better known as Ajay Balenciaga.
The ballroom category Millar competes in is “Schoolboy Realness,” where judges critique contestants on how preppy and masculine they appear. The “Realness” category is particularly well suited for Millar, who strives to remain authentic in most areas of his life.
“Some people have to act when they go up there [on the runway], but for me, I just be myself completely,” says Millar, who has won five major balls in cities across the U.S. and a handful of victories at the mini balls that take place here at Club 708 every Wednesday.
But it’s Millar’s daily performance in “Schoolboy Realness” — as someone who’s preparing to earn his English degree from one of the most prestigious historically black colleges in America — that’s earned him even more attention among his ballroom peers.
a few months ago, at the suggestion of his house father, Harold Balenciaga, Millar applied for the inaugural Tony Milan Scholarship Fund, which was created by the national House of Manolo Blahnik.
“We started it because for a long time the ballroom scene was stigmatized as all people being criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes, and so it really had a negative cloud above it,” says Damon Humes, the father of the House of Manolo Blahnik who funded the $1,000 scholarship out-of-pocket.
“We were looking for people who made an impact on the community, and who promote positive energy and a positive attitude,” says Humes, explaining why Millar was selected as the first ever recipient of the Tony Milan Scholarship. The honor is named after a Hall of Fame ballroom performer who is also a Morehouse alumnus.
“He’s an amazing person,” Humes says of Millar. “He’s very talented, very intelligent, he works from his heart, he has great energy and he helps people, so he really embodied what we were trying to accomplish.”
In addition to being grateful to receive more financial help to complete his studies, Millar says he is proud to be part of a new chapter in the evolution of the ballroom scene.
“It’s about progression as far as education and advancement — it’s good because it’s not just about balls and winning a trophy, it’s about doing things outside in the real world.
The Trinidad native is involved with Morehouse’s gay student group, Safe Space, the English honors society Sigma Tau Delta, and the Caribbean Student Association. A contributing writer for the Morehouse Maroon Tiger, Millar hopes to one day launch his own lifestyle magazine to empower young men.
“Something that they can read and be interested in, but yet still there’s so kind of substance to it so it’s not like some cliché music magazine out there, or the celebrity trash you read about," he says.
“PLEASE, DON’T BE AMERICAN TRASH,” jack Mizrahi pleads with the folks attending the House of Balenciaga’s “League of Extraordinary Individuals” ball in the early hours of Sept. 3. The legendary emcee from New York City informs the crowd that the ball is hosting guests from London’s burgeoning ballroom scene — which is preparing for the first international ball on Dec. 1, 2007 — and so he asks the American queens to be on their best behavior.
Held at the new Stone Mountain location of the gay nightclub Traxx, the Balenciaga Ball attracted hundreds of revelers who were in town to celebrate Black Gay Pride, including nationally known figures like Andre Mizrahi, Ivy Herrera, Jamie and Raquel Balenciaga, and Jade Cole, a former contestant on “America’s Next Top Model.”
The eight-hour event kicked off at 4:30 a.m., with hundreds of house members competing in more than three-dozen performance categories for more than $5,000 in cash prizes. The grand prize of $2,007 went to the House of Manolo Blahnik whose members conjured the spirits of Freddy Kruger, Jason, Carrie and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in their final number.
The crowd for the Balenciaga Ball almost filled the enormous space inside the new Traxx, underlining Atlanta’s status as a premiere host city for ballroom competitions.
“I think the scene is really growing and it’s strong,” Humes says of Atlanta. “At one point it had become like the capital of the ballroom community because of the migration of so many black gay men to Atlanta.”
As part of the host house, Millar — a.k.a Ajay Balenciaga — was ineligible to compete, although he did receive a special shout out during the opening Grand March, an elaborate procession where each member of the House of Balenciaga is introduced and walks the runway dressed to the nines.
“Whenever I walk I try to bring creativity to a category that can be dull,” Millar says. “Recently, I made some shorts out of candy because the theme of the ball was Candy Land. All kinds of candy — everything from Tootsie Rolls to peppermints.
“Ultimately, I want to bring creativity to a category where often times people don’t think outside the box,” he says.
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