Kiki

Kiki started in Black and Latino queer house and ballroom culture, where the word is thought to imitate the sound of laughter. To have a kiki is to gather informally with friends to talk, laugh, gossip, and unwind. In ballroom, the Kiki scene is also its own network of smaller, less formal balls, often built as a welcoming space for younger LGBTQ+ people of color to practice, compete, and find community. The term reached wider audiences through the 1990 film Paris Is Burning, the 2016 documentary Kiki, and the 2012 Scissor Sisters song Let's Have a Kiki, which spread it well beyond the scene that created it.