AESTHETICS CAN BE DANGEROUS, YOU KNOW, 2020
An Exploration of Kappa Alpha’s Old South Ball
Note: This project is ongoing, and the spreads, as they are displayed above, may not represent the final iteration. Additionally, some of the social media posts featured contain identity censorship of the original author. This was done in attempts to navigate the legality of re-publishing the posts. It does not reflect any sort of identity protection and/or censorship by the artist.
I’ve been documenting the “Old South Ball,” which is an annual event hosted by the Kappa Alpha fraternity held in celebration of slave-era Antebellum culture. I became aware of the ball through social media posts by my former classmates dressed-up in hoop skirts and suspenders, posed on the grounds of former plantations. Despite the racial reckoning our country is experiencing, and despite backlash the fraternity has received when photos surface of notable figures and politicians at this event, Kappa Alpha has continued to host the “Old South Ball.” The fraternity, which was founded in Virginia after the Civil War, is entrenched in Lost Cause sentiment, and despite having received calls from their own chapters to distance themselves from Robert. E. Lee, they continue to name the former Confederate general as their “spiritual founder.” I have constructed a photography and text-based project using excerpts from interviews with former Kappa Alpha members and their dates, archival documents, social media posts, and photos I took at locations associated with the event, including former plantations and costume shops. I am interested in continuing the project to answer crucial questions on the status of the event now, especially in the wake of national criticism in regards to a Bachelor contestant who was discovered in photos attending the “Old South Ball.”
