Hailie Sahar
When she was 15 years old, Hailie Sahar discovered the ballroom scene and her life was changed forever. “It was this mind-blowing experience, because these were people that connected me to the gods I always knew were existing. I got thrust into this underground world of celebrities.” She glows with pleasure as she tells me over Zoom: “I’m smiling, because it makes me happy!”
At the time, she could never have imagined that she would go on to star in Ryan Murphy’s TV tour de force, POSE, as Lulu Ferocity (née Abundance), bringing ballroom culture and issues including the Aids and HIV epidemic, and transphobic violence, to a mainstream audience.
For the uninitiated, ball culture refers to the revolutionary African-American and Latinx queer nightlife scene that exploded in New York in the 1980s. At these extravagant events, people dress up and “walk” in different categories (High Fashion Evening Wear, Legendary Runway, Bring It Like A
