Every year during Howard University’s Homecoming, students spend weeks preparing for one of the campus’ most anticipated events: the Howard Homecoming Fashion Show.
Held on Thursday, Oct. 15, in Cramton Auditorium, the 2026 production, titled “Haus of Howard,” commenced. The show unfolded as a two-hour tribute to ballroom culture and community, with different segments of “Hauses” representing a different aspect of its history, fashion and self-expression.
Behind the production were directors Parker Bryant, a junior acting major from Washington, D.C., and Jaden Addo, a senior biology major from Sayreville, New Jersey.
Inspired by the television series “Pose,” which follows New York City’s 1980’s ballroom scene, Bryant envisioned the fashion show as an opportunity to connect ballroom’s history of community-building with Howard’s campus culture.
“As I was watching it, I kept noticing so many parallels between ballroom’s sense of community and what we have here at Howard,” Bryant said. “I thought, how cool would it be to use the significance of ballroom culture to also highlight the significance of the community we’ve built at Howard?”
For Bryant, the production was about more than introducing audiences to ballroom culture. It was also about recognizing the LGBTQ+ communities and pioneers whose contributions have often gone unacknowledged.
“You don’t have to be queer, understand queerness or even be directly connected to the LGBTQ+ community to recognize its influence on the world around us,” Bryant said. “So many of the little things we do in society, the trends we participate in and even aspects of our culture here at Howard derive from queerness.”
Bryant wanted to direct the show since his sophomore year, he said, but initially felt hesitant about the potential backlash surrounding a production centered on queerness and ballroom culture.
“If you want to make a real impact with the things you’re creating as an artist, you have to be willing to disrupt and break the binary,” Bryant said. “Think about the Black community as a whole and how far we’ve come. We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t disrupt.”
Addo stressed that he also wanted to use the theme of community to unify Howard’s model culture overall.
“We wanted to bring the greater Howard model community together, no matter what modeling organization they’re in. That’s why we decided to name it “The Haus of Howard,” because it’s encapsulating all of Howard,” he said.
While the university covered prices for venue and set, Addo described securing materials as an uphill battle. After several attempts to place orders, the administration canceled their requests days before the show, leaving the directors scrambling to secure supplies, according to Addo.
The Howard University Office Of Communications did not respond to request for comment for this article.
“Probably nearly $1,000 came out of Parker and I’s pockets funding the styling department,” Addo said. “We reached out to help people to rent some clothes and had our stylists reach into their own closets to bring their visions to life.”
Leading creative direction was Jamone Small, a junior acting major from New York City. He expressed frustration with the university’s handling of ticket accessibility and promotion, particularly the administration’s decision to set prices at $50 and falsely advertise the show under a different title, “Wildest Dreams.”
“When you say that a show is led by the students, you need to be there to support them, especially if it’s the Homecoming show,” Small said. “There needed to be more seriousness towards supporting us, not making things harder.”
Small said the challenges surrounding the production reflected a larger issue of institutional support for student creativity, particularly when it came to recognizing the contributions of queer students. to Howard’s campus culture.
“Fashion is such a queer space, and I feel like our voices are getting silenced in a space that was created for us to shine,” Small said. “Howard runs on the queer community. A lot of things would not be here if it wasn’t for us.”
For Aishat Salami, a model in the production, this was a defining moment in her Howard experience.
“It was my first time walking a show in Cramton Auditorium. I never pictured myself being on that stage and I was very proud of myself for getting there,” Salami said.
She said she saw the Homecoming show as a way to inspire audience members to continue to use fashion as a way to express their individuality.
“We wanted to show the audiences that no matter who you are, where you are, you can be yourself and express yourself. That’s what the Haus of Howard represents,” she said.
Copy edited by Jori Johnson
