It's the word of the day for May 16th.
Today's word is kiki, spelled K-I-K-I.
Kiki is a noun.
It 's a slang term for an informal gathering among close friends,
especially to share lively gossip or frank conversation.
It can also refer more broadly to gossipy conversation.
Kiki is especially used in and associated with LGBTQ plus and black communities.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Dallas Observer.
The year 2024 will long be remembered in pop culture as the year of hashtag Brat Summer,
christened, of course, by the early June release of an instantly iconic pop album, Charlie XCX's Brat.
It was the cultural equivalent of the hippies' Summer of Love in 1967,
but for the girls and gays, a singular moment in time when every day offered the chance of a kiki
and every night flirted with throwing a rave.
Let's chit-chat about the word kiki, a fun word for fun, gossipy gathering.
While its exact origins are unclear, we know that Kiki has roots in the ballroom community,
a primarily black and Latino drag subculture that spread in U.S. Cities, especially in the 1980s and 90s.
In the early 2000s, a movement emerged within ball culture that was often referred to as the kiki scene.
This involved support groups and social services for LGBTQ plus youth and provided opportunities to socialize,
including in the form of so-called kiki balls or festive party-like drag performances.
This scene was notably captured in the 2016 documentary Kiki, popularly considered a sequel to 1990's Paris is Burning.