Qween Jean Makes History as a Tony Award Winner for Costume Design for Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Mayors Pride Party, NYC: Victoria Von Blaque

Blaque/OUT’s Victoria Von Blaque caught up with Qween Jean at the NYC Mayor’s Office Pride Party this week as she celebrated both Pride and her historic Tony win for musical costuming design on Broadway’s “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.” Qween Jean becomes the first openly transgender person to win a Tony.

Previous Trans nominees and NB Tony award winners include: L Morgan Lee (2022), J. Harrison Ghee (2023) and Alex Newell (2023).

The Haitian-born activist and artist created hundreds of looks in the musical that gave Ballroom culture with distinct stylistic references to LGBTQ+ revolutionaries and freedom fighters. She is said to have learned to sew from her grandmother who likely could never imagine where that gift would take her. From Florida School of the Arts at St. Johns River State College  to a Bachelor’s from University of North Carolina and a Master’s in Design from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and now a coveted Tony Award.

Qween Jean is the co-founder of Black Trans Liberation Kitchen, a collective that helps to provide healthy, home-cooked meals to preserve and nourish the vitality of the TGNC community and has actively advocated for Trans lives and visibility since the murders or Nina Pop in Missouri and Tony McDade in Florida. Some of her work in the activism space was captured in, “Revolution Is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation.”