FEM QUEEN HONORS Honoring the Legacy of Fem Queens & Ballroom Culture is Coming to the Apollo

Dr. Shamari Reid and Jonovia Chase, co-founder of House Lives Matter, will present Fem Queen Honors, an evening honoring the legacy of Fem Queens and Ballroom Culture. The one-night-only event, co-hosted by Gia Love and Jazell Barbie Royale, will take place on Thursday, June 19 at The Historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.
 
Fem Queen Honors will honor the legacy of Fem Queen artistry within Ballroom Culture with a very special showcase featuring the Ballroom Community, including live performances, live storytelling, and a celebration of Ballroom Culture as Queer history, Black history, and with roots in the Harlem Renaissance.
 
Fem Queen Honors will also celebrate a distinguished group of intergenerational Fem Queens for their contributions to Ballroom Culture, and popular culture writ large: pioneer Duchess La Wong, pioneer Tracey Africa Norman, icon Dominique Jackson Maison Margiela, icon Leiomy Maldonado, and the legendary Courtney Washington Balenciaga.
 
"Ballroom Culture was born during the Harlem Renaissance; it is Black history, it is LGBTQ+ history, and it's most certainly American history,” said Dr. Shamari Reid. “Yet, rarely are Black trans women included in these conversations about culture, activism, and history. FQ Honors is a homecoming. It is fem queens coming home to the house they built on Juneteenth, during pride month, and in Harlem at the Historic Apollo Theater."
 
"This event is a reclamation of Ballroom Culture by giving credit to the fem queens (Black trans women) who created the culture,” said Jonovia Chase. “Due to the erasure, these women are often invisibilized. FQ Honors is an act of resistance, because rarely do Black trans women get to take up space in this kind of way. This is a call to action, a disruption to a society that bars Black trans women access, resources, and rights and wants us to believe that we do not matter. This is an event to challenge the status quo, and to challenge  transphobia in the community and globally."