There was never a chance that Qween Jean would not design the costumes for Saturday Church —Damon Cardasis’s musical adaptation of his 2017 film, inspired by a West Village church’s LGBTQ+ outreach program and its overlap with the city’s ballroom scene—and not just because she’s no stranger to crafting dazzlingly colorful worlds, or collaborations with director Whitney White. (Incidentally, her work will make its Broadway debut later this year, in the White-directed play Liberation .) Since moving to New York to study costume design, Jean has been a key figure in the city’s trans community, emerging as a frontline organizer for fights toward all kinds of liberation.

Her organization, Black Trans Liberation (BTL), hosts weekly Wednesday Fellowships similar to the one depicted in th

See Full Page