We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jazz What a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jazz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
During my whole life, I have desired to do arts. Even though that because of religion I didn’t have much support from my parents, I always tried to practice them. Acting, dancing, painting have been some of them and as a teacher they were very helpful for me. Now, thanks to my fiancee Betty What, I have pushed myself to do drag and to put all of my creativity in all of this persona. We tried our make up a year ago and was a failure. Then, after Betty told me to stop talking and start practicing, I started watching tutorials and gave life to Jazz What during Betty’s Birthday.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Jazz What is a Puerto Rican Bearded Drag Queen who identify themselve as a dancing latina and an actress. She was born very recent. Still, before she existed, Jazmine Yvonne was my idea of drag. It took a long time admiring the drag scene before this persona and also The Haus Of What got created.
During my college years I used Halloween two times to come out of drag. About a little bit more than a year me and my fiancé Betty What started practicing the make-up. Being honest, it was a failure. We stopped, and it was not until November 2022 that she tells me “Stop talking and start practicing”, that I decided to try it again. On November 23rd (Betty’s Birthday), Jazz What came out for the first time. I got in love with drag and so did Betty. Betty What came out about a week after that and that is when The Haus Of What came in full effect.
We thought my first performance was going to be at Slay Them Drag Pageant in Red Bear Brewing Hosted by Desiree Dik, but thanks to them as well, The Haus of What had the opportunity to present themselves in The Runaway DC. Before, During and after that experience we have been able to meet amazing people and we have been able to bring our art to the DMV area. Most of our shows have been together. We do help each other whenever we can so we can make our performance more interesting, still, we regularly perform separate,
We look forward to keep sharing art with the DMV area and looking forward to expand our reach. As of this moment, we share our content via our Youtube Channel (The Haus Of What). We do also try to have variety of content in other major social media platforms.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As a kid I always wanted to be a dancer, an actor and a gymnastic athlete, still due to homofobia and lack of resources, I was unable to practice these arts/sport. Every time I wanted something related to these, I was not supported by my parents and sometimes taken out of the programs. When I got to high school, 10th grade, I came told my parents about my sexual preferences, and things started to change at home in a negative way. It was not until I got to college that I started doing things a little bit on my own. It took me 8 years to finish my bachelor degree in elementary education (K-6), but I was able to make it possible. Then I moved from Puerto Rico to Maryland and started working as a teacher. Being a teacher kept my creativity on at every moment.
Right now, starting my 30’s, is when Jazz What comes up and I decided to create myself. What I was not able to do as a kid or as a teen, drag gave me the mix and the confidence of what I wanted. I decided to be whoever I wanted to be and drag gave me the passion I was looking for. For everything, persistence is the key for success.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is to see the smiles and the reaction of the audience. It makes you come with more every time, to try harder each moment, to keep learning in each occasion. The audience and the passion that the artist brings is a unique mix and experience. Sharing art with others is liberating.
Contact Info:
- Website: linktr.ee/jazzwhat
- Instagram: Jazz.what2022
- Facebook: Jazz What
- Youtube: The Haus of What
- Other: TikTok: Jazz.What2022