We recently connected with Qween Amor and have shared our conversation below.

Qween, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Absolutely! All of the time. Let me tell you what being an artist is for me. As an artist, and I’m speaking for myself here, I create as a way to cope with reality. It’s a way for me to process my pain and turn it into something beautiful. I create moments and I leave the audience with nothing more than a feeling and a memory. It’s not my place to dictate how the audience perceives my work. They’re going to see whatever they need to see. Once I’ve gotten it out of my system, it’s no longer screaming inside of me and I can have peace. No one will ever know what Van Gogh intended when he painted “Starry Night” or what he was feeling in the moment that caused him to have to create it. Long after his death, there’s just something about “Starry Night” that left an impression. I imagine anyone who views the painting would come up with their understanding of the piece.

I would drive myself crazy if I created art just for the sake of other people and had to place value on what they took from it. I do it for me and I hope that people get something from it that helps them in their own lives. I love when people tell me that I’m only doing what I do for attention. LMFAO. They’re not wrong. What the hell is a performer without an audience…nothing. Yea, I want attention, is that so bad? But that’s not the intention of the performances I create. The intention is to make sense of the reality I live in and learn to love me as I am. To be an artist is to welcome and accept that some people will not understand it and that’s perfectly fine.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m a trans-queer performance artist that utilizes various mediums of performance to send a message of love, freedom, truth and beauty to the general public. I travel from city to city with my message, often demonstrating at political rallies as an activist for social justice and the rights of my community to exist without fear of persecution. My platform ranges from the street to stage productions.. The dance is a brilliant spectacle that directly speaks to the hearts and minds of the audience which allows them to view life from a different perspective. This perspective is largely characterized through a non-conforming use of gender where male and female are intertwined as one. I intend to create a blurred line between right and wrong through the use of religious iconography and the unapologetic use of my body.

The rights of LGBTQ people — and especially transgender people — across the country are being systematically threatened and undermined by national anti-LGBTQ groups coordinating with anti-equality lawmakers to wage an unprecedented war on the LGBTQ community. In fact, some of these bills are similar to or even worse than anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been rejected in previous years, including the Indiana religious refusal bill of 2015 and North Carolina’s infamous HB2. Bills that have become law so far this year range from making it a felony to provide transgender youth with life saving health care to banning transgender girls from participating in sports to erasing LGBTQ people from school curriculum to granting broad licenses to discriminate against LGBTQ people. This crisis cannot be ignored and necessitates concrete action from all those with the ability to speak out. These bills are not only harmful and discriminatory, but also represent a failure in our democracy and the commitment elected officials make to protect and serve their constituents. Now is not the time for reluctance or passivity, it is time to take urgent action to protect the basic rights and humanity of LGBTQ people in America.

I perform as a means to promote positive body image, freedom of expression and to blur the lines between gender and what people think is right and wrong. Society has clung to outdated forms of religion and morality. We have the right to believe in what we want and we have the space to practice our faith and to be free in what we’re practicing but we also cannot use our own personal moralities and our own religious beliefs to attack and demonize other people, other communities that’s not what religion is therefore. I believe too many people have suffered at the hands of religious zealots that religion was created out of an act of suffering and to continue imposing that suffering on other people is not ok. So I carry the cross. I carry a cross because I do not believe that we can use religion as a means of oppression. I believe in Christ I believe in God and it’s also recognizing our own divinity and knowing that everything, it’s all you. When someone punches me in the face and then uses God to justify that act of violence, I’m not okay with that. I identify as trans queer as I grow I haven’t quite decided if I want to take hormones and if I want to alter my body to present myself in a way that is more like a woman. I don’t feel as if I need to have tits or a vagina in order to be a woman. I don’t have to choose between being a man or being a woman because I can be both. I can display all aspects of my humanity through my body. My body is an instrument to express Who I am it’s not a crutch. There’s no difference between man and woman except the ideas that are imposed on them because of their bodies.

If there was ever a time in history for trans women of color to be so bold, loud and unapologetically visible it would be now. To be a trans woman of color is to exist in the intersections of racism, misogyny, and transphobia which leaves her vulnerable to a myriad of violence and discrimination. There’s something incredibly powerful as a trans woman of color to stand on top of a structural symbol of racial oppression and then use it as a stage. Take it a step further and incorporate a symbol of a faith that’s been weaponized to justify my oppression and then own it! Simple gestures are now an act of rebellion and a proclamation of my liberation. To make such statements amongst other women and to be met with overwhelming joy and love creates an atmosphere of hope and affirmation. It reverberates our collective desire for universal liberation. The liberation of one Trans Woman of Color is liberation for us all. We aren’t asking for space or permission to speak. We are simply taking space and speaking at will. The liberation of Black Trans Women is crucial to universal liberation. Our existence is an act of resistance. Don’t talk to us about respectability politics because assimilation will get us nowhere. We will be seen and heard in whichever way we choose to show up. Celebrate us because our appearance signifies the coming of our collective liberation.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In the beginning of my journey, I found myself unhoused and sleeping on the streets basically. All I really had was my speaker and a suitcase of clothing. Dancing on subways and street corners (a practice known as busking) along with sex work is how I survived and got by. I understood that even though I may not have a place to live, following my dream is worth the sacrifice. I wasn’t really homeless, I was unhoused. I say this because being unhoused opened a space in. my life to be able to travel around, so anywhere I went was home for the moment. I felt like, if I give up and go get a basic 9-5 job then I’ll have wasted my time. Enduring struggles for the sake of your dreams, I think is resilient.

As a trans-woman of color, I am faced with an onslaught of violence, verbal & the threat of physical, just for walking down the sidewalk. To say that I survived thus far, is an understatement. There’s a natural resilience in our community to be able to manage whatever the world throws at us and do the best we can working it out.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to create a living image of Mary Magdalene and have her be expressed through the body of a trans woman. I want to make the world dance. There is one thing that could solve 90% of the worlds problems and its our unification. It’s not a moment that can be created or simulated. It has to happen organically through the nudges of art. Uniting the human race is the only thing that matters

Contact Info:

• Website: qweenamor.com
• Instagram: @qweenamor
• Facebook: facebook.com/amorqween
• Twitter: @qweenamor
• Youtube: qweenamor