It seems like the world is going crazy. Black history is under siege as the National Park Association removed Harriet Tubman from its website about the Underground Railroad, and queer history is taking hits like references to transgender and queer people being removed from the Stonewall National Monument site. All of this makes Philly Black Pride, happening this month even more important. The event, running from April 24 to 27, will celebrate empowerment, joy, and unity within the Black queer community. Throughout the weekend PBP will celebrate with poetry readings, panels, parties, a queer artists showcase, and more. I took a moment to speak with PBP Vice-president Jacen Bowman about his life as a make-up artist and activist.
I know you’re a Philly person. What part of the city are you originally from?
I’m originally from the East Oak Lane, the Mount Airy section in Philadelphia. I’m an Uptown guy. But as I’ve gotten older, I re-located to the Brewerytown section. It was actually called North Philly when I moved here, but now it’s called Brewerytown. I’ve been there for about the last 20 years.
What was the Germantown area like when you were growing up?
Growing up there was this myth, well, not even a myth, there was actually some truth in the fact that it was a part of the city that actually had backyards with grass, and allegedly that’s where all the pretty boys and pretty girls lived! Like, all the Uptown boys and girls were really groomed and manicured and into themselves. At the time, we had a segregation program that bussed inner city youth, Black and brown people, to the Northeast to have a better education. I was thankful for that program because I was able to go to George Washington High School and not one of the schools in my neighborhood because you know, back during those times…
The white schools got all the money.
Yes, they got money, and the better education.
I went to Radnor, and Lee Daniels was my classmate. He talks all the time about the fact that he used his aunt’s address so that he could go to Radnor, because it was a better school. Which was illegal, but you do what you got to do for your kids, right?
Yeah. And my mom was born with spina bifida, which is a neurological disorder that affects the spine, so I’m her miracle child. She wasn’t supposed to have any children. She ended up having two, and then adopting four girls later on. She always instilled in me and my brothers and my sisters the idea that you have to go to school to get the best education possible. She went to Widener where they treated her like she was a special needs student. They didn’t give her the same education that other students would have gotten. She always talks about the fact that she didn’t get a regular education until she got to college, and it was a lot harder for her, because she wasn’t prepared by her high school.
I was reading a little bit about your mom and how she influenced you. Tell me a little bit about that.
My mother influenced me at a very early age. I don’t have one of those coming out stories where I was thrown out of the house for being gay. I never even really had to have a conversation about me being gay. It was kind of like, one day I was leaving for my senior prom and I overheard my grandma say to my mother, “Hey Pat, I think Jacen’s coming out of the closet. He’s got all these boys here with hazel contacts and dyed hair.” And I was like, “Grandma, what are you saying?” She was like, “Oh, nothing. We were just saying how nice your friends are.” The next conversation I had with my mom was when I was bringing my boyfriend home, and I said, “Mom, this is my boyfriend.” and she said, “Oh, hey, you want something to eat?” My mom always encouraged me to be my authentic self. She always pushed me to give back to the community and use my voice and speak truth to power. I often say that my mom is my biggest inspiration. She is someone who was mistreated as she was growing up and disrespected because she was different, so she understood and taught me early on to understand differences and to accept people for who they are and not what they look like, and not how they may talk or how they may walk or what disadvantages they may have. She taught me to speak up for people. In high school, I was in the Future Business Leaders of America and the anti-violence coalition and human relations, and I was the president of this and that, but I’ve always stood up for people. So it’s funny to fast forward, and now, many years later, I’m the vice president of Black Gay Pride. I’m involved in the house/Ballroom community, all because my mom really affirmed that voice in me really, really early.
What’s something fun or something that was difficult growing up with so many siblings?
I’m the middle child. I think I’m an over achiever because of it. I was the first one to go to college. I have a very good relationship with my siblings. My dad actually had children out of wedlock. My sister and I are two months apart, so our moms were pregnant at the same time. So I have my mom and my bonus mom, we call her Mom Lorraine. It was something that was uncommon back in the 80’s but my mom and her mom made sure that we were all raised together. It was mandatory that all of us had relationships with each other, it was something that was important to both of our moms and even my father. And funny story, during the pandemic in 2020 I discovered that I had another sister! Apparently my dad had a child when he was in high school, and she was given up for adoption. She found me on Instagram. We went through the trials and tribulations of doing blood tests and getting to know her, and I added three nephews to my life, who I adore. And in the process, my oldest nephew came out the closet. So I’ve been influential with helping him affirm his queerness and understand the balance of being a gay man and also being a father. It’s been really, really great.
I just spoke on a panel last week talking about how important visibility is. My nephew is a grown man now, but he came out to me at 16. If I hadn’t been open with the family, he wouldn’t have had that role model.
My nephew says to me all the time that he wishes that I was around when he was a child because my sister wasn’t really accepting of queer people. I’m 42 and he’s 36, and he’s like, “You’ve made it easier for me to come out now at this old age but I probably would have come out sooner if I’d had you around. My mom respects you in such a way that she finally sees worth in me and understands my queerness now. I really thank you for that.” So it’s been an amazing journey. You know, life twists and turns.
What things were you into at GW high?
I was really into the debate team. I love to debate, which I guess is why I am who I am now! I was also into track and field. Outside of that, I wasn’t really sports inclined. I was always involved in some type of anti-violence coalition, or Future Business Leaders of America and the National Honor Society. I was really a geek, so to speak, a cool geek, but a geek!
College?
I went to Delaware State University on a full academic scholarship with honors. I had a lot of scholarships when I graduated high school, and I could have graduated when I was 16, but I wasn’t allowed to walk until I was 17. I got a full academic scholarship to Clark in Atlanta, but my mom would not let me go that far, being that I was just turning 17, so I ended up going to Delaware State University. I will say that at the time, I was not ready for college. I was a latch key kid. I was a bookworm. I wasn’t allowed to be outside past seven o’clock and once the lights came on I had to be in the house. My mom kept us busy doing things, so I didn’t have any street smarts until my senior year of high school, when I discovered 13th Street and the house/Ballroom community. Trying to navigate all of those things at 16 years old, and then as a freshman in college, I was so distracted I ended up dropping out of college. Later in life I ended up going to hair school, dropped out of that too, then pursued being a makeup artist. I got my aesthetician license and started my own business.
Nice. How did you get into that and what are you doing with it now?
I got into makeup from being around a lot of beautiful trans women and drag queens in Ballroom. They unlocked a door in me. I knew it was there because at a young age, I was obsessed with my aunt Yolanda. She was a hair stylist that would do my mom’s hair, and I would sit there and watch her, and I would get mannequins and cut their hair and do these ridiculous stack curls and all these cool things. But it really was the drag queens, watching them do makeup. And being a part of Ballroom was something that really unlocked that desire for glamor and beauty inside of me.
And now, you’re the go-to guy for beauty and makeup!
My career really took on a life of its own. It’s because of Ballroom that I learned how to build relationships. Through being a queer person in Philadelphia and understanding how to build community, I was able to represent myself. I started at the Mac counter in the Cherry Hill Mall and I was there for about 10 years. While I was there, I had a lot of friends who worked in the industry and were able to pull me in to do a lot of cool things. I got to work with Tyson Bedford, NeNe Leakes, Phylicia Rashad, and do segments on Good Day Philadelphia. I was voted Best of Philly 2021 for best make up. I’ve been able to have this amazing makeup career that allowed me to work on TV shows and movies, and I was able to join the union, you know, all these things. But I always felt like makeup was going to get me in the door, but it’s not what was going to keep me there. I’ve always had this deep desire for community engagement and curating space for our marginalized community. I’m constantly realizing the things that I learned in high school, the lessons that I learned while I was briefly in college and navigating my own business have brought me to where it is that I am today, getting involved in public policy and politics. Being able to use my voice in a large way.
I’m going to get into politics and all that, but I want to know some of the dirt, like who was a favorite celebrity and what was a disastrous situation.
I always talk about this, and the importance of it, right? One night I was at Voyeur when it used to be called Pure nightclub. It had to be about two o’clock in the morning when I got a phone call from my industry dad. His name is Darryl Brown, and he was like, “Hey, I need you to be in New York in the morning for a job.” I said, “Oh, I’m at the club. I’ve been drinking. What’s the job?” He said, “I’m not telling you. You just need to leave the club right now, go get your makeup kit and head to New York.” And he hung up the phone. So I told my friends that I had to leave. I went home, changed my clothes, took a Five Hour Energy drink, and drove to New York.
I get to the location, and I see all these cameras and I’m like, what is going on? I walk into the room, and this guy turns around and says, “Hey, are you my groomer?” And I was like, oh my God, it’s Tyson Beckford, like Tyson freaking Beckford! I had to touch up his mustache and his goatee and put some makeup on him. And it was crazy, because it was Tyson Beckford, and it was the first time that I had a cover on Uptown magazine. Tyson Beckford was my idol, and I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if I would have been like, “No, man, it’s 2am, I’m at the club, I’d have to sober up, I’m not doing it.” It was about me working hard, making sacrifices and doing whatever I had to do, no matter how crazy it was, to further my career.
So that was one of my highlight moments. Bad experience? I turned down going on a US tour with a famous artist because she disrespected what glam represented and the process of doing beauty. She wanted me to do her makeup, but she was only going to give me 30 minutes to do it on tour. And I thought that was ridiculous. I really stood my ground, and because of that, I didn’t go on tour with her. But fast forward, years later, I ended up doing her makeup for something else, and she said to me that because of me taking a stance against doing her makeup for that tour, she started respecting makeup artists and hairstylists and started giving them more time to do her glam. And let’s just say she’s someone that’s now really influential when it comes to beauty. It was a disaster that ended up turning into a magical moment later on in my career.
Bravo! Let’s pivot to Philly Black Pride and some of the political work you’ve done.
Yes, I’ve been involved in politics since Hillary Clinton ran for office. I started when Obama ran. But really, when Hillary ran was when I said, okay, I gotta get involved. That was the first time that I went to the DNC, when it was here in Philadelphia. I was able to do makeup on a lot of the delegates and was invited to the Jacob Jarvis center when we thought Hillary was going to win the presidency. I remember how destroyed I was when she didn’t and I said, from that moment on, I was going to use my voice to get involved in politics, to understand what was going on, to really learn the ropes locally and hold politicians accountable if they’re not doing things that represent our community. And I’ve been doing that ever since.
How did you get involved with PBP?
Le Thomas, our president, is the reason why I got involved. I remember being at gay pride one year, and I was like this city’s gay pride sucks. Le used to always hear me complain, and one day he rolled his eyes, stuck his nose in the air and said, “When are you going to stop complaining? When are you going to actually use your voice and use your experience to help make the community better?” And I was like, you know what? He’s right. I’m going to apply for the PBP board. I joined the board and now eight years later, I’m the vice-president.
An analogy that I like is, there’s this beautiful mural, and everybody has their brush on the canvas, but at some point the elders will take their brush off the canvas, and somebody else’s brush will continue to paint this story. So right now, it’s my turn to have my brush on the canvas, and eventually I will take my hand off, and the younger generation will be there to continue this beautiful mural of queer lived experience and stories in the city. When Michael Hinson first founded Black Pride, it was a direct call to action about the inequities that Black and brown queer people, especially men, at the time were having in the city of Philadelphia, and to have a celebration of joy. Now I want to make sure that Pride is able to expand. We’re showing up in our youth sector in the school district. We’re tabling at events. We’re meeting with our elected officials so that that way we can have a voice and that they understand the needs of our community. We’re also making sure that Black Pride expands into arts and culture. We’re multifaceted and we have a lot of people that do a lot of dope things. I’m excited to just be a part of the process.
So what’s on the agenda for this year?
A lot. We reactivated the flag raising so it is happening at City Hall. We have State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta coming to speak, also former executive director of LGBTQ affairs AJ Hikes. We have our opening reception happening that same night. We also have a Gay Games that’s happening. We teamed up with Frolic, which is another festival that happens in Boston and Rhode Island, and now they’re coming to Philadelphia. We really wanted to kind of expand it and kind of make it something cool where different cities collaborate to do something big. We are also doing an event where we’re honoring a lot of trailblazers in the community with Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau. We also have a bunch of different night life events and a wellness event that’s going to be different. It’ll be cool and relaxed with yoga and jump rope, sound bathing and nature walks. Things designed to nourish the mind, body, and spirit of Black queer individuals. We’re also doing a panel discussion and a lot of different events over the weekend. I’m really excited about all the things that we got going on this year.
I’ll second that emotion!