Octavia St. Laurent Mizrahi (March 16, 1964 – May 17, 2009) was an American model and AIDS educator who was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

's Black and Latino ballroom community and

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

's luxurious balls. They came to public attention after being featured in the 1990 documentary '' Paris Is Burning''.

Career

St. Laurent began walking in the New York ballroom scene in 1982 and acknowledged that their favourite category to walk in was Face. One of the most common songs they'd walk to was " Swept Away" by Diana Ross. They were a central figure of the 1990 documentary '' Paris Is Burning'' and had a small role in 1993's ''

The Saint of Fort Washington ''The Saint of Fort Washington'' is a 1993 American drama film directed by Tim Hunter and starring Matt Dillon and Danny Glover. Dillon won best actor at the 1993 Stockholm Film Festival for his performance. Despite the poor box office returns, ...

''.Green, Jesse (April 18, 1993). Paris Has Burned. She becomes an icon to

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

Community specially for Transgender Women's ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' In 2006, they starred in

Wolfgang Busch Wolfgang Busch (born November 6, 1955 in Heppenheim, Germany) is a two-time Humanitarian award winner, was inducted into the Queens Business Hall of Fame for his company Art From The Heart Films, was inducted into the LGBT Hall of Fame and is a mult ...

's ''

How Do I Look ''How Do I Look'' is a 2006 American documentary film, documentary directed by Wolfgang Busch. The film chronicles ball culture in Harlem and Philadelphia over a ten-year period. Overview Wolfgang Busch began interviewing subjects from the ball ...

'', dubbed as "the sequel to ''Paris is Burning''", and was using the name Heavenly Angel Octavia St Laurent Manolo Blahnik.

Personal life

St. Laurent was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1964. In their youth, St. Laurent identified as a trans woman, but had a very different view on their gender, and when asked if they were a man, they would proudly claim "ABSOLUTELY", which often stunned many in the trans community. They were born producing more estrogen than most people assigned male at birth. St. Laurent said that growing up, their parents were accepting: "I had wonderful parents that supported me. My sexuality was not an issue with my parents. They were accustomed to that since I was a child. People thought I looked like a little girl, and my mother said: 'This is a boy! St. Laurent experienced police harassment and was arrested on several occasions for wearing gender-nonconforming clothing in public. St. Laurent was diagnosed as

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

positive, and would later serve as an educator to spread awareness about the disease. During their appearance in Wolfgang Busch's LGBT documentary ''How Do I Look'', St. Laurent further discussed their drug use,

sex work Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to volun ...

, and fight with AIDS.Cotter, Holland (October 24, 2003). DL: The Down Low in Contemporary Art, ''

'' St. Laurent was good friends with

Willi Ninja William Roscoe Leake (April 12, 1961 – September 2, 2006), better known as Willi Ninja, was an American dancer and choreographer best known for his appearance in the documentary film ''Paris Is Burning (film), Paris Is Burning''.Juan Battle ...

and

Paris Dupree Paris Dupree (also stylized as Paris Duprée or Paris DuPree; 1950 – August 2011) was an American drag performer and documentary participant featured in Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary, ''Paris is Burning'', which was named after Dupree' ...

. In 2008, St. Laurent was diagnosed with cancer. They moved in with their sister while receiving treatment and started a one-person show at Spirits gay bar in Syracuse, New York, which they described as a quiet place for respite. St. Laurent gave a final interview by phone in March 2009 and died after a long battle with cancer on May 17, 2009, in Syracuse, New York, aged 45. St. Laurent is buried in a cemetery in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

Acknowledgements

St. Laurent's appearance in ''Paris Is Burning'' was cited in Judith Butler's book ''Bodies That Matter'' in "Gender is Burning". St. Laurent was posthumously quoted in the television series credits of '' Pose,'' Season 2, Episode 4: "Never Knew Love Like This Before", written by Ryan Murphy and

Janet Mock Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing edit ...

, with the following: "Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?" St. Laurent was referenced by the transgender DJ

Honey Dijon Honey Redmond (known professionally as Honey Dijon) is an American DJ, producer, and electronic musician. She was born in Chicago and is based in New York City and Berlin. She has performed at clubs, festivals, art fairs, galleries and fashion ...

during the Saint Laurent 2023 Winter Men's Paris show.

Quotes

* This is me, you understand? No, I am not a woman. No, I am not a man. I am Octavia. *Life is like a boomerang. When you throw it, it eventually comes back to you. * If money wasn't important in the world to survive, I guess I wouldn't want anything but what I have now. But since money does, I hope that the way I look puts money in my pocket. * Live life. Live life and do not take anything for granted. Because what you have today can instantly be gone tomorrow. And don't settle for nothing but... ...'and donʼt settle for nothing but the best.' * Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?

Filmography

References

External links

*
Octavia St. Laurent " Queen Of The Underground " WINNER 2010 PILL AWARD
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Laurent, Octavia 1964 births 2009 deaths Deaths from cancer in New York (state) American LGBT entertainers American transgender people American non-binary people Transgender women entertainers Transgender female models LGBT African Americans Ball culture people Actresses from New York City 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people Intersex non-binary people Transgender non-binary people Intersex models Non-binary models 20th-century American LGBT people