At Milk Makeup, we’re proud to support the LGBTQIA+ community and the immense creative cultures within it. That’s why for Pride Month 2023, we’re celebrating ballroom culture. Ballroom has long been the site of creativity. But even as the spotlight on ballroom and its community gets brighter, the story of the people behind it, particularly the Black trans femmes who have an outsize influence on ballroom culture, don’t always get the recognition they deserve. We’re here to give them their flowers.
Stay tuned throughout the month as we share the stories of four Black trans femmes from The Artistic Haus of Telfar, from ballroom, to their thoughts on beauty, and beyond.
Niala Telfar is an artist at their core. Their mission is simple: “to create crazy, iconic art.” And while sometimes that art is in collaboration with others, doing things like appearing as a model for brands like Barragan, or performing as a dancer as their mother once did, they also exist as a person of their own creation. These acts and realizations are aided by a loving family, both biological and chosen.
“No matter how hectic things may seem on the outside, when you come into that space, it’s love,” Niala says of being with the Haus of Telfar, part of a chosen family they built for themselves. “It’s laughter. It’s movement. It’s healing. That space has welcomed and received me like no other that I’ve been in.”
Read on for Niala Telfar’s ’90s approach to beauty, ballroom trajectory, and what access has to do with it all.
How did you come to the ballroom scene?I initially came to the ballroom scene because my [biological] mother is a dancer. She had this friend named Derrick LaBeija, God rest his soul, who was in the ballroom scene but also the hip-hop dance community. I think my mother saw that I was coming into my queerness and wanted to introduce me to Derrick. So I took his class. As soon as I stepped into that class and started doing my kick-ball-change, he looked at me and just knew where I was headed in my journey. From there, he connected me with the House of Ebony and I became an Ebony. I walked categories like junior femme queen realness to femme queen realness. All of that was in Boston where I’m from. Then I moved to New York City not too long ago and got immersed in the kiki scene here with the Telfars and the Louboutins. I’ve always sort of been in the kiki scene in the background. I was in the House of Pinklady for a hot second. So it just happened when I moved to New York, I got back into it. When did you know that the kiki scene was a space you wanted to be in?When I felt like I was on a different planet than the cis normative bullshit we have to go through. I just wanted to exist in a world where my identity was reflected. Where I could be in community with those who have come before us—the trancestors and the ancestors. It’s a completely different universe. Now it’s more mainstream and people are recognizing what we are doing and how talented we are but we’ve had this underground community for a long time now and it’s very sacred and precious to us. I just wanted to exist in this world. I love that we have our own lingo, our own body language, dance moves, ways of interacting and connecting with each other. I love it all. |
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What’s your earliest beauty memory?Definitely stealing my mother’s makeup. She would be so mad at me but whenever she would be at work, I would go into her makeup collection, play around with it, and just be in the mirror. Trying to see myself. That’s indicative of my relationship with makeup: trying to see the person I want to be, trying to accentuate my beauty, and just having fun. Are there any old-school makeup tips you still use today?I still borrow techniques from my mom because she does her makeup every day. I love watching her do her eyeliner and her lip liner. She does a very classic ’90s look with the lip liner and the gloss. I like to go for that. How has your relationship with makeup and beauty evolved over time?It’s evolved in that for so long, I felt like I needed to emulate this idea of femininity. As I’ve evolved in my transition and become more nonbinary and less attached to certain things that are supposed to be feminine, it’s definitely carried over into the way that I do my makeup. Now it’s about what I want to convey that’s going to make me feel good. I don’t really need too much. |
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What role does beauty play for you in ballroom and your life?To be honest: access. I’ve sort of shaped my world around getting as close enough to the standard definition of beauty as I possibly can. In that, I’ve definitely lost myself multiple times along the way. Where I’m at now is redefining it on my own terms. If you are describing Telfar as a family, what role would you say you play?I think I’m an auntie from out of town. I’m a little older than most of the girls and I definitely give auntie energy. Like the rich auntie that spoils the nieces and nephews and everyone else in the family. Is there any person in the house of Telfar that has changed the way you see yourself?I’m going to give that to Myles [our Founding Mother]. I look up to her so much. Sometimes I come to her with my insecurities: Did I do this right? Did I do that right? I want to do this like you. She’s always like wait a minute, stop. Keep doing you and being you. I really appreciate not being so critiqued. Being allowed to show up is very important to me. |
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