Jonny Woo catches up with fellow cabaret star and longtime friend, Mzz Kimberley. They talk gender, race and growing up.
I first saw Mzz Kimberley in a magazine in the 90s, modeling for fashion label Red or Dead and we first met properly on a Gay Pride march sometime in the mid 00s. I was practically nude, she was on roller skates.
I’ve always really liked her, loved her warmth and humour, and admired her journey into an accomplished cabaret performer and actress. At one time she ruled Heaven nightclub. Now you’re most likely to catch her walking her dog Lula through Pimlico of an afternoon.
We meet for dinner at London’s newest hotspot The Ned. On arrival, a certain Ms. Cheryl Cole clocks her. Mzz K. tweets ‘No! I’m not who you think it is!’ referring to the recent online storm regarding another black transgender woman.
It’s mischievous, but pointed and knowing. I wanted to get her take on the current gender and race dialogue and how it fits with her own story. These are some of her words.
“I think I identify as a trans woman,” she told me. “I’m not a biological woman and I’m happy with that and I suppose I’m on the non-binary spectrum too.”
“Growing up was emotionally very difficult. I come from a very small town, just outside of Detroit. I’ve noticed people here in the UK think that it’s a poor area. Detroit is huge, and yes there is a lower income section, as there is in London. But who have travelled to Detroit will tell you, it’s not as bad as people make out.”
“I’m black American of African descent, and my father’s side are Polish Jewish. He is mixed race, but I don’t know much about the white Jewish side as the family was split up. There weren’t many black families where I lived, and a lot of my friends were Caucasian. I was kind of protected but yeah, I did experience racism. One of my best friends in school, his father was the mayor of where I come from, and I’ll never forget and one day we were driving down the street and this police officer went ‘don’t look over here’ and my friend just said ‘Don’t look over there’ and I thought, shit your father’s the mayor, and he was like ‘listen we just don’t need the trouble.’ I’ll never forget that.”
“Being of a light complexion, you were considered more um…how can I put this…approachable? There were white girls in school who would talk right in front of me, the things they would never say in front of a black person. ‘Oh my god her ass is so big’ ‘Oh my god her lips, does she wear her hair like that because she wants to be white?’ I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t strong enough. That’s pretty heavy isn’t it?”
“I was back home in January. My nana passed. I had no problems, going back as a transgender woman. It was actually the first time the family saw me as a transgender woman, you know why? I never came out to my family and just started sending them pictures and articles and they would Google me so the first thing my father said was ‘so what shall I call you now?’ How funny is that? And my brother’s wife said something else quite interesting as well; ‘I thought when you came home you’d come in in high heels mini skirt and loads of make up.’”
“In London, I’ve had a good experience, but I have had base racism. When I was at Heaven I used to get hate mail. I know a lot of Caucasian people weren’t used to having a black boss. I had someone look into it and she said it was coming from inside. One day, someone called me up and interviewed me on the phone pretending to be from a television show, wanting my ideas and then the next few days I got a letter throwing it in my face, ‘You dirty this you, you gibbon’ I was like ‘what’s a gibbon?! Oh yeah a monkey.’”
“Something I’ve experienced a lot, going out as a trans woman, is when I had a guy with me, there was often a gay guy trying to push in, saying ‘You know that’s a man!’, and things like that. You can always tell a transphobic guy – they’re always off with me. It’s kind of a shame actually, because it’s made me take a step back sometimes. So I wait for people to come talk to me.”
“I think the gay scene is moving forward. I like to think that, but I’m not really sure. It’s so divided now. I don’t want to sound like an old lady, but back in Heaven when I was working there in the Powder Room, you’d get a big guy talking to a trans person, and a straight girl and an S&M daddy and a butch lesbian and now it’s all split up.”
“I have a friend who was a fashion stylist, and he went to one of those bear clubs and they wouldn’t let him in, (because of how he was dressed) isn’t that outrageous? They wouldn’t let him in, yet, they had drag queen performing there. It reminded me of the 30s, 40s and 50’s at the Cotton Club with the black performers on stage and only a white audience. What’s that all about?”
Mzz Kimberley presents her People of Colour Cabaret at The Glory on Saturday 23rd September and 21st October. For more info, head to theglory.co
