thatjayjustice:

February 1, 2015
28 Days of Black Cosplay

Day One: Jay Justice and Tony Ray aka team Ray of Justice

Jay Justice and Tony Ray are cosplayers from the Bronx, NY. Friends and costuming partners since 2011, both are featured today, on the first day of a full month celebrating Black cosplayers in our community. All month long we’ll be sharing different Black cosplayers from all fandoms. If you’d like to join in, please use the tag ‘28 Days of Black Cosplay’ and share Black cosplayers!

Tony Ray has been cosplaying since 2007. During the 8 years of costuming and bringing 30 of his favorite characters to life for fun with friends, Tony has been humbled by the experience of meeting people who have thanked him for inspiring them to cosplay and even to create their own characters to dress up as. Cosplaying to Tony is another way of giving hope to others to see that they too can be whatever character they wish to be.

Jay Justice has been cosplaying since 2010. In the past 5 years she has created over 50 costumes from comic books, video games, films, television and literature, with more costumes soon to come. As a disabled queer woman of color she strives to promote equality, tolerance & awareness among fans & convention goers.

This May marks the first time that Tony Ray and Jay Justice will be official cosplay ambassadors at a major convention. Team Ray of Justice will be appearing at the first ever Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention, in Atlantic City, NJ, from May 14-17. ACBC will host publishers Marvel Comics, Boom Comics, Aspen Studios and  Top Cow, as well as celebrity guests Michael Rooker, Manu Bennett, Sean Gunn, and Special Guest of Honor Stan Lee. 

ACBC is an ‘All Things Geek’ con like no other, with full accessibility for disabled guests and attendees, costuming classes with Broadway and Hollywood pros ready to help attendees bring their cosplays to the next level, workshops and classes taught by industry leaders, including the “Emerging Creator Program” which will provide artists, writers and programmers with one-on-one time with industry professionals. ACBC will also include a one of a kind, epic cosplay “War-room” that features costume changing areas, costume repair stations, costume creation stations, body paint stations and more.

When ordering tickets to attend this amazing con, be sure to use the promo code ‘JUSTICE10’  to not only save 10% on your passes, but to let the convention know that you support diversity in fandom and cosplayers of color as well. A portion of all proceeds earned by Tony and Jay at ACBC  will be donated to the non profit organization Campaign to End AIDS. Thank you all for your continued support! We hope to see you in Atlantic City! 

So for the entire month of February, I’m going to be sharing black cosplayers, in honor of Black History Month  :)