So I was listening to the Black Girl Nerds podcast last night, and they had PNW Fattitude as guests.  The podcast was amazing to listen to as they covered plus sized cosplay and were all very encouraging.  One thing that stuck out to me was the message of “making your cosplay your own.”  

A lot of times, plus sized cosplayers think they can’t do certain characters because of their weight.  I’m guilty of this.  I’m guilty of having this voice in my head that tells me, “No, Bri, you can’t.”  As confident as I am, I still have the voice of the fat, weird, black girl who was told that she was strange for being a geek.  She’s still there, you know?  

But the ladies on the podcast had this awesome message on how, essentially, you should cosplay how you want to cosplay, and do characters the way you want to do them.  

Make the cosplay your own.

And it’s something that I tell myself when that voice pops up in my head.  When I have that moment of insecurity, I quietly tell myself that it’ll be fine, that I’m having fun, that this is my take on a character and I’m going to rock it.

So here’s some examples of me doing just that  :)  I started to sketch designs for characters I wanted to do, and my wifey would bring them to life.  This is in order of oldest (my Green Hill Zone dress) to newest (my Mario dress).  

And remember, always remember, that to love your cosplay is to love yourself :)

New cosplay done!!!  

So I sketched an idea for a Mario dress and the wifey brought it to life.  I’m so excited with how it came out <3  

I got a phone call from my mom saying how proud she is to see‪ #28DaysOfBlackCosplay getting so much positive attention, and I dunno, there’s something about that that just feels really amazing. 

My mom’s old enough to have been around when things were really dismal when it came to rights for black people (she’s 61 and damn proud of it), and it’s always kind of hard talking about things like racism. We have made progress, but there’s still so much work to do, and I can hear the tiredness in her voice because… they fought back then so we wouldn’t have to go through it today, and I feel like… when I call her up about it, there’s this moment of, “This isn’t what I wanted for you.” I can tell how upset she is when I tell her stories about racist comments that I hear, or others who I know hear them, even in the realm of something like cosplay, which we always say is supposed to be for everyone, something that’s supposed to be fun.

So when my phone rings and she’s like, “I’m so proud of all of you,” I feel like we’re making a difference, and that’s what this movement is all about.

Thank you for all of the support, everyone <3 Here’s a few pictures of me and my biggest fan, my mama, in cosplay! She’s only tried it once, lol, but I think she really enjoyed it  :)  

Posting here too even if it was on my cosplay page (and deleted by the poster), but I feel like it needs to be said because I’m sure it’s going to come up this month, the, “If I had a month dedicated to sharing white cosplayers…” comments. 

Besides the fact that it is actually Black History Month… here’s the honest truth. We all want equality, we do. But part of striving for equality is making people feel like they deserve equality, and the sad reality is that some black people feel like they don’t deserve it, because they feel like they’re less than everyone else. In the sense of cosplay, there are black people who feel like they can’t cosplay because of the color of their skin. There are plenty of times where words like “ghetto” are flung around, “Ghetto Venus,” towards the black woman cosplaying Sailor Venus, or even, “Nigga Moon,” for the black Sailor Moon cosplayer. “That character isn’t black,” or in my personal case, “Go and fry some chicken” just for being black and holding a frying pan as Princess Peach, who does use a frying pan as a weapon. These things happen, and these things do make black people feel like they can’t take part in this community.

If someone tells me that I’m not worthy of something enough times, I’ll start to believe it. I have believed it. I’ve believed that I wasn’t worth it because of my race. I’ve believed that I was ugly. I’ve been told to “stop acting white” because I like anime, video games, and cosplay. And I know a lot of others have felt the same way because of the color of their skin. Those people need to be shown that they are beautiful, that they’re worth it, that they’re equal.

It’s great to think we all should be equal but there are plenty of black people out there who think that they shouldn’t be because of the crap that gets flung at them, who think that they CAN’T be. Equality is great, but you have to WANT it, and if you feel like you’re beneath everyone around you, you’re going to think you don’t deserve it.

That’s what “28 Days Of Black Cosplay” is about. It’s to show those people that they are beautiful and can do this. It’s the same thing I do on this page when I get called a fat, retarded baby (which happened this last week). I stand up and say, “I’m fat and I’m beautiful.” That’s what I’m doing here. I’m black and beautiful. I’m worth it. I deserve to be treated with respect. It’s not segregation, it’s confidence building.

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  :)  

First cosplay of the year for us  :)  

Princess Tiana is me.

Belle is my wifey, who made both gowns <3 <3 <3 

cosplayingwhileblack:

X

Character: Chun Li

Series: Street Fighter

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees!

martininamerica:

viewtifulash:

irenelove83:

sourcedumal:

dynastylnoire:

brichibi:

So according to Gail Simone it’s Cosplay Appreciation Day!  So here are some of my pics from this year.  It’s been quite the year and we’ve gone to more cons than ever with our art, our books, and our costumes.  It’s also been quite the year in spreading the message that cosplay is for everyone, and it’ll continue on into next year and years to come <3

Special thanks to my wifey (the Belle with the design on the front of the dress and pretty much the girl in every pic with me except for the group shot of Disney characters) for making these costumes and always being a supportive voice.  Also thanks to all of the cool people I’ve met at all of these conventions and online through my cosplay page, I hope we all have just as much fun, or even more fun, next year.  Thanks for all of the support in what I do, it means a lot to me :)

Also thanks to ilessthan3photography, Nude Carbon Studios, DWB Photography, Stray Things Photography and Cerulean Photography for the professional photos throughout the year :)  And thanks to artists like asieybarbie and Timothy Lim for letting us use their work for our cosplay (asieybarbie for Neo Queen Serenity and Timothy Lim for the Five Nights at Freddy’s pizza box).  

Also cosplay credits to the following people in the pictures above:

Queen of Hearts is Sweets4aSweet Cosplay

Belle (in the pic with the Queen of Hearts) is Pretty Lush Cosplay

Freddy Fazbear is Brad Duct-Tape Hale

My cosplay page is here and, as always, remember that to love your cosplay is to love yourself <3

GLORRRRRRRRRRRRRRY
YES!!!!
LOOK AT HER!!!!

She is everything.

viewtifulash

YESSS !!! GET EM GIRL

Briiiiiii yay!

12K WHUT?!  HOLY SHIT!  *blushes forever*

(also hi Martin *hugs*)

A collection of me, my cosplay, my make up, clothes, just snippets of 2014.

This year has been quite the adventure.  I traveled more than I ever have in my life.  I met so many amazing people.  I got my books and my crafts out there.  I spoke up more than I ever have before about a variety of topics.  It’s just been amazing.  

To be honest, I never, ever expected to have fans, or be asked to be a guest anywhere, or anything like that.  I never imagined having people who want to meet me, and who look up to me.  All of you are so incredible, and are so important to me.  Thank you all so much for supporting me and everything I do.  I love you all <3

And, as always, if you take any cosplay message from me, it’s this: to love your cosplay is to love yourself.  It’s so important to love yourself. There may be negative people out there, and what they say can, and does, hurt.  But don’t let them stop you.  Don’t let them keep you down. Don’t let them define who you are.  YOU define who you are.  You decide who you are.  You hold your life in your hands and you have the power to make the very best out of it. 

I believe in you :) Let’s have a great 2015!

So the original idea was to do two dresses like the Mario dress, only to have it be fore Luigi, then the wifey was like, “What if I do a Bowser dress instead?”  

This is when you know you’re gonna marry the right person.

So the plan is to have these done by Anime Milwaukee.  I am way too excited <3