Who will win the transit tiara at NYC’s all-gender Miss Subways competition?
This contest isn’t anything like the problematic beauty pageants of yore. Instead, the City Reliquary Miss Subways contest is an inclusive all-gender pageant full of celebration and commiseration about the NYC subway.
This spectacle returns to Coney Island on Friday, May 31, on the eve of Pride Month. Eight contests will vie for the transit tiara and subway sash as they compete in costume, talent, and interview categories. Considering that this year’s contestants bring a wide range of skills, including burlesque, comedy, singing, and puppeteering, expect quite a competition. Get tickets here for $30 for the event at Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater (1208 Surf Ave).
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The contest offers an updated spin on the Miss Subways competition that ran in NYC from 1941-76 and was the first racially integrated competition in the nation. Since reviving the event in 2017, the City Reliquary museum has invited contestants of all genders, sizes, and ages (18+) to participate.
“This event celebrates NYC as the cultural hotspot it is and highlights some of the most interesting underground performers working here right now, attracting local talent from the worlds of burlesque, comedy, and theater,” say event organizers from City Reliquary, a museum in Brooklyn that preserves the everyday artifacts of New York City.
Contestants will represent their subway line of choice, answer subway-themed questions, and show off their talents, all for a chance to represent NYC straphangers as the next Miss Subways.
Here are this year’s contestants:
- Christine Stoddard (she/her), a writer, artist, filmmaker, and one of Brooklyn Magazine’s 50
Most Fascinating People in 2023. - Queerly Femmetastic (she/her/ma’am), a Brooklyn-bred bombshell inspired by Black shake-
dancers, strippers, and hoochie-coochie girls across generations. - Adra Quartz (she/her/bitch), a drag performer and comedian.
- Julia Schemmer (she/her), a puppeteer and producer/assistant producer for Broadway,
television, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. - Sally Ann Hall (she/her), an award-winning standup comedian and cabaret singer.
- MeanLadyTiff (she/her), who describes herself as a “business socialite.”
- Kandi Spindler (she/her), a femme lesbian public defender who moonlights as an artist.
- Kate Zibluk (she/they), a self-described “bird, person, performer, and aspiring Funeral Director.”
Performer and director Tom Meglio will serve as emcee for the evening’s festivities. Meglio is co-writer and host of the musical-sketch-comedy show Ze Follies Dorée!, which recently completed its residency at The Brooklyn Comedy Collective.
Judges will watch each performance closely, drawing on their own backgrounds in theater, comedy, advocacy, journalism, and local politics. Here are this year’s judges:
- Aurora North, Miss Coney Island 2024 and sideshow performer
- Bernie Wagenblast, transportation icon and voice of the subway (“Please stand away from the platform edge!”)
- Derrick Holmes from transit advocacy nonprofit Riders Alliance
- Lisa Levy, Miss Subways 2017, comedian, and artist
- Emily Gallagher, New York State Assemblyperson for District 50 (Greenpoint/Williamsburg)