New graphic novel explores the life of 'Queenie,' Harlem Renaissance mob boss
Queenie: Godmother of Harlem tells the overlooked story of Stephanie Saint Clair, or "Queenie," a Black female mob boss and fashion icon who lived during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Midway through Elizabeth Colomba and Aurélie Lévy's new graphic novel, Queenie: Godmother of Harlem, the viewer is confronted with a harrowing scene.
The protagonist, a young Afro-Caribbean immigrant named Stephanie Saint Clair, is on a bus traveling South from New York City to escape an abusive relationship — when the Ku Klux Klan stops the vehicle. After ordering Saint Clair and all other Black passengers off the bus, the Klan violently assaults them.
This was the first scene that New York-based artist Colomba drew and presented to publishers after she and Lévy, her longtime Paris-based collaborator, began scripting the project three years ago.
"It's a pivotal moment in her life," Colomba said. "She could have been killed easily,
