Miss Jason, queer London’s veritable queen-of-the-night, represents all that made the city worth living in before the you-know-what. Roving the capital’s hottest see-and-be-seen soirées with his camera crew in tow, he would cast light on the liveliest corners of London nightlife, and the stylish, colourful characters that called parties from PDA to Chapter 10 home. The debauched-but-H2T-chic scenes that fill each episode of Jason’s Closet, his viral YouTube series, are ones that Miss Jason has naturally found themselves pining after during lockdown. Like the rest of us, though, they’ve had to adjust.
A coping mechanism they’ve turned to over the uncountable hours of our three long lockdowns is one you’re probably familiar with yourself. “I’ve become a self-care warrior,” Miss Jason says, embarking on a skincare regimen that puts most of ours to shame: “It’s mainly been, you know, the hyaluronic acid, the niacinamide, the vitamin D3 serum. And then there’s The Ordinary’s Buffet peptide serum which changed my life. And then, before I go to bed, I do a lymphatic facial massage with rosehip and jojoba oil.” Taking notes?
When gaps in Miss Jason’s dewy complexion maintenance routine allow, he’s also, much like the rest of us, spent time drifting through Instagram’s infinite scroll. While that may usually be a pretty harmless pastime, last summer, what was a source of mindless distraction became one of acute trauma for Miss Jason and countless Black people the world over. “2020 was the year of apocalypse, especially for Black people,” Miss Jason says. “Unspeakable things were happening to us live on Instagram, live on Facebook. It became a cycle of trauma porn, and I got so sick of seeing it. Black people don’t want to see trauma porn. It’s not beneficial to us; we see it, and all it makes us feel is anger and frustration.”
At a time when public discourse so heavily focused on representations and discussions of violence against Black bodies, Miss Jason came to deeply appreciate the work of the Black internet creators cutting through it with uncompromising senses of lightness, hope and humour. That’s why, in recognition of their one-of-a-kind talent, Miss Jason has paired up with i-D to showcase five of the faces — from comedians to beauty influencers and podcasters — that kept things light over lockdown in a brand new video.
“Everyone involved in the project has such a great individual personality, and everybody does something in a complete different way,” Miss Jason says. “There are people like Face in the News and Uyi Omorogbe, whose comedy I could really relate to way, being a first-generation person myself. Like when Uyi does his ‘Pissing Off My African Parents’ bit, I’m just thinking, ‘You are playing with your life, and you know, you are!’ the whole time. With Munya Chawawa, he approaches sociopolitical issue in such a witty, eloquent way. And then with Ola and Trey, they both come from a queer standpoint that really speaks to me.”
The result is a celebration of the Black creative voices that made 2020 — and continue to make 2021 — far less bleak than it would otherwise have been. As both Miss Jason and we are sure you’ll agree, “they are shining beacons of light!”