Marcel Christian
Master wardrobe designer who designed clothes for professional singing groups such as Lugo, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, the Delphonics, Blue Magic, The Moments and The NYC RollerRocker ShowStoppers U.S.A. Grandfather of the House of Christian and great grandfather of the House of LaBeija.
In the early 1970s when he was known for creating wardrobes for many of the R&B singing groups of the time. A roller-skater and fashion designer at the Empire Rollerdome in Brooklyn, Marcel began to organize extravagant fashion shows on roller skates and designed skating outfits for some of the hottest roller skating groups around.
During this time he became a member of MENSA150 and an alumus of Brooklyn College. We would meet at the skating rink or family gatherings and I would try to get him to come to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and design costumes for our plays. The opportunity came when we needed his unique touch for our first Amiri Baraka play, "Meeting Lillie" in 1993. After that experience Marcel was sold on the Cafe, and he became our Resident Costume Designer, building and designing hundreds of costumes over the years that followed. In 1994, Marcel receiving an Audelco Award for his costume design in the Nuyorican's production of "Shango de Ima " and another one for costume design for "Julius Caesar Set in Africa".
Prior to the Nuyorican, he was resident costume designer for The Medicine Show Theatre and later designed costumes for the Hadley Players and Theatre for the New City. I would be doing him an injustice if I didn't mention the fact that he wrote and published hundreds of poems as well as plays; he was prolific and multi-talented. Legendary in everything he did, Marcel was truly a Nuyorican original. From all of us who knew and loved him: Marcel.
