Cherry Grove has a new Homecoming Queen, and her name is Jizzabella. After two long years on a virtual platform, Arts Project of Cherry Grove was back with their Members Party and Homecoming Queen contest on Sunday, May 29, at the landmarked Cherry Grove Community House Theatre, and it did not disappoint.
There was pomp, circumstance and other contenders making this a challenging competition indeed, but Jizzabella was the one at the end of the evening who took home the crown.
The alter ego of Brandon Ballone, at the age of 31, Jizzabella is a young Homecoming Queen, but still well known in Cherry Grove as he earns his living at the Cherry Grove grocery store and works as a DJ at Cherry’s when he isn’t performing as Jizzabella either on Fire Island or out of town.
“I’m looking forward to getting my own VIP seat on acts I ordinarily don’t get to enjoy because I’m busy working,” said Ballone. “This community made me who I am today. I’ve made lifelong friends out here.”
However, where there is light, there must be shadow, and Ballone admits that loving himself was a process that took time. Living with HIV and losing his mother at the age of 13 are also factors that created the persona that is Jizzabella.
“When they put that crown on my head I started to cry,” said Ballone. “Then Ariel Sinclair whispered in my ear ‘you feel your mother is here, don’t you?’ My mother, she loved drag acts. She would have been right there in the front row cheering me on!”
Hail, hail Queen Jizzabella and long may she reign.
