My name is Storm Marrero. I am currently the ringmaster for the Big Apple Circus in New York City.
I’ve been a singer for over 20 years now. I’ve been living in New York since 2005. Born here, raised in Puerto Rico. I became a professional singer in Puerto Rico, [but] wanted to try my luck in New York. I started off [in] minor bands, small clubs, and then the burlesque community found me, or I found it.
While I was in college, I met this really great musician by the name of Junior Irizarry. He’s well known in the Latino community. He’s an amazing bass player, played for a lot of Caribbean, salsa, mamba bands. He had a band that traveled a lot in Puerto Rico as well as outside of PR. He heard me sing at this competition. I was still 18. He was like, “Would you like to work for me?”. I’m like, “Sure!” That was 23, 24 years ago.
I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter people that want to work with me. It’s not in spite of, no, it’s because I’m different. I look different. I sound different. I bring a different vibe. Being born a woman is already difficult unto itself. There [are] a lot of limitations. Especially in the role of ringmaster, that’s very much masculine-based. Being a minority, being an Afro-Latina, being a plus-sized woman, you find yourself kind of like, “Oh, there’s all these walls”, but then we’re living in a day-in-age where you can create your own content. You can create your own avenues.
Burlesque helped me out a lot with that process of finding that comfortable zone within my body, within myself. Once I found that moment of being comfortable, I’m screaming it. My hashtags are always: big, bold, and beautiful, body positivity. I’m an Afro-Latina who happens to be a big girl, who happens to be an older woman that’s coming into her own skin and I want to scream it.
Images by Michael Fequiere
