Jennifer Noran, also known as The Queen Bee, became involved in the Steampunk community when she went to her first event in 2016 hosted in Cincinnati, Ohio.
She immediately fell in love with the aesthetics and camaraderie of Steampunk. Along with attending events, she’s been creating logos and designs for such projects as the Kentucky Steampunk Society, River City Steam, Bourbon City Steam, The Atlanta Steampunk Expo, The Traveling Revelers, and her own Airship: The Caduceus.
In late 2021, when it was secretly announced that the International Steampunk Symposium, the convention out of Cincinnati, Ohio, was going to be ending after 10 years, Jennifer sprang into action and soon found herself the owner of a Steampunk convention!
From the 16-18th of April in 2023, along with her amazing staff, friends, family, volunteers, vendors and entertainment put on The International Steampunk Symposium’s “Steampunk Under The Big Top”. The weekend was a huge success full of incredible costuming, events, classes, wonderful guests, and non-stop action. Sadly, with a full-time job, her graphic design business, and other life events, Jennifer knew that she couldn’t continue an annual convention moving forward. After hours of contemplation, talking to friends and business owners, Noran decided to create Queen City Steam.
Queen City Steam’s goal is to create events throughout Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, collaborating with different groups and people to host joint events all over the tri-state area. Not only will that make planning events easier, but it will give more opportunities for people to attend events all year round and in different locations.
With diversity being an important part of Queen City Steam, The Shenanigators, Shrimp/Push Pop and other fun groups and characters have been introduced into the mix.
The Shenanigators are three women (The Queen Bee, Lady Bedlam and Honey) who through their diversity and personalities work together to create a fun, safe and creative environment for everyone. Since there can only be the original three Shenanigators, they have created the “Lil’ Shots” for those that wants to be a part of the group!
Shrimp/Pushpop is a character inspired by the Goofus and Gallant cartoons found in Highlights magazine. They are the parts of Steampunk that we want to avoid: gatekeeping, bullying, exclusivity and “shell”fishness. We are hoping that in time, Shrimp/Pushpop might evolve into more of a gallant role, but at the moment he is the symbol of what we don’t want to see in our community.
Through The Airship Caduceus and crew, Queen City Steam and the wonderful genre that is Steampunk, The Queen Bee hopes that good deeds can be achieved, kindness and friendships can be kindled, and creativity can be cultivated, all while having fun.
For more information, visit www.queencitysteam.com or www.facebook.com/TheQueenCitySteam. You can also drop an email to QueenBee@queencitysteam.com.
Long live Steampunk!
