Tracey “Africa” Norman always knew that the question wasn’t if she’d be found out, but how long she could go undetected
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@media and { .ad.vp-0-600 { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-600-1024 { display: block; } } But Norman wanted to do more than pass — she wanted to excel in the most scrutinized realm of femininity. Friends from back home in Newark who worked in fashion had been telling her for a long time that she was beautiful enough to model. It would be a better alternative than what she thought might be her only option to make a living: “I was trying to not become a sex worker,” she says.
@media { .ad.vp-1024-plus { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-0-600 { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-600-1024 { display: block; } } The next day, she showed up at Penn’s photo studio to be dressed in Basile — Soprani’s collection had been inspired by an African safari he’d taken — and pose with other black models, including Peggy Dillard. “She was the model of the moment,” says Norman.
@media and { .ad.vp-0-600 { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-600-1024 { display: block; } } Dillard didn’t tell anyone else about what she’d noticed. “It was really hilarious to watch Irving Penn calling people like crazy, which you never saw him do.
She ran into him when she was in her 40s, boarding a bus from Newark to Penn Station that her father happened to be driving. “I recognized him as my father; he did not recognize me,” says Norman. “I was like, ‘Daddy, it’s me.’ He was shocked to see me.” Years later, when her father was diagnosed with cancer and Norman started visiting him in the hospital, he came around. “He saw that I have done something very exciting with my life. I think he was proud of me at that point.
@media { .ad.vp-1024-plus { display: block; } } Actually realizing her feminine identity took longer. Some time after graduation, Norman wandered into S. Klein, a department store in downtown Newark, and bought her first dress. “Some flowered thing, but I thought it was pretty,” says Norman. She couldn’t try it on there because she was still in boys’ clothes, so she held up the size 14 in the mirror to gauge if it was big enough. At home, she tried it on for her mother, who thought it was ugly.
Going out in the clothes that reflected who she was on the inside, though, was dangerous until she was comfortable with her transition. “Police officers would question some of the girls, or they knew that some of the girls were transgender and they’d arrest them,” says Norman. “I was very fortunate that I never was arrested, that I was never accosted by the police.”
@media { .ad.vp-1024-plus { display: block; } } The friends who’d helped her transition had warned her of how vulnerable she was in the line of work she’d chosen. “They told me, ‘Just go in, do your work, and leave. Don’t worry about being invited to dinner with photographers, don’t stay late by yourself with photographers, don’t go to big giant parties by yourself with photographers. Just tell them no thank you and come home.
Barboza remembers that same makeup artist approaching him as well. “He told me, ‘You know, Tracey’s a guy,’” says Barboza. “I said, ‘Oh, really?’ And he said, ‘Well, Essence must have known that when they hired her.’” And they went on with the shoot. “It was fine with me,” says Barboza. “I’m just doing the job and Tracey was a good model. I remember she had great cheekbones and she looked good in the wigs.
@media and { .ad.vp-0-600 { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-600-1024 { display: block; } } But Norman’s story was barely known even in the trans community. Janet Mock, an MSNBC host and author of Redefining Realness, recalls first hearing about Norman right after she herself came out as transgender in 2011. She was shocked.
Taylor didn’t say anything explicit to Norman then — or ever. And it’s possible that Norman misinterpreted their interaction. But she doesn’t think so. The next day when she called her agency to find out if she had any bookings or go-sees, they said no. “All I know is that my work stopped that day.” Norman was depressed about not having work but also angry that no one would actually say why. “I was upset that nobody confronted me with the truth,” she says. “I guess that’s maybe because they were afraid of lawsuits, but I don’t know if I would’ve had the frame of mind at that time to try to sue people. I just felt so upset about it because it was my people and my community that did this to me. The black community and the gay community.
@media and { .ad.vp-0-600 { display: block; } } @media and { .ad.vp-600-1024 { display: block; } } Two weeks later, she showed up at the address the woman had given her for the fitting. She had to lie on the floor to wriggle herself into the black leather skirt, but she made it, walked for the designer, and got a six-month contract for two shows a day. It was the Balenciaga showroom.
After that, she couldn’t get work as a model, other than for local runway shows with designer friends. As her funds ran out, she moved out of her apartment on the Upper West Side and started sleeping on friends’ couches. Her rejection from the fashion world seemed, to her, completely hypocritical. “Beauty and fashion is all about illusion,” she says. “So when the doors were opened for me, I walked right through.
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