, how have you been going into some of these conversations in meetings? Coming from your background, being on the board of a major museum in New York, what are some developments that you see?īAQUE: I've learned over the years, the best way to learn a system, you got to incept the system. When I think of the Queens Museum, I always think of my parents, my mom and my dad, just taking me there. I would hang out at Corona Park, go get green mangoes, put salt and hot sauce on them. Queens Museum is one of the many museums my parents would take me to. Now that you guys are both professionally grown, coming from that lineage of Union, how does it feel to be recognized for your creative work, now by the leading art institution in your hometown?ĮMORY: I'm very grateful. We formed a little alliance back in '01, '02. Once Tremaine and I connected the Queens dots-you rarely met other Queens cats along 14th Street-Tremaine was like, "I'm from Jamaica." Well, I'm from South Richmond Hill. Chris Gibbs was kind of the president of alternative weirdo men of color, from when we were children. Respectfully, a little too cool for Stussy, even though I worked at Stussy. Young men in the street that hung around stores needed an alternative place to hang out. We became friends in a way you’re supposed to become friends with people-the natural way, because you like them and they treat you nice.īAQUE: I always remember Tremaine from hanging out in front of Union. Whoever was working at Union at that time was like, “Yo, this guy named Angelo made this T-shirt.” Just from hanging out in New York downtown, I would see him and he was always nice to me. This conversation was moderated by Queens native Jaeki Cho, ahead of the Queens Museum’s 50th Anniversary Gala.ĮMORY: Before I even met, I seen his work. In a rare sit-down interview, Emory and Baque talk about their roots, how Queens and their upbringing shaped who they are, and what their experiences and vision mean for the future generation of streetwear. That’s where he met Angelo Baque, Supreme alum and founder of Awake NY, with whom he would go on to be close friends for the next 20 years. The diversity of Queens’ immigrant community and consequently the borough’s segregation had a profound impact on Emory, who discovered himself hanging out downtown around Union. “Just even seeing a difference between neighborhoods, I was learning, there's something off in the world. “You know why hung up the phone? Because he sounded like a Southern Black man,” the Denim Tears founder says. His father, a news cameraman who worked at CBS, struggled to buy his family an apartment after moving from Georgia when Emory was three months old. Tremaine Emory grew up in Queens, New York, first in Flushing, then Jamaica, and finally St.