Author: Amy Kuperinsky / Source: NJ.com
There she is. And this time, she didn’t have to wear a swimsuit to get the job done.
Miss New York, Nia Imani Franklin, has been crowned Miss America 2019 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. She is the fourth Miss New York to be crowned in six years.
Franklin, 25, becomes the first Miss America to win the crown who didn’t have to model a swimsuit during competition.
The major change arrived after nearly a century of pageants and what has proven to be an especially tumultuous year for the New Jersey institution.After the pageant, Franklin said she was able to eat more because she didn’t have to worry about the swimsuit competition.
“I’m worth more than that,” she said, and so were all of the other contestants.
When asked about the controversy that has dogged the pageant this year and what needs to happen to move Miss America forward, Franklin didn’t hesitate with her answer.
“I don’t mean to sound cocky, but I think you’re looking at her,” she said.
Miss Connecticut, Bridget Oei, was first runner-up, winning a $25,000 scholarship. Miss Louisiana, Holli’ Conway, was second runner-up, winning $20,000. Miss Florida, Taylor Tyson, was third runner-up, winning $15,000. Miss Massachusetts, Gabriela Taveras, was fourth runner-up, winning $10,000.
Miss New York previously won in consecutive years: Mallory Hagan, Miss America 2013; Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014; and Kira Kazantsev, Miss America 2015.
Franklin, who lives in Brooklyn and originally hails from North Carolina, studied music composition and is a graduate of East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
She sang opera from “La Boheme” on the Miss America stage. Franklin, who advocates for the arts as her social impact initiative, says she composed her first song when she was 5.She performed the chorus of the song for reporters — “Love, love, love, love, love, is the only thing that matters to me hey, hey, hey, hey, hey” — to raucous applause.
During a question portion of the pageant, Franklin, who is black, said that music helped her find her identity when she went to a school where most students were white.
Franklin said that when her father was diagnosed with cancer several years ago — she donated stem cells as part of his treatment — she had to find a way to help pay for college. The pageant says Franklin’s winnings before she received the crown were $17,250.
As part of a pageant overhaul dubbed “Miss America 2.0” meant to emphasize the voices, education and advocacy of contestants, the Miss America Organization announced in June that it would be dropping its swimsuit competition.
A revamped Miss America reached for relevance with the shadow of history cast over the boardwalk. The pageant proceeded for the first time without swimsuits on the 50th anniversary of the 1968 feminist protest of the pageant, when women’s liberation activists took to the boardwalk to trash bras and pots and pans, calling Miss America degrading, racist and a consumerist con.
Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989 and chairwoman of the Miss America board, said that contestants would no longer be judged on physical appearance starting with this year’s pageant. But both Carlson and Regina Hopper, pageant CEO, faced a barrage of criticism in the wake of the swimsuit decision. Representatives from 46 state pageants signed letters calling for their resignation (Minnesota and Arkansas, their home states, have not signed), as did 23 former Miss Americas. The pageant board also saw an exodus…
The post Miss America 2019: Miss New York wins first swimsuit-free pageant appeared first on FeedBox.