Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Mr Pants Award?

  The Mr Pants Award is an annual award of $1000 made to a queer-identified, Haitian-American creative from or living in the Boston area who could use a little financial boost and/or recognition that year.
• Who is Mr Pants?

  Mr Pants (short for Panther) was a black cat. He passed away in March 2021. He was deeply loved by his owner, Militza Jean-Felix.
• Who is Militza Jean-Felix?

  Militza Jean-Felix was a queer, Haitian-American artist, writer and budding technologist from the Boston area whose painting, performance art, writing and graphic novels sent her across the United States and beyond.

  Her short stories earned her a prestigious LAMBDA fellowship, and her visual and performing art garnered an invitation to the renowned Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her artwork was in many ways a series of meditations on diaspora - how her family came to the US, and the impact her cultural heritage had on her experiences here. Her written work centers around all of the core elements of her identity: her upbringing as a first generation Haitian-American, being an artist, her gender, and her sexual orientation.

  Though never averse to hard labor in the service/non-profit sectors of the US workforce, in the last years of her life, Militza struggled with profound health problems which limited her ability to do the kind of work she’d always done in the past to underwrite her creative practices. But she transformed her former physical energy into intellectual energy, connecting with the queer, BIPOC, tech development community and learning to code (with an activist inflection). She had just begun investigating the pursuit of a PhD in education when she passed away unexpectedly at the age of 40, in May 2021.

  In addition to being very, very talented along multiple axis, Militza was shockingly kind. Her wit was sharp, her heart was huge, and both combined in a smile that rivaled the famous Cheshire Cat’s for its staying power.

  Speaking of cats, Militza was too modest to have been comfortable having an award named after her, so this one is named after her beloved (and also deceased) cat Mr Pants.

• How do I apply?

  Applications for the Mr Pants Award open annually on September 1st at 12:00am Eastern Time and close on November 1st at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Visit our application page to complete and application at that time.

• How do I contribute to the Mr Pants Award fund?

  We would be very very grateful if you feel you are able to contribute to the Mr Pants Award fund! In order to fund each year of the award, we need at least 50 people to contribute $20 to the fund, or 20 people to contribute $50, or 10 people to contribute $100 each, etc.

  The fund and this website are being managed by friends of Militza’s on a voluntary basis, and Boston-based performance art collective, Mobius Artists Group has graciously agreed to act as a non-profit fiscal agent for the Mr Pants Award so that all contributions made are tax deductible.

  If you are able to make a donation online, please click on the donate button below to go to our donation form on PayPal. You can use PayPal or a credit card to make a donation of any amount to the fund. Once there, please specify that you are contributing to the “Mr Pants Fund” in the field marked “Purpose”. You DO NOT have to sign up for PayPal to make a donation, but note that PayPal takes $0.30 + 2.9% for each donation you make (their standard fee for donations).

  

  
  If you would prefer to make a donation via a personal check or money order, please make your check or money order out to Mobius and send it to:
  
  

  Mobius Inc.
  15 Channel Center Street, Suite #202
  Boston, MA 02210

  Please write “Mr Pants Fund” on the check’s memo line.
  
  If you would like us to send you an acknowledgement and/or receipt for your records, please include your name and a mailing address with your check.