Welcome to Queen City Steam!
Queen City Steam started with a dream - a dream to create a safe and fun space where people could come together and celebrate Steampunk. Queen Bee, aka Jennifer Noran, started her Steampunk journey in 2015 when she attended The International Steampunk Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio. She researched the genre, made a costume, and spent a convention day in awe of all the creative, kind people she found herself surrounded by. The next year she attended for the whole weekend staying at an AirBnB with friends, and with the help of her friend Karen Pemberton, she was inspired to create The Airship Caduceus. In 2017, her crew entered the Steampunk Olympiad games and spent a weekend in competion with other fantastic airships. With The Airship Caduceus running at full speed with her amazing crew, monthly in-person meetings happened which included classes, clothing swaps, traveling adventures as well as hosting events like The Victorian Valentine Affair in 2019 and the Steampunkin’ Halloween Hullabaloo in 2021. The pandemic brought on new challenges with socializing so Jennifer created, "Cocktails with the Captain" Zoom events where the crew got together weekly to share their joys, fears, concerns and support each other until such time as it was safe to meet in person again.
In 2022, when Jason Dean announced he was moving to Chicago with his wife and would be focusing on his event there, she decided to try her skills at running the Symposium. Many of the original Symposium staff stayed on to help, and people reached out to provide support, lending their skills and advice. From that, The International Steampunk Symposium’s “Steampunk Under The Big Top” was born. It was an intense year of planning with Jennifer working a full time job, running a household, and learning the ropes to run an event of such magnitude.
The event time came and the weekend looked like a roaring success! People were having fun and the staff, volunteers, vendors, and entertainment really shone throughout the weekend with their hard work and positive energy. Jennifer realized however, that with a full-time job and her career, running a whole weekend convention was just too much to handle.
Not wanting to stop, she formulated how she could host events and still have time to do everything else she needed to do. Reaching out to friends for their advice, it was decided that instead of one annual event, collaborating with other groups to have multiple events seemed like a better approach. Not only would planning events be easier, but it will give more opportunities for people to attend events all year round and in different locations.
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. Through The Airship Caduceus and crew, Queen City Steam, and the wonderful genre that is Steampunk, Jennifer hopes that good deeds can be achieved, kindness and friendships can be kindled, and creativity can be cultivated while having fun.
Queen City Steam is excited to see what amazing things the future holds!
"The world of reality has its limits. The world of imagination is boundless."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
About The Queen Bee
Whether you know her as Jennifer Noran, JennyKat, Captain Medea Asherah (She Who Walks Above The Sea), Admiral, or The Queen Bee, one thing you can know for certain...she loves Steampunk!
Jennifer fell in love with the aesthetic and camaraderie of Steampunk. Along with attending and running events, she’s been creating logos and designs for such projects as the Kentucky Steampunk Society, The Chicago Steampunk Exposition, The Atlanta Steampunk Expo, The Traveling Revelers, Bourbon City Steam, Backroads Boo & Brew, as well as and her own Airship.
When she is not working at her full-time job as a Graphic Artist for the state of Kentucky, attending and running various events and parties as well as performing belly dancing and burlesque, you can find her nestled in her home studio in Lexington, Kentucky creating art of all kinds with JennyKat Productions. Her first book that has come out in 2026, is a collaboration with her Dad entitled, “A is for Edelweiss.” She has created over 31 illustrations for this celebrated tome and is making her dream of publishing a reality. Jennifer is currently working on her next creative publication and is excited to put all she has learned about the world of books into good use!
To learn more about JennyKat Productions head on over to www.jennykat.com or www.facebook.com/jennykatproductions on Facebook. If you are interested in purchasing her current book click this link to Dragonfly Press Publishing - www.dflypress.com/edelweiss .
