Drag magazine

Drag

Rupaul

The queen of Drag

Drag

Drag

Rupaul

Drag Race has been a favorite show of mine for years, it taught me about the levels of expression, identity, creativity and love. The fashion, makeup, confidence and friendships come on the show and catwalk on the runway. It’s so engaging to envision being one of those queens getting the chance to showcase their talents and show the world their dreams. The show is inspiring and informative as it also gets into the ongoing battles of being a drag queen. The show allows a platform for drag queens to not only showcase their talents but to speak about the trauma the LGBTQ+ community has been struggling with for years andyears. Lately, drag has been dragged through the mud. In the political scene, Drag has been belittled and mocked to be seen as a “threat” to society whereas there message of expression and loved should truly be accepted as the world can be so negative. For me personally Drag has given me the confidence to always have the passion of expression and truly helped me understand the importance of representation ecspecially in this society, it can be so powerful. My goal for this magazine is to truthfully show the beauty of drag and the reality as well. The media and political side of the art is to this day being picked apart and belittled, although I cant stop it, I chose to inform others about it.

A

letter from the editor

“

Born naked everything else is drag.”

Its about DAMN time we had a drag queen magazine!

Lizzo brings drag queens on stage to perform in her show in KnoxVille, Tennesee to protest the passing of the drag-ban law.

Season 4 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Sharon Needles

“Sharon Needles” is a play on “sharing needles”. As a teenager, she would move from city to city and changed her name every time, . With her brother, she would get stoned and try to come up with the most offensive drag names. It was a tossup between Crystal Meth and Sharon Needles but, back then, there was no Google, so there wasn’t a way of knowing how many other drag queens came up with the same name. Thus, she always says that Sharon Needles is like a governor; there’s one in every state, but she’s the President.

Bob the Drag Queen

After winning her season, Bob released dance singles, started a podcast with Monét X Change called Sibling Rivalry, her own comedy special “Suspiciously Large Woman”, starred in the Netflix movie “Cherry Pop”, started the show “BOBin’ Around” on WOWPresents+ and filled in for Katya on “The Trixie & Katya Show” as of the 10th episode.

Season 8 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 5

Season

9 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Sasha’s parents named her after Alexandra Kollontai, a Russian feminist leader, but for most of her life, she’s went by Sasha, a common Russian nickname for either Alexander or Alexandra. Because she was told her whole life that she had a girl’s name, she kept it. “Velour” comes from a fabric often used as a cheaper substitute for velvet, which Sasha thinks is the perfect metaphor for drag.

Sasha Velour

6

Jaida EssenceHall

She later returned to All Stars 7, the first All Winners season of Drag Race. She placed 5th-8th. Since her season aired in 2020, Hall has been a staple of several domestic and international tours that feature Drag Race contestants, including Werq the World, A Drag Queen Christmas, and Drive ‘N Drag. In October 2020, Johnson was a featured performer in Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Fashion Show Vol. 2.

Season 12 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

7

Symone

Shortly after high school graduation in 2013, she performed drag for the first time at Triniti Nightclub under the name Delilah Alamaine.While a student at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, she began to build a following as a performer at Discovery and The Factory, and later changed her stage name to Symone, after a character in a play she wrote in high school.She hosted a series called Symone Says. Of her drag identity, she said Symone represents “the person that I really am. I would say Reggie is a mask I put on every day.”

Season 13 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Season

14

Willow Pill

winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 9

Fans were immediately captivated by the queen’s quirky sense of humor and outside-the-box runway looks, but it’s been her openness and vulnerability that carried her to the finish line (and the top prize of $150,000) on a season packed with formidable competition. As Emmys conversations erupt into full swing,

A drag show

is a form of entertainment performed by drag artists impersonating men or women, typically in a bar or nightclub. Shows can range from burlesque-style, adult themed nightclub acts to all-ages events with singalongs and story times. Drag brunches are popular by the drinks, performances and overall ambionce of the environment. Drag brunch” is exactly what it sounds like exciting drag performances over a comforting and sometimes boozy brunch. “It’s true, when you see queens perform at drag brunch, you can’t help but feel happier and it’s definitely not just the unlimited mimosas.” Drag artists are multi-skilled creative powerhouses who not only entertain but also educate.

Drag brunch gigs give drag artists more options and opportunities. Drag kings also have experience with the club scene. All is a drag king; that is, usually a cisgender woman, transgender man or non-binary person performing in male or masculine drag on stage. This can include singing, lip-syncing and dancing. While drag queens have broken into the mainstream, largely thanks to the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, their kingly counterparts have been confined to a more underground existence. Tonight, we are in a basement.

Drag Kings

Drag Kings

Drag Kings

Drag Story Time

It’s just what it sounds like! Storytellers using the art of drag to read books to kids in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Drag Story Hour celebrates reading through the glamorous art of drag. Our chapter network creates diverse, accessible, and culturally-inclusive family programming where kids can express their authentic selves and become bright lights of change in their communities. “Drag Queen Story Hour” (DQSH) became a regular event at North American libraries, schools, and bookstores beginning in 2015. The drag queens all men dressed up as clownish versions of “women” read stories to children under the guise of normalizing “gender uidity” and giving kids “glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”

DQSH has chapters in 29 states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Drag story time events have become incredibly popularized, expanding beyond DQSH — a library in Saint John, New Brunswick held its own version of drag story time earlier this month, and the Toronto Public Library hosted a “Drag Queen Family Storytime” on June 18. Even small coastal towns like Sechelt, B.C. have caught on, where a Drag Queen Storytime took place over the weekend. Calls to “protect the children” from drag performers and trans people assume children are, in fact, in need of safeguarding. Such messaging is rooted in a tendency for Western societies to reduce childhood to an idyllic innocence, which positions children as “in need of protection” and ampli es their constant vulnerability.

Lately

Drag is an art form and a political statement

Drag has always been political. But with RuPaul’s Drag Race ushering in a new era of performers, fame comes with a powerful platform.

Politics

As an art form and a social and political statement pioneered by gay men and transgender women, drag made up a culture and community of its own, always on the cutting edge of underground art scenes and queer subcultures.

Drag queens were a central presence at the Stonewall Riots in New York, fighting for their rights and the rights of their communities. Now, dragʼs seemingly entered a new era; becoming increasingly more popular, and entering the mainstream media landscape.

doesn’t have to be a drag!

Even after the counterculture movement took over the ’60s and sizable LGBTQ communities were forming in major cities, dressing in drag in public could still be dangerous. Police regularly raided gay bars in the US – until the late ‘60s, Jeffreys said, it was illegal for bars in New York to serve a drink to a “known homosexual.”

Despite the pervasive danger of living authentically, drag performers in this era also experimented with the traditional drag format. Queens founded their own drag houses – and chosen families in the process; for many Black and Latino queer and trans people this was a reaction to the racism they faced within the gay pageant scene. This was also the era when lip syncing became the norm, Jeffreys said, and drag became less binary – “genderf**k” drag was used to describe some performers who weren’t easily defined as masculine or feminine.

Offstage, many queens led collective efforts to aid queer and trans people. When the AIDS crisis worsened in the ’80s, groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Francisco raised money to house AIDS patients and pay for their health care. Others gladly hosted events or lent their talents to fundraising efforts.

Drag queens have long been leaders in the queer liberation movement

Everybody say Love

Drag has deep roots in Western culture, specifically in theatre when women weren’t permitted to perform on stage so men would play female roles. Drag performers were featured as far back as ancient Greece and carried on through Shakespearean times.

In the nineteenth century, female impersonators began to use the medium as a performative art, especially in vaudeville shows. In the 1880s, the first drag queen, William Dorsey Swann, hosted drag balls at his home. By the early twentieth century, drag was tied to the LGBTQ+ community—a community that was marginalized in the United States—and it was no longer part of popular mainstream entertainment. Instead, performances became a major aspect of city nightlife, especially in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.

Drag is revolutionary for obviously a variety of amazing reasons. Embracing self expression and love is truthfully what brought straight people involved in the culture as well. Drag can be a way to release tension and vent emotions. It can be a way to safely express oneself. Many use it to explore sexual orientation and gender identity. Others do it because they enjoy the fame and glory of winning. Drag is a powerful symbol in the LGBTQ+ community. It is for EVERYONE to be apart of behind and on the stage.

What kind of drag queen are you?

lights, camera action what kind of drag would you perform?

Which challenge were you most excited for?

Which challenge is more exciting?

Runway themes

Would you win your lip synch?

snatch game DUH! slay the house down

Meh ill def try my best

Which runway theme are you most excited for? Choose a season winner!

Pretty in pink

Favorite co judge Michelle Carlson

You are a camp queen!!

Everyone loves your performances and witty comebacks. All eyes are on you when you are doing anything like just being yourself!

You make everything look fun and beautiful.

Whats your favorite runway song? Neon queen realness Season 13 Symone Season 9 Sasha Velour

group work or individual?

cover girl category is....... team work ALONE

You are a looks queen!!

People look forward to your style and interpretation of looks! Your makeup is always perfect and you stay camera ready and flawless! You are known for your beauty and everyone wants advice from you!

Which challenge would you slay? photo shoot comedy roast

You are a comedy queen!!

You leave people laughing and wanting more! The audience cant take their eyes off you because of your unique persona and talent.

You are a natural queen!