Photos by: Russ Youngblood
CoCoIman Starr Takes the Crown
By Mikkel Hyldebrandt
Photos by Preston Woods @pplanetphotography
Back in March, CoCo Iman Starr – also known as the Supreme of Atlanta – was crowned Mx Joining Hearts 2025 at MSR My Sisters Room. We got a chance to chat with the reigning queen about her year so far, what’s in store, and, of course, the upcoming Joining Hearts weekend!
Congratulations on winning the Mx Joining Hearts 2025 pageant! We’ll get back to that, but first, tell us how you got started performing and doing drag?
So, performance-wise, I’ve been performing the majority of my life honestly! I started singing and acting in middle school, then carried those talents with me into high school, where I was a vocal major with a minor in dance while attending the Fine Arts Magnet Program at Mount Zion High - now known as the Martha Ellen Stillwell School of the Arts. Funny enough, I actually started my drag career as a male lead, performing Usher and Chris brown hits and performed
pretty consistently for almost a year, but then I entered a turnabout competition (an event where you perform the opposite of your typical aesthetic), and my illusion was received very well so I stuck with it!
What made you decide to compete in the Mx Joining Hearts pageant?
So, when it comes to pageantry, I’ve adopted this formula of competing for community or pride pageants in between going after the bigger or “national” titles, simply because I’ve learned the community pageants are truly where you can mold and groom your persona. You increase your support base tenfold, typically because you get to really connect with people on a personal level through outreach programs and fundraisers, without the heavy focus on the razzle-dazzle that comes with national titles. Learning about Joining Hearts’ work in Atlanta and understanding their mission let me know that I could truly become a motivating voice here if given the chance to work alongside them. Now more than ever, I feel it’s time we use our drag as an amplifier of our causes like the legends before us did.
What lessons did you learn along the way?
HA! I learned that when Amazon tells you your presentation heels will arrive three days before the pageant, they actually mean three weeks after! I also learned just how rewarding it is to have a vision and stick with it! As many people saw, I was authentically CoCo in every single category; I never allowed myself to get caught up in my head and lose focus.
And how did it feel when they called your name as the winner?
I was OVERJOYED! After being eliminated from Atlanta All Stars in Week 2 (for the third year in a row...), I was really considering not competing anymore because that would’ve done me in! I’m a gamer, I compete for the thrill of it, but nobody likes to lose, so hearing my name called as the winner was oh so sweet!
What does it mean to you to be the 2025 Mx Joining Hearts?
Welcome to work! I mentioned in my interview that I was eager to be part of the Joining Hearts movement. As the face of the organization, I’m the fountain of knowledge and expression that the community can always look to and see exactly what’s happening in our world. I take pride in everything I do, so I’m really excited to share our message and mission with the world!
What kind of legacy do you want to bring to the title and legacy of Mx Joining Hearts?
I feel that there’s a stigma surrounding smaller community pageants, suggesting that they don’t offer any benefits to winners beyond the initial prize package. So, I’ve made it my personal goal to build bridges throughout the city, creating opportunities year-round and beyond for our past and future representatives. In my vision, I see the Joining Hearts pageantry system being one of the most sought-after crowns because of the connections, opportunities, and benefits we offer our family.
The Joining Hearts Weekend is coming up – what will your duties and participation be?
Even beyond Joining Hearts Weekend, I’ve designated July as Joining Hearts month. I’ll be all over the city at different events promoting the event, talking to the community, and building up anticipation for everyone’s favorite weekend! As for the actual main event weekend, I will 1000% be at every single party on the schedule. I’ll be volunteering at a few events wherever I’m needed, serving as a vibe ambassador at some, and then I’ll take the stage at the main event, the Tsunami party, and perform an extra special production – get your tickets!
Tell us about what’s next for Coco ImanStarr – any new pageants or shows?
This is always such a tough question for me. I have a binder full of projects I’m building and working on, so I never know what to announce! I will say for now, there aren’t any more pageants, I’m a one-crown kind of queen, and I won’t compete again until my Joining Hearts reign is complete, so that I can devote 100% of my time to achieving the goals I’ve set. Show-wise, I’m all over the city. I’m the cohost of a new show at Felix’s every Thursday, which we’ll be debuting in August, and then I’m still blessed to be booked all around the city very often, even this long into my career!
Where can we see you perform, and where can we follow you?
Catch me every Wednesday this month at Birdcage Bingo with Ruby Redd as we raise money for Joining Hearts, every Thursday at Felix’s Atlanta for everyone’s favorite late-night party in the square, and my Pride schedule will be dropping very soon as well. Follow me on Instagram @TheImanStarr or my Facebook page, CoCo Iman Starr, for all of the latest updates.
Anything you’d like to add?
Support your local drag, support your community outreach organizations, support your local bars and restaurants, support your friends’ small businesses, be kind to everyone, and remember the world you live in is the world you create, so create magic!
Get your tickets for the Joining Hearts Weekend where you can experience CoCo Iman Starr at joininghearts.org.
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Lavender Fest Season Two Returns to Atlanta
Edited by Mikkel Hyldebrandt
The Lavender Performing Arts Festival is back with Lavender Fest: Season Two—Celebrating Every Letter, running July 16–20 at Out Front Theatre Company and the Atlanta Eagle. The five-day festival amplifies LGBTQIA+ voices from across the U.S. and abroad through bold, original performances that highlight Southern queer storytelling.
“Queer theatre is here to stay, and Lavender Fest provides one of the few spaces in America for new, bold work to be featured,” says Ty Autry, Festival Director. “As the authors and protectors of our history, we aim to ignite multiple generations of storytellers, creators, and artists to experiment with LGBTQIA+ theatre.”
Attendees can expect everything from thoughtprovoking new works to outrageous comedy and drag, all celebrating the diverse experiences of LGBTQIA+ communities. The festival opens with a kickoff party at the Atlanta Eagle on July 16 at 7 PM, followed by Birdcage Bingo at 8 PM. Proceeds benefit Joining Hearts, an Atlantabased nonprofit supporting people living with HIV/AIDS.
This year’s lineup reflects that mission with a diverse slate of productions that span genres and generations. Audiences can look forward to Yesterday is Dead by Maria Chryssopoulos, The Lily Show by Lily Kerrigan, Stuck by JJ Ivey, Bottle of Soup by CWK, Black Bastard by Jon Gentry, and One Morning At The Office by Vandy Beth Glenn. Also featured are Gracefully Stumbling Thru Beekeeping Age by Mark Orintas, I Thought I’d Be Famous By Now by
The festival concludes with a glamorous rooftop closing party at Moonlight at FORTH Atlanta on July 20 from 6 PM to 9 PM. The event includes DJ sets, drag performances, and the presentation of awards to standout shows and artists.
Lavender Fest is presented by Qreative Voices, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting Southern queer narratives through the performing arts. Major sponsors include FORTH Atlanta, Somerset Medical, and Breathe Images.
Tickets for Lavender Fest: Season Two— Celebrating Every Letter are available at lavender-fest.com/tickets or lavender-fest. eventbrite.com. For the full schedule and details on how to support the mission, visit lavender-fest. com.
David Cohn, With Love, Women by Hannah Marie Smith, and Conversations On How to Get Your Mom Laid by Ty Autry.
The Hidden Cost of Convenience: How Comfort Makes Us Fragile
Lessons from Dr. Zachary LaVigne B.S., D.C.
We live in a world built for convenience. If you want dinner, groceries, or a ride, you just tap a screen and it shows up. It’s possible to spend an entire day, or even a week, barely moving your body. Maybe all you do is scroll, type, or sit. On paper, this seems like progress. But your body feels something very different. What’s really happening is a slow, quiet disaster.
The human body is incredibly efficient. If you stop using something like a muscle, a bone, a joint, or even good posture, your body simply shifts its resources somewhere else. It will always try to save energy. This helps in the short term, but the long-term effects can be severe.
A sedentary lifestyle does more than just make you sluggish or add a few pounds. Your joints stiffen, your bones lose strength, your muscles shrink, and your posture gets worse. Eventually, your whole movement pattern starts to change. Joints need movement to stay healthy. They are lined with cartilage and filled with synovial fluid. This fluid is only produced when you move. If you sit still, your joints dry out. Soon they feel stiff, creaky, and painful. It is a lot like a rusty hinge that has been left out in the rain.
Bones are alive, not just hard sticks holding you up. They are always breaking down and rebuilding themselves. But bones only rebuild when you challenge them. You need to lift, walk, jump, or put weight on them. If you don’t, your body decides strong bones are no longer needed. Bone density drops without you even noticing, until one day you are more fragile and prone to injury.
Your muscles also lose their memory for natural movement. Think of children squatting all the way to the ground to pick something up. Heels stay flat, backs are straight, and the movement looks easy. This is exactly how our bodies are built to move. Most adults have lost this ability. They wobble, fall over, or feel pain just trying it. The reason is simple: we stopped
practicing. We swapped squatting for sitting, walking for driving, and climbing for convenience.
Here’s the bigger picture. Movement is how the body keeps itself healthy. The average American now sits for over ten hours each day. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors walked between ten and twenty miles every day. They weren’t exercising, they were just living life. Foraging, hunting, climbing, crouching, and carrying things kept them moving. Their bodies stayed strong and capable, even into old age.
The good news is you don’t have to give up your phone or live in the wilderness to get these benefits. Just make choices that get your body moving again. Take the stairs when you can. Carry your own groceries. Walk or bike short distances. Sit on the floor instead of the couch sometimes, and practice standing up without using your hands. If you drop something, squat to pick it up instead of bending at the waist. These little habits are more than chores. They keep your body resilient.
Convenience has convinced us that rest should be our baseline. But comfort is not neutral. It can make us weaker and less adaptable. Your body is waiting for a reason to stay strong. Give it one.
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We all wanted summer, and now it’s a hundred and f*ck degrees outside.
I wish this summer was shaping up to be more Barbie and less Oppenheimer.
This heat has made me realize I Ainʼt built for hell. I gotta change my life!
After all the bullsh*t we’ve been through, we better be in the next bible.
You don’t look a day over gay.
“It’s all in your head”! Correct! And I’m on there too.
Why can’t my metabolism work as fast as my anxiety?
Why finish a thought when you can start a new and more exciting one?
