Why I Became a Drag Queen…
I started doing drag the week of my 46th birthday in February of 2020, about a month before the pandemic lock-down. I attended a fundraiser for the Providence-made scary-movie Death Drop Gorgeous, held at Barnaby Castle on Broadway in Providence with my brother and my roommate at-the-time - it was an exciting, glamorous event and perfect for my Pisces-birthday!
Suddenly Last Summer…. All-Star Ru-Girls take-over Providence!
Suddenly last summer the pandemic parted and the Queens came out to play!
These photos are from an unbelievable drag block party that happened in downtown Providence just before the finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 aired on TV.
Drag in the Creative Capitol
Every Thursday at Club EGO on Richmond Street, the “EGO Babes” put on an all-star drag show, with new one-of-a-kind performances every week - so it hurts to miss it!
Last Night at the Stable….
The Stable Bar in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island has become a destination venue for the darker side of drag talent. With Boston’s famed Violencia Exclamation Point and Providence’s own Ninny Nothin as resident hosts, the Stable has been importing stars from the dark-drag competition television series, Dragula much to the delight of local drag super-fans.
Filler Queen: Plot Twist: did anyone get the joke?!
Katya has been very public about her paranoia over hearing a voice from the crowd of queens already in the Werk Room as she makes her historic entrance utter the words, "filler queen" …
Is the future of drag a Waka Shame?
Waka Shame's carefully constructed looks merge glamour with a unique, under-worldly nature-spirit fantasy and to be honest, more than any other queen, Waka Shame inspires the type of drag I aspire too...because drag has the potential to be so much more than just lip-syncing at the gay bar and a rolodex of slick reads.
The Boulet Brothers: High Queens of Dark & Dirty Drag
I slammed my laptop shut on Season 1, Episode 1 of Dragula - the Drag Competition Reality show that replaces "Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve & Talent" with "Horror, Filth & Glamour". The first extermination challenge was so creepy and gross I wasn't sure I had the nerve for this show. Yes the discovery that my borrowed Netflix account hosted Season 2, and my fast-fondness for the subterranean sexual tension between Biqtch Puddin & Abhora, quickly converted me into a feisty Dragula fanatic.
The Two Sides of Katya Zamolochikova
I don't have to read endless fan accounts of heart-warming Meet & Greets with Season 7 Super-Star (and Ms. Congeniality) Katya Zamolochikova to know that she has a kind of tender consciousness that allows her to, as one fan put it, "interact and connect with a multitude of people and give each of them a completely different experience and sense of connection to her, so you can tell how truly emotionally intelligent Katya is". Because, reiterating that point, Season 7 Untucked reveals many of her fellow Drag Race contestants considered her their new best friend.
Biqtch Puddin'
Biqtch Puddin', aka Steven Glen Diehl, winner of Season 2 of the Boulet Brother's Dragula show makes #2 in my top 5 not for being a fiercely ghoulish trash queen, but for having a HUGE heart, the biggest heart, perhaps, in the entire drag industry, for Biqtch makes a point to make sure every single follower & fan of his ground-breaking, path-forging Digital Drag Show knows that they are valued and loved and important to him.