Dyke Drag Raises the Bar

HANNAH WEAVER, HOST:  When you think of drag, you probably think of gay men transforming themselves into “queens” with exaggerated makeup and costuming. But drag has always been more expansive than that. And now lesbians are participating in a monthly show in Brooklyn. I have more on how it’s bringing this underrepresented group into the drag spotlight. 

WEAVER, BYLINE: It’s a drizzly Tuesday night in Park Slope in Brooklyn. But inside Ginger’s Bar, the party is just getting started. In the corner, there’s a small stage with rainbow flags draped off the bottom. Two wind machines are at the ready.

I’M BABY: Um, okay, well, it’s Dykechella today, thank you everybody for being here.

WEAVER: Stepping on stage is a drag queen, wearing a yellow flower crown,a white flowy crop top, and rainbow gems as eyeliner.

I'M BABY: Um okay, I'm gonna start the show today, so don't forget you can throw dollars.

WEAVER: “I’m Baby” is tonight’s host…and co-creator of a monthly show called Dyke Drag. Its just celebrated its three-year anniversary, and in many ways, it is your typical drag show. Drag queens showcase extravagant fashion and lip sync to pop diva anthems …

["WOODSTOCK IN MY MIND" BY LANA DEL REY]

WEAVER: But… unlike most drag shows, these are performed by and for the lesbian community. Also, historically most lesbians have performed as drag kings, dressed as men. But most of these performers are drag queens. Kayla Manjarrez is the other co-creator of Dyke Drag. She says it was time to reimagine the drag show.

MANJARREZ: We felt like we either had to choose between going to the to the gay bar and hanging out with the boys to see drag or going to a lesbian bar. And we were like, but maybe those things could coexist.

WEAVER: Manjarrez also says the performers add elements that the audience will connect with.

MANJARREZ: Like for the first show, I'm Baby had a sign that said, sponsored by U-Haul during their number […] And another time they performed, “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry, and they handed out cherry chapsticks. It's just like, little things like that's like, if you know, you know.

WEAVER: Dyke Drag helps performers connect with the audience, and also with their own identities. Reina NoBuena is one of the performers on Tuesday. In the afternoon, before the show, she’s at home, putting on make-up in front of a mirror…. layering foundation and sculpting her nose with contour. She says her drag persona allows her to explore her femininity as a trans woman.

NOBUENA: I mean, I've always known I've been trans, but Reina really helped me find the hyperfemme in me and out of drag. I'm not the most femme, but it's, it's, Reina has become

truly an extension of me.

WEAVER: She’s so dedicated to her craft that she even created an elaborate backstory, which explains the black contact lens that she always wears.

NOBUENA: I have this lore that I am a witch, and I want to get powers to be the most beautiful. And when I did, I took too much, and I accidentally killed the Coven, and so I was damned with this eye, and one of my nails will always be, like, very different.

WEAVER: Tuesday’s show is Reina’s first time performing at Dyke Drag. It’s been on her radar for a while, and she’s excited to finally perform in this unique space.

NOBUENA: Tonight, for example, like I will be showing probably the most skin I ever have. And it's because of how safe I feel around my community … Ginger’s is such a safe space

WEAVER: On stage at Ginger’s that night, she wearing a bedazzled papery dress, silver hoop earrings and a matching silver choker for her lip-sync performance of “Vanish Into You” by Lady Gaga. 

["VANISH INTO YOU" BY LADY GAGA]

WEAVER: Towards the end of the song, a friend offstage hands Reina a cup of water. She splashes it onto herself, and the papery dress disintegrates, revealing a sparkly purple bikini underneath.

[AUDIENCE CHEERS]

WEAVER: Dyke Drag is the first and still the only recurring lesbian drag queen event in New York City… but lesbian and cisgender women have long participated in the art form. Dr. Lady J is a lesbian drag queen and wrote her PhD dissertation on its history.

LADY J: For a large part of the tradition's history, it has been performers who are wearing a

specific gender of clothing on stage that is usually not what they were assigned at birth.

WEAVER: But there are some who strayed from the norm. In the 60s, Fayette Hauser toured her Janis Joplin-like character around the country. In the 70s, a then-cisgender lesbian named Carter Bachmann performed in shows as Liza Minelli. 

LADY J: And I would say that as drag moves forward into the 20th century, and especially the

latter half of the 20th century, drag isn't about gender. [...] I think it's really important to remember that like people do drag as like dragons, people do drag as like a trash can.

WEAVER: Keenan Conley came to Ginger’s tonight with a friend who she met at a queer art group in Brooklyn. They’re skipping their beloved watercolor class to come to Dyke Drag for the first time. 

CONLEY: A lot of my close friends are gay men, so I've been to a lot of those bars, and it's not an inclusive place for women. And that's okay, because we have places like this [...]

I feel like this is a lot more of an inclusive environment. Like, I feel like there's people, there's very clearly, like fledglings, and then people that have been in the game for a while.

WEAVER: One of those performers who has been in the game for a while is a drag queen named Zenobia, otherwise known as the Drag Princess of Brooklyn. Reina NoBuena says sharing the stage with Zenobia tonight also gave her the chance to suggest a duet.

NOBUENA: And she was like, “oh my god, yeah, like, easy.” Which, I think, again, speaks to the community that Baby is able to foster I'm sure that it's not the first collaboration to happen in Dyke Drag history — herstory rather.

WEAVER: As a surprise number at the end of the show, Zenobia and Reina performed Beyoncé and Solange’s choreography from her iconic 2018 Coachella set.

["GET ME BODIED" BY BEYONCÉ]

WEAVER: Next weekend, the crew will head to Provincetown, Massachusetts to put on a drag brunch. It’s in collaboration with a group there who put on an event from 1994 to 2000 … that was also called Dyke Drag. Manjarrez says it’s a way for them to connect with their queer elders and the history that made their current show possible.

Hannah Weaver, Columbia Radio News.