Wed 4/6 @ 4:30PM
How many drag queens have a link on their website menu for “Read my dissertation”? It’s likely that Cleveland’s Dr. Lady J is the only one. She received her PhD from Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Music, with a dissertation on “From the Love Ball to RuPaul: The Mainstreaming of Drag in the 1990s.” And yes, it’s great reading, very accessible and free from academic jargon.
So it’s appropriate that Dr. Lady J will be the special guest moderator for a panel called “Rhinestone Revolutionaries on the Flaming River: Untucking Cleveland’s Drag History,” taking place at CWRU’s Tinkham Veale University Center as part of its 2022 Humanities Festival.
She’ll give a short history of drag in Cleveland over the last 100 years, and then lead a panel featuring drag artists from the last 50 years, who’ll look at the evolution and mainstreaming of drag in Cleveland, from the 70s when it was almost exclusively done in gay bars where the panelists got their starts, through today when drag shows are presented in music clubs, libraries, theaters, restaurants and more. They’ll shed light on that evolution.
The panelists include Erica Martinez, who began her drag career in 1987 and has 47 pageant title; Isis Tiffany Soul, who’s been performing drag since 1977, the year she became the first Miss Gay Black Ohio; Terri Williams, owner of the Gay Black Ohio pageantry system, performing since 1994; and former drag king Donnie Waste, a founding member of CKG: Cleveland Kings and Girls.
It’s free but if you attend in person, registration is required. Go here. The event will be livestreamed here.