All these years later, Joey Arias is still channeling Billie Holiday. It’s an uncanny, even eerie, recreation, a tribute from the incomparable singing drag queen to the incomparable jazz vocalist.
A few years since his last performances in D.C. via the former Speakeasy cabaret series at L’Enfant Cafe, Arias returns as part of the inaugural season of Septime Webre’s Halcyon Stage.
Saturday, April 29. Doors at 8 p.m. Halcyon House, 3400 Prospect St. NW. Tickets are $60. Call 202-298-5956 or visit halcyonhouse.org.
Drag artists and advocates fighting back in the culture war against drag and LGBTQ rights have seen triumphs and setbacks this summer. Two recent federal court decisions -- one in Florida, the other in Texas -- illustrate opposite shifts in the war being waged over anti-drag laws in states around the nation.
In August, a federal appeals court upheld Florida's law that bans performers or venues from conducting any "adult live performance" in the presence of a minor. The law defines "adult live performance" in terms loose enough to apply to practically any performer who appears in drag in a public space -- from a drag brunch to a Pride parade -- where a minor could be present, even with their parent or guardian's consent.
Reality TV works in mysterious ways. An ostensible loss can quickly and unexpectedly be transformed into a win, especially in the hands of a queen who's prepared. RuPaul's Drag Race favorite Salina EsTitties, a.k.a. Jason De Puy, was heartbroken, she says, that her run on the recent All Stars season 11 came to an end in her first round of competition.
The feisty Latina performer, who first competed on Drag Race proper three years ago, returned for All Stars with fierce new looks and a fierce attitude, but still missed the cut of queens who made it out of their bracket to the Merge, where finalists would compete.
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