Newest Unity Club event combines dialogues on gender and identity with entertainment

Genders were bent and glitter was shed at the Berkeley City College Gay Straight Alliance club’s drag event on Friday night.

With the help of confetti cannons and catchy tunes eight performers from three bay area drag king troupes shared their art with an audience of students, friends, and peers. But the event did more than entertain, it educated and informed those attending and opened up the possibility of gender exploration through fun and interactive stations.

The night kicked off with the Rebel Kings of Oakland’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” routine by the dapper Vegas Jake, Mickey Finn, Dante DeMoan, and Andy Topser

Next to hit the stage was Fella-Fem, consisting of Dicky Luv and Mitchell Brothers, who donned sailor outfits to dance and lip-synched a coquettish act along to the light hearted “We’ve got us.”

Fella-Fem’s performance was followed by the Momma’s Boyz, Alex U. Inn and Randy Puck, high-energy hip-hop drag kings who rapped along to some familiar beats while sporting flashy gold sneakers.

Signs were posted to remind audience members to use the neutral they/them/theirs pronouns when referring to the performers who discussed their preferred gender pronouns later during the panel.

The discussion also addressed how the troupe members first began performing, how they chose their stage names, and what drag means to them. They settled on a simple definition for the art form, stating it was “the performance of gender,” an exaggerated presentation of the superficial features we associate with men and women respectively.

Many of the kings shared stories of first becoming involved in drag as a way of getting over stage fright or other similar fears and ending up hooked on the performance style. Others said that the performance came more naturally, but one thing they al had in common was a kind of fun and fearless pluck.

It takes a bold and open-minded person to defy accepted gender norms and put yourself on stage. All of the troupes present at the show exemplified this confident and lively nature and encouraged the audience to give it a shot by sharing some tricks of the trade.

Stations on choreography and body language were offered alongside air guitar lessons, makeup, and drag name roulette wheels to help audience members get in touch with their inner king or queen.

Those attending the even were able to reinvent themselves with stick on mustaches and glittery false eyelashes before moving on to learn a few dance steps from one of the performers. Few people left without at least a name-tag sporting the innuendo filled moniker of an exciting alter ego.

Participants learned that blurring the lines isn’t scary or difficult and that trying on the opposite gender can be liberating if you just give it a chance.

The Berkeley City College GSA will be hosting another identity explorative event in February, Custom Made Queer, a queer memoir performance showcase revolving around the theme embrace.