Arts & Culture 5
Art in Focus:
Kassidee Quaranta
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Domestic violence survivor emphasizes importance of empathy
Sports >> 8 Former Kansas thrower shatters record
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 26
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Alex Robinson/KANSAN
*Alex Robinson/KANSAN*
Professional drag queens from Hamburger Mary's in Kansas City, Mo. came to sing, dance and perform with local drag performing students.
**Alex Robinson/KANSA**
Drag performers prepare makeup and costume before the Brown Bag performance. Individuals of all gender and identity participants in the Brown Bag Drag Show.
Brown Bag Drag: Behind the Gaypril favorite
Alex Robinson/KANSAN
▶ LARA KORTE
@lara_korte
Hours before the lights went down and the music came on in the
Kansas Ballroom Friday afternoon, the performers were already hard at work, drawing dramatic cheekbones and carefully placing on fake eyelashes.
Surrounded by makeup brushes, eyeshadow pallets and suitcases overflowing with sequins, lace and heels, students transformed into queens — drag queens that is. Friday marked the 26th year of Brown Bag Drag, the annual daytime drag show put on by Spectrum as a part of Gaypril.
For Caithe Alexander, a junior from Shawnee, this is not the first time onstage. Their drag alter-ego, Alada Glitter, makes an appearance every third Thursday, performing at either the Jackpot or Jazzhaus on Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence.
Prior to the show, the dressing room adjacent to the ballroom is full of laughter, one-liners and plenty of up-beat music. There's not much in the way of pre-show rituals in the dressing room, although at one point in the preparation, Alexander does send up a praver.
"RuPaul and Gods of Drag, let my eyebrows not be patchy this day," they said.
The makeup routine is not what you'll find on a typical beauty blogger's YouTube channel. Rayfield Lawrence, a freshman from Kansas City, Kan., said he gets frustrated when it comes to his eyebrows, which require layers of Elmer's glue and powder to conceal and re-draw the brows in a more dramatic fashion. Another student, Owen Brown a freshman from Abilene, Kan., spends time combing out a long, pink wig for when he goes on as "Lil Sequin."
It is Brown's first time performing, and although his peers do their best to help him contour his face and draw his eyeliner, he's still feeling anxious.
"I'm pretty nervous," he said.
Nathan King, a junior
from Kansas City, Mo. is getting ready to perform as Crash Banger Coot, an alter-ego he described as a 1950s greaser "mixed with a modern douche bag." Although it is also his first time
pre f r i t h i n g.
King said he felt
pretty good going
into it.
"The fact that there's always the possibility of tips is good motivation, also I'm just excited to feel the energy of everyone out there," King said. "I know drag is good fun. It gets people involved a lot."
Roze Brooks.
advisor for Spectrum and the graduate assistant in the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, said Brown Bag Drag is by far the most popular event for Gavpril.
"For some reason, folks show up in droves for Brown Bag Drag," Brooks said. "And I don't know if it's just because there's a lot of people
and so you're kind of just encapsulated by other folks so it doesn't feel like you're the weird, sore thumb in a space, but there's more accessibility to it for anybody to come, or it's just folks really like drag
RuPaul and Gods of Drag,let my eyebrows not be patchy this day."
Caithe Alexander junior
shows.'
"We publicized this one, and it has tradition behind it," Brooks said.
In addition to the six students performing drag, three professional queens also took to the stage. Daisy Bucket (pronounced "bouquet") is known for her perform-
mances at the Kansas City drag show Missie B's. Friday marked her 10th year as host of Brown Bag Drag. Over the past decade, Bucket said she's seen the show change from politically-charged to more care-free.
"It feels less activist, where 10 years ago, it felt like this was an activist
movement, the show felt like 'we're out here, we're making a statement, we want to be heard', where now it's like, 'Hey let's put on a show', she said. "It feels less politically motivated."
Bucket said she believes tone of the show has changed because students are more engaged in social issues.
"I think that students are smarter now, because I think social media is a blessing and a curse, but I think because people are more engaged in social media, people are more in tune with the news and what's going on in the world," she said. "And I think that's great, I think people are talking, which is very important, especially this year, it's an election year."
By noon the ballroom in the Union had quite a crowd. Over 100 people gathered around the stage and above in the balcony to watch the show. Bucket kicked off the lineup and soon the room was filled with shouts, laughter and cheers as the performers shimmied, twirled and sang along to upbeat pop hits.
King was one of the first onstage, and quickly got familiar with the crowd by dancing with audience members to Justin Timberlake's "Rock your Body." Omar Rana, a senior from Tulsa, performed a traditional Indian dance from a recent Bollywood movie. Throughout every performance, audience members were not shy — clapping along and even occasionally tucking dollar bills into the queens' clothing.
The event lasted a little over an hour and ended with all of the performers back on stage for a last dance.
Although he had been nervous at the start, when it was said and done, Brown said he was happy he had done it, and especially enjoyed the audience participation.
"I was surprised at how strongly they reacted," Brown said.
Although the biggest party has come and gone, Gaypriil will continue through the end of April with several more events hosted by Spectrum.
- Edited by Sam Davis
Spencer Research Library obtains 1,000 self-published zines
▶ BRIANNA CHILDERS
@breeanuhh3
The Spencer Research Library recently obtained more than 1,000 zines from the Solidarity zine collection. The zines were brought to the library in part by Frank Farmer, an English professor and the director of first and second-year English at the University.
Farmer explained that zines are handmade amateurish self-publications that are meant to express a point of view that typically does not fall within mainstream discourses.
"They characteristically have a lot of attitude, embrace a DIY ethos and circulate in a different way than a more official sort of publication," Farmer said.
When Farmer found
out that the Cosmic Beauty School, where the zines were held, was being shut down, he asked if it would be willing to donate them to the library. The Cosmic Beauty School was a group of people interested in social justice, alternative communities and perma-culture.
Farmer said zines can be thought to have emerged around the 1930s with the publication of the first science-fiction zines. There was a movement of self-publications that emerged when punk rock was entering the scene in the 1960s.
An aspect of zines that Farmer said is important is that anyone can publish one.
"One of the purposes of writing your own zines is to encourage your readers
to do their own as well," Farmer said. "The more people you have doing zines the larger that identity is crafted."
Becky Schulte, a University archivist and curator of the Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements, said the zine collection will be added to the Wilcox collection. She said zines in general have a radical aspect to them.
"These people don't have to go through that regular long publication and process," Schulte said. "They do it themselves and they can have a voice and use it right away."
While zines may look like just a few pieces of paper thrown together, there is something special about
SEE ZINES PAGE 2
University libraries are now home to hundreds of zines.
Missy Minear/KANSAN
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