For this community engagement requirement, I will be reporting on my attendance and take away of a local drag competition show in Richmond, VA I attended every other Monday in October and the second week of November.
During the month of October and November, local Richmond drag queen, Chicki Parm, hosted a bi-weekly competition show titled The Least Bad Drag Performer of this Particular Group. Chicki Parm is known for her camp style personality (hence the competition name) and polished outfits. This competition show included 4 challenges of the 7 competitors: Thea Trickality, Jessica Peru, Monique Michaels, Rose Wood, Venetian, and Veronica Venom. The competitors were all local Richmond drag performers that represented various aspects of drag (high fashion, dancing, glamour, etc). Each week that a challenge occurred, 1-2 performers were eliminated with then having a top 3 on the last week. The competition show brought in a large crowd and was a hot topic of discussion within the Richmond drag scene throughout the entirety of the competition. Hosted at the Camel, a local bar in Richmond, the competition featured a series of guest judges, a packed crowd, and opportunities for networking and connecting for the LGBT community.
The Least Bad Drag Performer of this Particular Group allowed for a lot of intercultural communication, one of my focuses throughout this course. Thea Trickality identifies as a trans-woman and Venetian identifies as trans-nonbinary. These two performers presented the non-traditional presentation of drag, the former cis-gendered man participating in female illusion. Thea incorporated her trans identity in her week 2 outfit by using only the trans flag into her outfit (light blue, white, and light pink). When looking at intercultural communication, the aspect of gender and how it is express falls under this topic. Noting that drag is a huge example to use when discussing gender, it becomes even more interesting and specific when conversations of the performers gender identity intersect with their performers and presentation. Where a lot of drag performers have their character’s gender and then their true gender, performers like Thea Trickality and Venetian’s gender in and out of drag remain the same.
One of the most prominent things that I have learned in my studies, as it relates to this community engagement experience, is that the gender is communicated in various ways. When a performer, who is well aware of their gender identity, decides to incorporate their identity (whether boldly or subtly), they are communicated their existence in a way that is loud but also silent. It really tapped into my understanding of what communication looks like, especially intercultural communication. Drag IS intercultural communication, simply by being what it is—performative art (something is being told, whether it’s a story, a message, pain, love, etc). The Least Bad Drag Performer of this Particular Group provided a lot of opportunities for intercultural communication from the performers to the audience and judges; there were many examples that was amazing to see. Navigating through this course, I was able to look deeper into these experiences I was involved with and able to see them for their scholarly application.
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