![[Left] Laundra Tyme, host of this years drag show, opens with a Taylor Swift number in the multipurpose room of the new university union Tuesday evening. [Right] Johnny Rockitt dazzles with a theatrical performance.](https://thepioneeronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Untitled-1.jpg)
Photos | Kris Stewart
[Left] Laundra Tyme, host of this year’s drag show, opens with a Taylor Swift number in the multipurpose room of the new university union Tuesday evening. [Right] Johnny Rockitt dazzles with a theatrical performance.
CSU East Bay was a drag, in a good way
January 29, 2015
Pizza Cupcake, lead singer of Bay Area electro-pop queer group Gaymous, stomped the stage of a multipurpose room in Cal State East Bay’s new student union Tuesday evening wearing a unitard with high socks. Along with bandmate FX Boi, wearing a silver suit jacket, shirt and tie, Gaymous performed their recent single, “Let’s Pretend We Don’t Have Feelings,” and “Slut Buffer.”
Nearly 200 students attended the 2nd Annual Drag Show hosted by the university’s diversity center. The drag show was a part of LGBTQ Awareness Month and culminated a series of events hosted throughout January.
“We’ve performed songs with explicit sex positive lyrics in front of audiences with grandmas and babies present, so a college campus didn’t seem too intimidating,” Pizza Cupcake said.
Bay area drag artist, Laundra Tyme, hosted the event which featured other Bay Area favorites, Bebe Sweetbriar, Scarlett Letters, Suppositori Spelling, Johnny Rockitt and special guest Honey Mahogany, who previously appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
“We want our audiences to think about the expansiveness of gender and all the amazing ways they can express themselves through clothing,” FX Boi said. “Wearing a small unitard with cupcakes all over it is a radical act when fat people are supposed to be apologetic for their size.”
Drag artists are known for their unfiltered performances that aim to push boundaries and challenges audiences’ comfort level. This show was no different.
Johnny Rockitt sent sparks flying onstage as she took a power tool to her crotch.
Suppositori Spelling combined song and monologue from various celebrities. Laundra Tyme weaved through the audience’s chairs, crawling through their legs on the floor.
The evening also had quieter moments: during an intermission, drag artist Scarlet Letters explained to the audience that the queer community has become her family. “The performers appreciated the rare opportunity to perform in an academic institution,” said the diversity center’s social justice coordinator, Bucket Manyweather.
Manyweather hopes that students can enjoy gender play but also learn from it. “From misogyny, to harassment, to body positivity, to self-identity, the concept of drag is a loaded one,” they said.
