The Rapturous Diversity of D.C.’s Drag Scene

metroweekly.com:

Present Tense: DC Punk and DIY, Right Now.Skeiky first got an eyeful of D.C.’s underground drag scene several years ago, shooting photos of punk bands like HomoSuperior, fronted by queen Donna Slash, before she actually joined the band as guitarist.“Because of my bandmate, I was exposed to more of the alternative drag D.C., beyond character drag or diva drag or drag brunch kind of things,” Skeiky recalls, noting that also was the first time she was seeing more trans and nonbinary performers.“I think the really beautiful part of D.C.

drag is there are a lot of trans and nonbinary performers, and in general it gives more room to play, not just with doing a caricature of one gender or another in a binary.

There’s more of this, ‘Let’s warp these ideas of gender, let’s warp these ideas of femininity, let’s put our own spins on those, put our own experiences with these gender binaries and our own opinions of them into play and do something different with them.’ And it becomes genderless in some ways, and it becomes gender-full in some ways.”Skeiky has captured that scene of underground artists and performers in photos that will soon be featured, along with work by photographers Cassidy DuHon, Koto Langa, and Keylimehi, in the exhibit Survive, Glamorously: Images of Drag in the District, opening May 3 at Ron David Studio.“A glimpse at the subversive queer art scene that exists in the nation’s capital,” the show is presented by Haus of Bambi, whose director, Bambi Woofter, co-curated with Skeiky.In addition to their work as a choreographer, producer, and DancePlace artist-in-residence, Bambi Woofter personifies alternative drag in their own performances.