It was a night of glitter, games and gender-bending at Friday’s Amateur Drag Show Fundraiser.
Daniel Warner could barely catch up to his racing adrenaline as he stood in heels, a burlesque costume he borrowed from his mother and a black wig accented with pink highlights.
But on this night, as the stage lights hit his glitter make up, Warner transformed into his stage persona: Lilana Licorice.
During his performance, he said the audience clapping with him “gave me life.”
More than 200 people filled the Walter Hall Rotunda on Friday for the Amateur Drag Show fundraiser, put on by Ohio University’s LGBT Center. The event raised $1,094 to help individuals attend the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference, or MBLGTACC, in February.
Nine performers strutted their stuff, entertaining the audience with individual acts intertwined with group games like “Queens and Kings against Humanity” and “The Dating Game.”
The doors opened just before 6 p.m. and as time went on, chairs had to be brought into the space. Some people were standing and some were sitting on chairs that were brought in from the hallways.
Warner, a senior studying psychology and the project coordinator for the center, organized the event. His “Lilana Licorice” performance followed his mother, Toni’s, performance. She had done a belly dance routine earlier in the show, taking on the stage name “Adorabella.” She danced at last year’s show when Warner needed more performers, and she happened to have her costume with her. This year, Warner asked her ahead of time.
“I love to perform, it’s awesome, but more so, I love watching Daniel perform.” Toni said. “I support him no matter what, I love him no matter what.”
The two both agreed that it was special to perform together, and Toni said she would want to do it again in the future.
It was a night of glitter, games and gender-bending. There were not only male-identified individuals dressing feminine, but acts included hyper-gender, drag kings and skag drag, or drag that incorporates both masculine and feminine features, and Warner demonstrated.
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“This night is about messing with gender norms, gender f--king if you will,” Warner said. “I’m excited to have an audience who doesn’t see this sort of gender-f--kery and I ultimately want, even though it’s a high gender expression, I want it to be normalized.”
Performers danced and lip synced along to songs like Ariana Grande’s “Problem” and Rihanna’s “S&M.” Avery Flener, a freshman studying social work, who performed under the stage name “Madame Chai,” sang “When You’re Good to Mama” from the musical, Chicago.
The surprise of the night was when a special performer was announced, whom earlier in the evening the crowd decided to name “Sharon Dicks.” That performer was Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center.
“This is the first time I’ve ever done this so it’s an opportunity to share a different side of myself,” Bautista said. “And also, show myself a different side that I didn’t know was there.”
Bautista said the show’s “debauchery” was hopefully a reprieve from the intensity of this week’s protests against guaranteed tuition.
Creating safer spaces has always been a goal of the center, especially considering the lack of spaces for LGBT folks in Athens and southeast Ohio in general, Bautista said.
“One of the other performers shared with me what was exciting about the performance was that none of us are famous; (for) some of us, it’s our first time,” Bautista said. “It’s an opportunity to support local folk, first time folk in an area of the world where we don’t have these outlets. I think it’s our mission to create those outlets and claim those spaces for LGBT, queer and just folks who just want to drag themselves out.”
Leslie Michael and Rebecca Stretton are both Athens High School students who attended the event. Michael and Stretton are also members of Athens High School Gay-Straight Alliance.
“They definitely knew how to work it,” Stretton said.
Warner said he originally didn’t think he would do another show after this, but after the event, he said he couldn’t see himself not doing it again.
“I hope future drag shows are going to be more successful than this one,” he said. “It’d be great if we could have a bigger space and still fill that one up. I hope that people … at least took away some sense that gender is a little more fluid.”
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