On Thursday night, Schine Underground buzzed with anxious activity, set to the reverberating pop beats of Lady Gaga, Kesha and Carly Rae Jepsen. Various foldout tables held overstuffed makeup bags, glistening gowns and wigs of all colors, textures and lengths.

The eight drag performers who were awaiting their time on stage worked together to prepare themselves for the show ahead, fixing each other’s makeup and dress. As members of the audience started filing in and taking their seats, the performers began to quiet down, entering their own worlds. The lights dimmed to a deep glowing pink. Drag Show Prelims were underway.

This year marks the 17th annual Drag Show for Syracuse University’s Pride Union, a tradition that Quincy Nolan, the organization’s president, has a special attachment to: The first time Nolan performed in drag was at the Drag Show two years ago.

Growing up gay in rural Pennsylvania, Nolan said that he originally stayed away from drag, and other feminine clothing or behaviors, in order to protect himself from judgement. Although he was an avid fan of the popular VH1 series “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Nolan said he never thought drag was something he would do.

“Then I bought a 99 cent tube of lipstick and thought I was everything,” he said, laughing. “It just snowballed from there into what I do now.”

Quincy Nolan (left) and Sam Lee will perform in Pride Union’s 17th Annual Drag Show on Thursday, Feb. 28. Sophia Faram | Contributing Photographer

These days, Nolan performs as Bella Fantasia, a name inspired by the play “Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” a classic in the LGBTQ community and beyond.

Nolan said as he has grown as a drag performer, he has moved away from wanting to solely look like a woman and has embraced the androgyny of Bella Fantasia. A highly coveted asset in traditional drag is “fishiness,” a term in drag community vernacular that describes the ability to “pass” as a woman. Nolan said one of the things he wants to highlight in this year’s Drag Show is the diverse versions of drag that deviate from the traditional “fishy,” feminine form.

“Having people be able to express themselves in these ways that make them feel so seen and inspired and valid, I just think it’s really beautiful in a way no other art form can offer,” Nolan said.

Rachel Ayala, who performs as Javier El Jugador, said performing drag has allowed her to be someone she wants to be. Ayala is a drag king, a masculine form of drag that rose into prominence during the 1990s. She was the only drag king who competed in the Drag Show Prelims on Thursday night.

“Javier is a lot of the character qualities that I do have, but they’re a lot stronger when I work as him,” Ayala said. “Rachel has anxiety, but Javier doesn’t.”

For Connor Feliu, who performs as the ghostly Victorian woman, Mother Superior Jeanne de Anus, drag is an opportunity to express a heightened version of himself. A philosophy major at Le Moyne College, Feliu said he’s especially interested in the academic and historical side of drag.

“Drag is the ability to intrinsically express a subversive identity,” Feliu said, “in a place where I don’t have to worry about getting beaten up for it.”

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The term “drag” has been associated with the queer community since the 1920s; when the dangerous nature of bars and clubs for queer people at that time instigated the rise of “drag balls.” These events came in the form of parties where dressing in a feminine way was the norm.

Drag as a performance art dates back to the 1950s, coinciding with the rise of bars catering to the queer community. Although drag is not exclusive to the queer community, Nolan, Ayala and Feliu all said that as queer individuals, it offers them a strong sense of kinship.

After all the performers had their moment on stage, contestants Kalinda Kelly, Daphne, Donna Tendo and Helga Felga were voted as top acts by the audience. All four will perform in the Drag Battle Finals, which will be hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, Pearl and Shea Couleé.

Raul Hernandez, an SU acting major who performs as Kalinda Kelly, competed in drag for the first time at the Salt City Drag Battle in January. Hernandez said one of the things he loves most about drag is the camaraderie the drag community offers. For his performance at prelims — a burlesque-style dance set to a cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” — Hernandez wore a flowing grey-blonde wig that his drag mother, who became his mentor after the Salt City Battle, styled specifically for him.

Raul Hernandez (left) and Michael Battles both performed in the preliminary round of Pride Union’s 17th annual Drag Show. Sophia Faram | Contributing Photographer

“Traditionally, drag is a place where freaks can be freaks,” Kelly said. “People bond in the fact that you can’t really bond anywhere else.”

This year’s Drag Show finals, to be held on Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium, will be Nolan’s final drag performance at SU, something he describes as his “pinnacle moment.” For Nolan, the show will be the culmination of a college career deeply integrated within SU’s queer community.

On top of his role as president of Pride Union, Nolan is the editor-in-chief of The Out Crowd, SU’s only student-run LGBTQ publication, an LGBT studies minor and Student Association’s Chair of Diversity Affairs. Even more-so than his own performance, Nolan said what excites him about presenting the Drag Show is the ability to create a space that welcomes queer people and encourages them to feel proud of who they are.

“Maybe someone seeing this kind of performance will be able to love themselves in a way they didn’t think they could,” Nolan said, “because now they see other queer people doing things they didn’t think were possible.”

Published on February 17, 2019 at 11:44 pm