Queens from 'Drag Race,' Priyanka, Kahmora Hall, Gia Gunn, Brita Filter, Kimora Blac, Yuhua Hamasaki, and Rock M. Sakura all spoke to Cosmo about their experiences as API drag queens.
The Beginning of Drag Culture In San Antonio
Published: May 31, 2021
One of the hardest working queens on the scene, Paramour Bar Entertainment Director Kristi Waters is more than just an award-winning performer. Waters is a multi-talented powerhouse who helped catapult the drag culture in San Antonio from “hush hush” to loud and proud. Audiences pack the Paramour’s Sunday Drag Brunch every week to watch her vamp it up with her glam costumes and raucous humor. But what they may not realize is that Waters is an introvert by nature.
“I’ve always been really shy,” she says. “It’s only when I’m in full drag that I come out of my shell. To me, it’s like a mask, and if you can’t see who I am, then I can say what I want.”
On one level, I truly do love how
Drag Race takes its position as one of this moment’s biggest queer pop-culture products seriously and devotes time to topics and histories the team feel We Need To Discuss, from Black Lives Matter to Madonna looks and Warhol, and everything in-between.
On the other hand, sometimes it’s just a bit too didactic: I don’t really need to see Ru act incredulous that 20somethings don’t know about disco figures, as important as they are. It’s Frances Joli all over again; yes, it’s important to know your references (especially in drag, which is post-modern by design/ever referential blah blah blah), but the show tends to place too much emphasis on it, to the point where queens can get away with being purely referential, rather than genuinely creative.