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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251016
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SUMMARY:The Drag Queens of New Yorkby Julian Fleisher30th Anniversary Exhibition
DESCRIPTION:DQNY30!\n \nVideos from the Era Screening Event\n\n \nThen & Now Presentation and Screening Event\n\n \nOrder your own DQNY30 Prints Here! \n\nThis fall marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of the landmark The Drag Queens of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide (Riverhead)\, by Julian Fleisher. \nCurated by Howl!’s Aldo Hernández\, author Julian Fleisher and TWEED Theater’s Kevin Malony\, DQNY30 draws from Fleisher’s original archive\, bringing together never-before-seen photographs\, taped audio interviews\, handwritten notes\, correspondence\, surveys and more. Many of these materials — including recorded talks not only with dozens of legendary drag queens\, but also\, among others\, bell hooks\, Sandra Bernhard\, Fran Lebowitz\, and Quentin Crisp — have been newly digitized and restored. It offers a glimpse into the complicated process of chronicling New York’s legendary drag scene and the artists who shaped it — all during a time which\, in spite of its provocative spirit\, now seems almost quaint. \nPublished in 1996\, “DQNY” was years\, if not decades\, ahead of its time: the first trade paperback from a major publisher to celebrate the history\, culture\, lives and careers of the golden age of New York’s riotous drag scene. Framed (somewhat cheekily) as a field guide\, it devotes much of its time to the long\, hidden history of drag in New York and its persistent interrogation of the prevailing culture\, mores and norms. The book then concludes with nearly thirty iconic profiles\, telling the creation stories of such drag legends as Lady Bunny\, Lypsinka\, Charles Busch\, Sherry Vine\, Candis Cayne\, Mona Foot\, Hattie Hathaway\, Mistress Formika\, Tabboo!\, Miss Understood\, Afrodite\, Dolores\, Sweetie and many more. Almost every story is accompanied by a unique studio portrait by photographer Brooke Williams. \n“The Drag Queens of New York was meant to be more than just a snapshot. It was a genuine effort to capture the magic and creativity of the artists who made the scene an unforgettable explosion of color\, wit\, lunacy and defiance.” says Fleisher. “Like the original book\, DQNY30 is a fresh celebration of that unique moment as well as of the performers\, audiences\, connoisseurs\, historians\, fans and all those who contributed their wisdom\, grit and spirit – both on stage and off. It was a side-hustle that took on a life of its own.” \nThe exhibition promises a journey through years of drag culture\, using images\, audio\, and ephemera from Fleisher’s original sessions\, as well as a peek at the sometimes chaotic process of making the book itself. During its run\, the exhibit will also include panels\, discussions and more\, inviting fresh\, contemporary perspectives on the legacy and continued relevance of New York’s ever-fierce drag community. Copies of the original book — long out of print\, but widely cherished — will be available for reference during the show. \nAll photos by Brooke Williams\, unless noted otherwise. \n\nAuthor’s Statement\nThe Drag Queens of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide was published in 1996. In 1994\, when I signed with Riverhead Books (“The same imprint as Harold Bloom!” I crowed\, pretentiously)\, I was just a measly couple of years into my dream of becoming a nightclub singer — a career that\, at that stage\, was yielding no meaningful “scratch”. So\, like most young hopefuls in NYC\, doing their best impressions of Joseph Campbell’s hero\, I worked a bunch of side-hustles in order to fund my journey. I was a waiter\, writer\, retoucher\, actor\, SAT tutor and personal assistant to the truly psychotic wife of an aging writer whom I revered. And yet: Not enough scratch. Not enough flexibility. So — after a boozy night recounting my adventures exploring the bonkers drag scene in my new “edgy” East Village neighborhood — when an editor I knew offered me a $20\,000 advance to write a book about it\, I truly believed I had hit some kind of cosmic jackpot. That number seemed impossibly large and my eyes bulged with visions of all the studio time I could buy with it. Ha! How paltry it would turn out to be\, though\, when stretched out over two years\, in three\, small (taxable!) installments. To say nothing of how much I’d spend just chasing the book: research\, travel\, tickets\, covers\, minimums\, meals\, interns\, Lou Reed charging $500 to quote four lines from Walk on the Wild Side. (In context!) My side-hustle needed a side-hustle.\n \nThe game changed\, though\, when I found myself starting to care — deeply — about this strange\, new gig and the people I was writing about; folks with whom\, it seemed\, I was starting to fall in love. As the challenge of doing justice to the uncanny beauty of their demimonde truly set in\, however\, I buckled. The history\, culture\, legend\, scenes\, stories and struggles of this enchanted world revealed themselves to me like the curtain rising on Tosca at the Met: overwhelming. To capture it all? Impossible. To punt? Shameful. And this during a time which\, for all of its high-octane\, rapid-fire changes\, now seems rather quaint. The internet was barely a thing: no smart phones\, text chains or social networks. Research happened in libraries\, correspondence in the mail; messages were left on machines and interviews were recorded on cassettes. Cassettes! Even with the help of friends and interns\, I was flailing in a stew of missed deadlines\, untested writing skills\, reams of transcripts and a growing pile of unfulfilled ambitions for what I had hoped to achieve — and what I could offer these beautiful people who were sharing their stories with me.\n \nI turned to (among other things) self-help: those “how to write a book” books\, a couple of which I myself had written during my time side-hustling test-prep and other “educational subjects”. While browsing The Strand (Google it)\, I came upon a newcomer to the category: Bird by Bird\, by Anne Lamott — now a beloved staple of the “how to” genre. Her solution to the problem of how to write? To write! Oh great. But how? Well\, famously\, she recalls her brother’s meltdown at having to finish a report on birds which he had months to complete. Dad saves the day by offering him the bromide that gives the book its title: “Bird by bird\, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” So elegant. So avuncular. And at $13.99\, a bargain. So\, I would do the same thing; I would take it…queen by queen. And just like that\, I saw “DQNY” for what it really wanted to be: a bird guide in its own right. And why not? After all\, just like Lamott’s\, my subjects sported plumage and camouflage\, observed peculiar social hierarchies and partook in unique rituals and strategies for survival. Their habitat — downtown New York during the AIDS crisis — was surely no less wild and unforgiving than that of any of Lamott’s feathered friends. Approaching the scene as a kind of docent\, introducing newbies (myself included) to a mysterious ecosystem inhabited by exotic fauna cracked open the whole enterprise for me and\, now\, here we are.\n \nWould I take that approach today? Could I? Is this a side anyone should hustle? Drag is simply not what it used to be\, and neither is the world. Given current sensitivities\, it’s probably best for anyone who writes about drag to\, um\, do drag — as have the likes of Charles Busch\, RuPaul and Linda Simpson. Linda’s fabulous Drag Explosion is a towering tribute to the same scene as my book\, arguably better. After all\, she’s been making the scene herself the whole time. As playfully affectionate as my “field guide” trope was meant to be (and it was!) its cheeky hint of objectification would likely be unacceptable now\, at least coming from a civilian\, even a devoutly queer one. Furthermore\, what drag means has changed fundamentally. The scene that fascinated me was untamed\, chaotic\, debauched\, defiant and not for general consumption. There was no panel of judges. A show at Pyramid or Boy Bar or Tunnel or Jackie 60 was just for us. In that room. On that night. The lunacy was bespoke: it wasn’t for the internet\, posterity or the star-maker machinery. Sure\, it was about the star-maker machinery. But it reminded us that life could be sexy\, smart\, sleazy and hilarious in spite of the outside world. Not because of it. Or (worse yet) for it. It felt like resistance.\n \nDrag understands\, celebrates and leverages pop culture as pungently as any creative movement ever has. And\, at its best\, it’s also an antidote to it. Writing DQNY taught me that drag is at least as much about class as it is about gender. Gender (such as it is) may be the grammar\, but the meaning has always been that the “have-nots” have way more fun than the “haves”; the essence of most underground scenes. Now\, thanks to the ride of the Drag-Industrial Complex\, queens are routinely counted among the “haves”. It’s no longer quite the same brand of fun — at least not as we see it on TV\, where drag has been adjusted to fit a much wider audience with much less…to lose. Thankfully\, here in NYC\, there remains an uncooperative drag scene in bars and clubs from the Village to Bushwick\, where dominant/corporate culture is still the prime target\, even as that culture scoops up and machine-tools the occasional queen for global distribution. The promise of fame and fortune — once the butt of the joke — hangs in the air differently at drag shows now\, to be sure.\n \nBut in some of those rooms\, on some of those nights\, if we put down our phones\, the show can still be…just for us.\n\n— Julian Fleisher | October\, 2025
URL:https://www.howlarts.org/event/the-drag-queens-of-new-york-30th-anniversary/
LOCATION:HA/HA\, 250 Bowery\, 2nd Floor\, New York\, NY\, 10012\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibition,Gallery,HAHA,Happening Now,Happening Soon,Performances
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