Students and staff share individuality through queer art at Amateur Drag Night

On April 4th at 8 p.m., MC Pride Club hosted its annual Amateur Drag Night. This 18+ event, hosted at the Bird and the Book, allowed students and staff to learn about the art form of drag, perform numbers and watch their peers express themselves in a safe and welcoming environment. With ten student performances and four staff members standing as judges, this was a lively event and an exciting night for everyone involved.

“This is my third year in a row being a judge, and I’m honored every time I’m asked to participate,” said Noah Bowman, Director of Academic Support. “I love our MC students more than they will ever know, and if being a judge helps encourage or improve the mood or morale of just one student participant, then it’s worth the late evening out on a Friday night.”

This event has become a tradition for the MC Pride Club because of the importance of drag as a queer art form. The art of drag can be defined as a “performance of gender,” and it traces back to Shakespearian times, when women were not allowed to act, so men had to dress as women to place female roles on stage. While it is most popular in LGBTQ+ communities, it is not a strictly queer art. Non-queer individuals can also watch, enjoy and perform drag.

“It is important to have a drag night through Pride Club because it allows students, many of whom grew up in situations where drag was not celebrated or accepted, to have an easy introduction to the world of drag. It also helps affirm to LGBTQ+ people that the college supports their right to exist and their expression of their identity regardless of the feelings of the current administration,” said Katie Parnell (‘27), the President of the MC Pride Club. 

Drag Night is also an important event to hold because of the current political climate. The Pride Club has made it clear that despite political tension, queer art and community can and will survive.

“With the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and policies in Tennessee, we want to use our position as a club to help make sure the art of drag lives on and is supported,” said Marvin Overholt (‘26), MC Pride Club’s Event Coordinator. “Since we are affiliated with the college, it allows the students of Maryville College to learn more about the LGBTQ+ community and support each other.”

MC Pride’s Drag Night not only exists as an introduction to drag but also as a celebration of individuality and the arts as a whole. Both the students and staff involved with this event agree that drag as an art form is valuable in giving performers a form of self-expression that is genuine and creative.

“This event is imperative because Drag Night is a form of exploration and expression that has existed for so long,” said Aja Rodriguez, director of Community & Belonging at MC, as well as a returning judge for the event. “It affirms so much about identity and freedom to find out who you are without the pressures of ‘normalcy’ which can be toxic and oppressive.”

This idea of self-expression is incredibly important to the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the Pride Board, who use this event to encourage students to show sides of their personality that may not always be at the forefront of their lives. Oftentimes, fear, stigma or political tension can force members of the LGBTQ+ community to hide parts of themselves for a sense of safety. However, drag events provide a safe environment for these people to let down their walls and be vulnerable.

“Performing drag forces people to engage with the parts of themselves that society sees as transgressive and to be more free and expressive,” said Parnell. “It also serves as a gathering space and a way to interact with your community, and it is generally just a fun time.”

The performers agree that the purpose of drag is to encourage representation, confidence and community. Multiple performers at the event mentioned that the art of drag provides a creative outlet to express the most genuine versions of themselves.

“Drag night is important because it allows a safe space for people to express themselves freely. Especially for people in the LGBTQ+ community, these outlets where people are free from fear of judgement are fundamental to a happy, healthy community,” said Anthony Fraser (‘26), who performed under the stage name “Spider Lily” in the event. ”I never really get a chance to express myself anywhere else, and I feel very seen when I perform.”

In the current political climate, a few challenges arose in the planning of this event. Legislation about LGBTQ+ issues, the frequency of drag bans, the risk of protest and the controversy of hosting drag on campus led to a large discussion of the best and safest way to host this event.

“The current legislation has put a few restrictions on how we planned this event,” said Parnell. “We were required to make it ‘18+,’ limiting some students who are not legal adults yet from coming. We also had to make it off-campus to accommodate rules about on-campus drag.”

In order to ensure that the event would be considered “18+,” IDs were checked at the door. This way, the safety of minors could not be questioned, which is often mentioned as a concern in countless anti-drag beliefs and laws, such as the Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act, which bans “adult cabaret performance” and “male or female impersonators” in spaces where minors are present.

However, despite the controversy of drag the current political climate, the Pride Club emphasized that it is important to continue performing and celebrating this art form, against all adversity.

“Drag Night helps show that this art form is not what it is being mischaracterized as. It is important to continue these performances despite the criticism,” said Rodriguez.

Another matter discussed by the Pride Board in preparation for this event was people’s comfort, or discomfort, in interacting with drag in this political climate. It has become a very stigmatized art, with politicians targeting the art form as a way to indirectly target the LGBTQ+ community. So, consent became a matter of extreme importance for the MC Pride Board.

“We’re implementing a ‘consent bead’ system this year so audience members can interact with performers to their own comfortability level,” said Parnell about the event. “It’s a great opportunity to get comfortable with the art if you’ve been unsure about seeing or performing drag.”

These consent beads were offered to every person who entered the event space. People who were comfortable interacting with performers accepted beads, and those who preferred to simply observe did not take beads, clearly signifying to performers who was comfortable being a part of the performance, and who preferred their space. 

Out of ten performers, eight chose to participate in the drag competition. The four judges collaborated in determining the winners, with first, second and third place receiving prize baskets put together by the MC Pride Board. After much deliberation by the judges, the first place winner was “Amanita Nightshade,” also known as student John Lee (‘28).