Latest news with #dragqueen
CBC
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
It's Gay Ol' Times at this Toronto seniors' home
People in drag aren't usually a common sight at a seniors' home. But once a month, drag queen Minhi Wang has been showing up in full makeup, wigs and heels to perform Gay Ol' Times for residents and staff at The Gardens at Kensington Health, a long-term care home in Toronto's downtown. "Thank you for having me back," Minhi Wang told the crowd at The Gardens earlier this week. "This means a lot to me.... I think it just says a lot to have an event like this — to have a drag queen perform regularly in a long-term care facility. I also think it speaks volumes about acceptance." Gay Ol' Times was created in partnership with Minhi Wang as a way to foster inclusion in long-term care, educate residents and staff, and celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Check out Thursday's show below. Before her show started, Minhi Wang also said she sees it like planning for the future "because I hope that when I grow old, there will be a drag queen performing for me. (Minhi Wang is the stage name of David Shih-Ming Yao.) "OK, let's get this party started," said Minhi Wang, who has been performing at The Gardens since 2017 and was a finalist in Season 5 of Canada's Drag Race. (Alex Lupul/CBC) (Alex Lupul/CBC) The event also included remarks from president and CEO Adil Khalfan of Kensington Health, a not-for-profit organization that offers such services as long-term care, hospice care and community care. "The beauty of Kensington has always been about showing up to work, being who you are, looking after the people in this community and allowing them to be who they are," Khalfan said. "Because together we are so much stronger." (Alex Lupul/CBC) Others present for the performance included Anne Howard, a resident at The Gardens since 2016 and a fierce advocate and ally of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
CBS News
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Meet Miss Foozie, an icon of Chicago's LGBTQ+ community
As we celebrate Pride Month, we want to introduce you to an icon in Chicago's LGBTQ+ community and nightlife: Miss Foozie. "I'm all about love and family, friends, bringing out some energy. That's Miss Foozie," she said. "You can be who you are just by creating a character that brings people joy and love." Miss Foozie is a character created by a great guy named John. Nearly 30 years ago, some friends convinced him to put on a costume and a wig, and take the stage at a North Side bar. "The owner came up and said, would you be interested in doing a show here? It was a joke, just for fun, and it just started," she recalled. "And here I am, 28 years later. Wow. Crazy." Miss Foozie is in all sorts of places, representing the LBGTQ+ community at her pet Pride events, making the crowd laugh at Miss Foozie's Bingo Night and welcoming guests at a drag queen brunch. But she wants to make something clear. "John is me, Miss Foozie is me; I'm the same person. He and she are the same, but when I put this on, I'm her," she said. And Miss Foozie reminded us she's a character, not a drag queen, even though she has the utmost respect for them. "To me a drag queen is someone who likes to change their look at a lot. Their hair is incredible. They look almost like a real woman," she said. "I' ma character. Character artist. Always stay the same with different outfits; that is a character." And those outfits sure are something else. "I have an incredible wardrobe, maybe 50 outfits," Miss Foozie said. "For the holiday, you know, a little holiday Miss Foozie. Then we have Valentine's. Everything has the letter F for 'Foozie.' There's a lot of fun stuff here." She also has a wall of fame featuring people she met at different events and fundraisers, including drag queens and politicians. Two of her favorites are the late comedienne Joan Rivers and actor Mark Ruffalo. "Joan Rivers, I spent an evening with Joan Rivers. It was incredible, so excited to meet her," she said. "I was with [Mark Ruffalo] at a charity event in Wisconsin. We raised a lot of money for that fundraiser. It was great to spend time with him." She also shared some of her prized possessions, including several awards for commitment to the LGBTQ+ cause. "I was included into the Chicago LGBTQ+ Hall of Fame," she said. "My award's there, and I look at it every day and I'm so excited to be a part of the community. You represent the community, you represent being out there, letting people know you can be yourself." And live fully from your heart. "Life is here and gone, you want to spend as much time as you can enjoying every minute," said Miss Foozie. "We need fun, we need energy in this world. We need love, that's why Miss Foozie's here. Love everybody. That is Miss Foozie." Miss Foozie said she really loves it when people recognize her at parades and events; it means so much because she knows she's shared some love. You can see Miss Foozie at Drew's on Halsted the first Sunday of every month, and Cesar's Home of the Killer Margarita on the first Thursday of every month. Do you know someone a person or place that brings you joy? We want to share your story. Send us your "Eye on Chicago" ideas using the form below (or clicking here):
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
My unexpected Pride icon: Jurassic Park's strutting, swaggering T rex is pure camp
'That's camp,' proclaimed my drag queen friend Vanity as we watched the T rex rip a tyre off a Jeep in the first Jurassic Park movie. It's 2012, 2am and we're in her bedroom playing our favourite Jurassic Park drinking game, where you swig every time you see a dinosaur. 'Is it, though?' I said, doubtfully, dipping a Walkers Sensation in some coleslaw. 'Course it is. All the gays love Jurassic Park. Don't be an idiot, Jones.' She pointedly slapped down the lid on the coleslaw as if that were the end of the matter. I thought about it a bit and ultimately agreed with her. I absolutely loved Jurassic Park. And so did just about every queer person I knew. Jurassic Park, in fact, made me feel proud. Prouder than seeing a load of 00s popstrels perform at Pride parades, prouder than drinking in the street in Soho, prouder even than M&S's Pride sandwich. Granted, my judgment was a little clouded from the drinking game. But still. I've since wondered if this was specific to my strange little bubble of pop-culture-obsessed London reprobates. But its surprisingly innuendo-ready quotes ('clever girl', 'hold on to your butts', 'dinosaur eats man, woman inherits the Earth') and unforgettable performances (human and raptor) are an enduring staple everywhere from drag brunches to bleary afterparties. London's historic queer venue the Royal Vauxhall Tavern held a Jurassic Park cabaret night in 2023 called 'Life Finds a Slay'. In San Francisco last year, the Brava theatre hosted 'Jurassic Drag', two Jurassic Park nights celebrating various drag legends ('they've survived a hostile world and trekked the Earth collectively for more than 170 years … which we all know in drag time is roughly 250 million'). Also last year, the Canadian podcaster and academic Hannah McGregor published a feminist-focused queer memoir, Clever Girl, billed as 'a smart and incisive exploration of everyone's favourite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous and free'. (An honourable mention goes to the British gay couple and their dog who went viral in 2020 for recreating scenes from the films during lockdown.) It makes sense when you look at the first two movies. Their director, Steven Spielberg, has always had a propensity for the camper, more fun side of mild to moderate peril, flinging damsels into snake pits and children into shark-infested waters at the first chance he gets. He and the screenwriter David Koepp wield this impish inclination with gusto in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: The Lost World, whether it's a dilophosaurus wobbling her wattles or Julianne Moore gasping on glass over a gulch. Laura Dern is constantly in peril in the first movie – and for a lot of gay men, women in peril is a favourite genre – there is a stampede of psychosexual and misogynistic issues to dive into with that one. (Other notable women-in-peril franchises beloved of gay men include Scream, Buffy, Tomb Raider and, depending on Tyra Banks's mood, America's Next Top Model.) Also, if you are a millennial gay man, Jeff Goldblum's tanned, heaving bosom inside a liberally unbuttoned shirt was definitely at least part of your sexual awakening. A special mention should go to Bob Peck as park warden Robert Muldoon, who sported short-shorts that would make even Lara Croft raise one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows. (The later Jurassic World films are notably sanitised, safe and sexless in comparison – like smooth, scaly iPhones.) Really, though, if I stand up in the Jeep, take off my sunglasses and really look at it, the main reason I find pride in Jurassic Park is right there, rumbling and stomping in front of me: the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are deeply camp – their fierce, confident assuredness followed by their fiery, dramatic downfall. Their strutting, swaggering gaits. It's very drag, with their relentless energy and fierce joie de vivre, not to mention their various ruffs and feathers and talons and shiny teeth. They just served. Some may say it's ridiculous to have an emotional affinity with 65m-year-old extinct reptiles, to which I say: why is it any more ridiculous than having an affinity with Strictly Come Dancing or Taylor Swift or raccoons? It's not. It's completely normal. Now, pass those night-vision goggles: we're going to Hampstead Heath.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Big names to take to stage at York's Grand Opera House for St Leonard's Hospice
York drag queen Velma Celli is staging an event for St Leonard's Hospice reports MAXINE GORDON YORK'S most famous drag queen is hosting a charity concert in memory of his mum and in support of St Leonard's Hospice. Ian Stroughair (aka York drag queen Velma Celli) has joined forces with his friend Sarah Walker - daughter of the late Heartbeat author Peter Walker - to organise the show, titled Voices United: Rubies for our Angels. It will take place at York's Grand Opera House on Friday July 18 at 7.30pm and star Velma Celli as well as Jess Steel, Stuart Allan, Joanne Theaker-Spencer, Laura Castle, and Jonny and the Dunebugs, among others. Tickets are available from The evening of music will be in honour St Leonard's Hospice which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. York drag queen Velma Celli is organising a fundraiser for St Leonard's Hospice in July. Image supplied Ian said: "My dear mum Pauline Kennington passed away after her battle with cancer eight years ago in St Leonard's Hospice. A horrible time made much easier by the wonderful kindness of the angels at St Leonard's. "By awful freaky coincidence, my dearest friend Sarah Walker and her family lost their legendary dad and husband Peter Walker just weeks before my mum and then devastatingly so her precious sister Tricia Walker just months later. An utterly heartbreaking time for all." Peter and Tricia Walker Retired policeman Peter was better known as writer Nicholas Rhea, whose Constable series of books was turned into the hugely popular TV series Heartbeat. Sarah said: "This will be a charity fundraising concert in memory of my dad, sister, and my Ian's mum who all died in St Leonard's Hospice York within months of each other. It is also the hospice's 40th anniversary, so we felt it a fitting time to do it this year." She added: "Both Ian and I have long wanted to repay the hospice for the support our families received at the most difficult of times. Ian came up with the idea of a charity show after learning that St Leonard's receives just a quarter of its annual running costs from the NHS. The other six million pounds has to come from fundraising. We want to do our bit to help.' All of the artists are donating their time and talent for free so as much money as possible will go directly to the hospice, added Ian. Sarah Atkinson, community and events manager at St Leonard's said: "We're really excited about the upcoming Voices United evening at the Grand Opera House as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. St Leonards Hospice in York Image: Supplied "The compassionate care we provide at St Leonard's Hospice is only possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, and we very much appreciate the continued support. So, book your tickets for a glittering evening of entertainment and join us in celebrating both the talent and spirit that make our work possible."
CBC
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How drag is breaking down barriers in the climate fight
Drag queen Pattie Gonia is bringing style and sass to the climate fight. Through her TikTok account and community events, she aims to show why 2SLGBTQ+ people need to be involved in protecting the environment.
