On March 20, Ruth Taylor Fine Arts Center Courtyard was filled with students, faculty and families sitting at brightly colored tables, snacking on breakfast tacos and awaiting the entrance of Queen Fantasia Wood.
PRIDE was hosting their fourth annual Drag Brunch, celebrating drag culture with drag performances and an array of food. Once Wood came out, attendees cheered, and she introduced three performers: Joselyn Breezy, Gina Anthony Crawford and Neon Frk.
The entertainers danced to Tate McRae, Fifth Harmony and Bruno Mars, weaving between tables and showing off their flips, tricks and splits. As is tradition, the audience spurred them on, shouting and waving dollar bills in the air for the performers to take.
Though this year’s Drag Brunch followed the event’s usual themes and activities, it was a first for many students in attendance. Sophia Ortiz, sophomore neuroscience major, had long-awaited the time to attend a drag show. When she showed up at Drag Brunch, she grabbed tacos and waited on Wood. “It was a perfect day for a drag show,” she said.
Catherine Zarr, senior political science, Spanish and sociology triple-major, is the president of PRIDE and helped organize the last three Drag Brunches. She’s thankful for the visibility the brunch has brought to the drag community, and for her, it’s important that drag be open, seen and appreciated.
“It was important to us to have an outdoor space where people could come and go, and just walk up and be like, ‘Oh, there’s drag right here.’ Let me watch a little bit and see what it is,” Zarr said.
With drag under attack, Zarr said there’s always the concern that PRIDE may not be able to have an event like this in the future. She intends to keep it going as long as the organization is allowed.
“As long as we are able, we are going to keep doing this. We’re going to keep bringing these amazing performers here,” Zarr said. “This is just an amazing, beautiful event to have every year.”
Zarr hopes that Drag Brunch continues to be an event that thrives in the Trinity community in the future. Though she graduates soon, Zarr said she can leave Pride knowing she introduced students to the experience of a drag show for the first time.
*This article was updated on March 31 to correct a mistake. Joselyn Breezy, not Mistress Osiris, performed during the Drag Brunch.
