On an unseasonably warm winter Sunday in Manhattan’s West Village, a bashful 8-year-old mixed with a crowd of brightly adorned adults.
“It’s fun … and you get to see people who are beautifully dressed,” Fox McGinnis said, describing why he likes Drag Story Hour so much.
Fox formed part of a gaggle of other children, parents and a smattering of New York dignitaries for the event.
Drag Story Hour NYC’s program gives drag performers a venue to read to audiences of all ages, though many of the events are geared toward younger children.
A cohort of toddlers on a rainbow mat shrieked and rolled around. One of the storytellers who joined them wore a neon pink leather jacket with studs and a spray-dyed mohawk – a sort of watermelon candy take on the biker-gang aesthetic. Another performer sported high heels and long tassel earrings, part of a green and purple get-up that felt Mardi Gras inspired.
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The kids seemed sufficiently distracted as a wall of New York’s Democratic political players and community organizers spoke to the room.
A tone of resistance ran through short speeches given by New York Attorney General Leticia James and City Council speaker Adrienne Adams, no doubt a nod to the protestors outside who represented the increasingly tense politics around drag story hours across the country.
Adams ended her speech with: “story hour … drag on,” a line that was met with loud applause.
The kids are alright
Professor Lionel Longlegs, a storyteller with a swirl of pastel face paint and rainbow ears, kicked off the read-a-thon with a book entitled “From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea” by Kai Cheng Thom. It dealt heavily with identity, though that may have only been apparent to the adults in the audience.
Worried that they won’t fit in and torn about who to be, the main character (who was written to use they/them pronouns) turned to their mother who repeated throughout the book:
“Whatever you dream of I believe you can be from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea, you can crawl like a crab or with feathers fly high, and I’ll always be here, I’ll be near, standing by and you know that I’ll love you till the day that I die.”
As the refrain became more familiar, some of the children and parents joined along in repeating it.
“Something that I think is so special and expansive about drag is that I can be anything,” Longlegs, who uses fae/faer pronouns, an alternative to the gender neutral to they/their, said. Though fae has been performing in drag for over seven years, Longlegs only started with Drag Story Hour NYC in March of 2021.
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Reading to different age groups gives real insight into the minds that will one day shape the country, Longlegs said.
“It’s so beautiful to get to talk to them and get to see them and know the kids are alright – and they are. The kids are so brilliant and so wise,” fae said.
Parents flock to story hour for its message
Corey Westover, 36, brought her three-year-old daughter to the event.
“The joy and the love that’s in the atmosphere is just palpable,” she said. “They tend to choose books with themes that are about love and acceptance and being who you are, which are all things that we want to instill in our child.”
After the first set of stories most of the elected officials left and the event settled into a comfortable buzz. Parents caught up with one another while keeping an eye on their kids who danced to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” between stories.
Lara Americo, 38, said as a trans femme growing up in the South, she experienced “discrimination in all its forms.” Though she doesn’t think her child is transgender, she is intent on showing them a world that is absent of hate. Drag story hour helps with that, she said.
“Children can see themselves clearly in the books,” Jessica Waverka, a 45-year-old mother of two explained. “It is important for kids to see not only themselves, but other people in the literature they read.”
Longlegs identified that as the common thread uniting those who bring their children to story hour. “People that are aware that there’s fullness of life that they don’t know,” fae said.
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No matter how their child might identify, parents want to expose them to “all the types of ways of being,” Longlegs said.
Amy Hanberry, a 44-year-old kindergarten teacher, seemed to echo that sentiment. “I see children ask courageous questions and get courageous answers,” she said.
A joy for children and grown-ups alike
When drag king Oliver H. took his turn at the mat, he joked with a particularly energetic listener that he also liked to do the splits as a kid – only now it’s his job. One book entitled “Rooster Wore Skinny Jeans” had parents and kids alike erupting with laughter.
Drag story hours aren’t just for kids, Longlegs said.“Adults are told to stifle the fullness of ourselves,” fae added, just as kids are told to temper their mess of emotions.
But emotional expression, especially for young children, doesn’t always follow logic, Longlegs said. It exists in extremes – bright colors, vigorous body movement – it’s exaggerated, dramatic, without limits: much like drag.
