The Art of Drag!

Outer Blog: Walking down the jagged, uneven rock sidewalks through a neighborhood does not scream excitement. When approaching the Golden Lantern it looks like your casual small town bar, nothing fancy or pristine. Upon entering it gives the same vibe, one dimly lit room with locals snugging the wooden bar. Live music rang from the door to the left that lead into a second smaller room. Following our group into the second room led to visualizing the singer on stage, a beautiful short haired blond, makeup done to the nines, a short black dress beautifully clinging to every curve of her body, and thigh high leather boots to make the whole outfit.
She intensely strummed her acoustic guitar laying across her lap, while belting out beautiful lyrics written by artists of the past. The strum of her guitar, the knocking of the cow bell and the jangle of the tambourine (the two latter being played by mediocre crowd participants), resonated through the room till the main show was introduced. The blond leaving the stage and the change of music brought an excitement so intense it could be cut with knife. After great anticipation the first act entered the stage, two elaborately dressed women, one long haired blond outfitted in a long purple dress that sparkled brighter than the night sky, and the other a shorter golden haired blond wearing fishnet stocking and a bright tiger print dress. Both lips singing ten times better than Mariah Carey at the 2016s New Years celebration. The night continued on like this, women dressed elaborately, lip singing and dancing with confidence and sexuality that compares to no other.

Inner Blog: The women tonight really hit me to the core. I had always wanted to see a drag show because I have friends that preform and I had seen the work that goes into it. I thought it would be fun just to admire the outfits and the make up, but it ended up being so much more. Yes these men take massive amounts of time to get figure out all the lyrics to lip sing, perfect their make up and costumes, and choreograph their routine but it is so much more than that. These women come out with such amazing confidence and sexuality that very few women ever exert. That is really what spoke to me. They take pride in their art and they are so ridiculously comfortable in their performance it is amazing. I feel weird when I try to dress up in something that is out of my comfort zone, these women are dressing as a whole different gender,

nailing it, and owning it in a way I have never seen. It was probably the most woman empowering thing I have ever experienced. If these woman can be so confident, sexy and dominate dressing as my gender then I too can find those qualities in myself. These women ranged from being very small to a little thicker but they wore their sexy tight clothing that expanded the room. If they can love their bodies that much than I can too. Attending this show was one of the best things I've ever done, not only did I get to see first hand a beautiful art form well known in New Orleans but I learned some really good things about myself. Side note, I also learned that if someone puts both their hands on our shoulders from behind shrug them off before they pull you down with them (not a metaphor for life, a girl literally pulled me down with her as she tripped over the stair behind her. Thankfully I ended up landing on top of her and not the rock hard floor).