“Lessons in Drag” with LaWhore Vagistan

“Lessons in Drag” with LaWhore Vagistan
Fri, April 5th from 7-8:30pm in the Dance Studio at the ’62 Center

Dr. Vagistan, your favorite South Asian drag auntie, brings the nightclub to the classroom (and vice versa) to explain how critical social theory matters in queer nightlife. Touching on themes that include globalization, feminist theory, and islamophobia, she stages the nightclub as a site of politics and pleasure. Part lecture, part lipsync, part audience participation, the show demonstrates how much drag teaches us, even requires us, to be in relation with the rest of the world.

This event is free and open to the public.

LaWhore Vagistan is everyone’s favorite overdressed, overeducated, oversaturated South Asian drag aunty. Her music videos have screened at the Mississauga South Asian Film Festival, Austin OUTsider multi-arts festival, Hyderabad Queer Film Festival, and San Francisco 3rd i film festival. She has performed at the Wilbur Theatre and La Mama with Sasha Velour, as well as at the Austin International Drag Festival, Asia Society, AS220, Queens Museum, Jack Theater, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Not Festival, Links Hall, and A.R.T. Oberon. You can find her on YouTube delivering a TEDx Talk titled “How to be an Aunty” and on Instagram at @lawhorevagistan.

Reviews
“Lessons in Drag” is a tour de force. Combining humor, melodrama, erotics and kitsch, the show is a delightful celebration of sensuality and humanity. In her beauty, her brashness, and the way she owns the stage, LaWhore Vagistan offers a new model of what political embodiment can look like for the 21st century. – Ulka Anjaria, Professor of English and Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities, Brandeis University

“In the depths of the early months of the COVID pandemic, “Lessons in Drag” with LaWhore Vagistan was a balm for the soul! Costume changes! Lip syncs! Mini-lectures! This performance is an urgent reminder of drag’s capacities, a form both generous to its audiences (trust–you’ll have fun) and electric in its political interventions.” – Andy Campbell, Associate Professor of Critical Studies, USC – Roski School of Art and Design

“‘Lessons in Drag’ offers lessons in politics, love, joy, and intimacy— expanding the notion of what drag can be in relation with the world, with each other, and with ourselves.” – Claire Pamment, Associate Professor of World Theatre and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, William & Mary