Broadcast and photo by Kyra Miles
MILES: On a Sunday afternoon at The Herritage Bar in downtown Kinston the crowd is revving up for three larger-than-life performers.
MILES: One person comes out in bright red and orange feathered headpiece, another in a floral gown, and another in a fully bedazzled jumpsuit bursting into a provocative lipsync performance.
We’re at the monthly ENC Pride Drag Queen Brunch where the reigning Miss ENC, Michelle Micheals, hosts the show.
MICHEALS: I have been doing drag for 25 years. I’m known as eastern North Carolina’s drag Mama.
MILES: Since ENC Prides inception a year and a half ago the mission is to provide a safe and comfortable place for Eastern North Carolina’s LGBTQ plus community. While the queens perform their kicks and splits, Michelle Micheals looks on fondly.
MICHEALS: When I moved to North Carolina, it was very much of you have to look like a woman you have to be prim proper. North Carolina now–it’s kind of changing where we’re welcoming all the new styles of drag the female to male, the male to female, the cisgender, everything. We’re kind of opening the doors and welcoming everybody where it used to be just men dressing up like women. So the time is changing.
MILES: Drag as an art form is characterized by exaggerated femininity. It’s glitter and big hair, accentuated curves, and over-the-top makeup. It’s experimental. And it’s a constant throughout the LGBTQ plus history. Josh Burford is the director of outreach and lead archivist for the Invisible Histories Project, a non-profit organization documenting the history of the queer American South.
BURFORD: Drag performers in North Carolina, especially have always skirted that line somewhere between, like entertainment and political resistance.
MILES: North Carolina saw its first gay bars pop up in the 1960s and 70s. Burford describes the LGBTQ plus movements in the South as locally focused and grassroots. The community gathered wherever they could— even in rural settings.
BURFORD: I think in every way that matters queer history in North Carolina reflects the building of LGBT communities in other parts of the country it’s just that we were not on the radar.
MILES: In the mid-60s, drag was one of the only safe ways for transgender men and women to explore their identities at the time. But in the 1990s drag shifted into a contemporary understanding of female-impersonation in a cisgender context. Today, drag expands to everyone regardless of gender expression. But, drag in North Carolina has always been about making a statement.
BURFORD: I don’t think North Carolina isn’t really on people’s like destination radar for drag. And I’ll be honest with you, I’m not really entirely sure why.
MILES: Heidi N Closet, from Ramseur, is putting North Carolina drag on the map. On season 12 of Emmy- award-winning competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race, she was crowned Miss Congeniality in front of millions of viewers. The drag star now lives in Los Angeles but hasn’t forgotten her roots.
CLOSET: I’m proud to be from North Carolina, you know? I faced a lot of struggle, strife, whatever it may have been in North Carolina, but it’s built me up to who I am and now I’m showing the world what North Carolina drag is all about.
MILES: And according to Heidi N Closet, North Carolina drag is all about pageants, professionalism and inclusivity. Sexism, racism, and transphobia are constant issues in the LGBTQ plus community, but activists, including drag queens, have always been working to make safe spaces for everyone.
MILES: Jazmine Addams attended the ENC Drag Brunch as a supporter, but she’s also a drag queen herself.
ADDAMS: I think that’s the human experiences as finding that space where you belong. You don’t see a trans woman getting a Grammy Academy Award. But I’m like a celebrity in my community because they’ve come to the shows and I’m, I hear that applause and I feel that love.
MILES: What was once an underground community has exploded into global popular culture. Drag Queens are becoming household names, and the LGBTQ community continues to make strides in inclusivity in North Carolina. In Kinston, I’m Kyra Miles.
