Andrew Shi

Last Friday night, students crowded in the Odeon for Drag and Donuts, hosted by the Office of Student Activities in collaboration with the Sexuality, Women and Gender Center (SWAG). The show featured drag queens Arabella LaDessé, Bunny Wonderland and Chartreuse Money of the Curbside Queens, as well as a food truck run by Morning Moose Coffee.

Attendees formed a line from the Smith Union entrance to the end of the Dudley Coe Quad, ready to collect their donuts as they waited for the show to begin. Settling into the amphitheater rows, audience members donned glow-stick accessories and waved light wands provided by Student Activities.

Each queen performed three numbers in alternating order. Chartreuse Money started the show strong with her signature barrel roll while “Buttons” by The Pussycat Dolls played in the background. Arabella LaDessé vogued to “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé, with a break dance interlude to “It’s Tricky” by Run-D.M.C. eliciting enthusiastic applause. Bunny Wonderland lip-synced to Josie Geller’s self-revelatory monologue from the 1999 romantic comedy “Never Been Kissed” before breaking into song.

The performances were interspersed with chatty intermissions where the queens shared personal anecdotes and reflections on drag. Knate Higgins, the performer behind Bunny Wonderland, contemplated his nearly two decades in drag, highlighting his undiminishing passion for the art form.

“I’ve always said I’ll stop doing drag when it stops being fun. And it’s never stopped being fun,” Higgins said.

Higgins also emphasized the importance of drag in educational spaces, pushing back against rhetoric framing drag as indoctrination. Instead, he emphasized how his identity supports his role as a pre-kindergarten educator, a message that resonated with audience member Nick Colby ’29 as a queer student planning to major in education.

“It’s important … how queer art can be expressed in educational spaces without it being seen as indoctrination,” Colby said. “I love the way education was brought into the performance in a playful, fun way.”

Similarly, Director of SWAG Natalie Turrin underlined how the event combined community building and cultural education to serve the center’s mission of fostering a safe environment for women and LGBTQ+ people on campus.

“Part of our mission is about building community around queer culture and joy, and I think an event like this does that in a really fun, low-pressure way,” Turrin wrote in an email to the Orient. “Alongside drag’s historical context and cultural significance that students learn about in the classroom, this kind of event gives any student a chance to experience drag firsthand.”

Assistant Director of Student Activities Brandon Rogers-Reed emphasized that the event was many students’ first encounter with drag.

“If you come from … a small town in the middle of nowhere, you might not have been to a drag show before, so it’s cool to be able to provide different types of events,” Rogers-Reed said.

Although Drag and Donuts wasn’t Colby’s first encounter with drag, it was one of his first experiences seeing a drag show in person. Having first discovered drag during lockdown, Colby shared how transformative it was to participate in a show.

“Before this, my only experience going to drag shows in person was last year [at] Bowdoin through Drag Fest,” Colby said. “It was nice to be in the presence of it rather than observing it through a screen.”

While the Curbside Queens have been hired for past College events, this year was their first time performing in the Odeon, a location that experiences significant foot traffic.

“Since it was outside, it was really easy for students [to join]. Even if they didn’t know about the event, they heard it,” Rogers-Reed said. “Even one of our coworkers that lives nearby was like, ‘Yeah, I could hear some of the stuff going on.’”

Another new development was this year’s collaboration with Topsham-based business Morning Moose Coffee, new to the food truck game.

“It was cool to support a local business and create that relationship because we’re always looking to diversify from who we usually work with,” Rogers-Reed said.

Reflecting on the event, Turrin expressed her hopes that students left with a newfound appreciation for and curiosity toward drag.

“Drag is genuinely fun to watch, even if you’ve never seen it before. I hope people left [the show] curious to see and learn more about it,” Turrin said.