Articles

 
Making waves at the Rainbow Wave Festival drag king culture Dec 23, 2022

When Caitlin from the Rainbow Wave Festival and Jade from Deep in Drag, the afterparty contacted me with a bold request to travel down to Bega, NSW during my busiest two weeks of the year, there was a reason I said yes.

I grew up in a small country town, Everton in North East Victoria, pop.374 peop...

Continue Reading...
The ripples of Drag Kingdom drag king culture kings of joy kings of joy all-stars Dec 15, 2022

Whenever we gather together, it's powerful. Things happen that were not going to happen anyway. From new connections to standing ovations, at Drag Kingdom we celebrated the end of the year together as the Kings of Joy community.

From this one night, here's the impact we made:

  • 30 Kings of Joy per...
Continue Reading...
Drag Kingdom. 30 Drag Kings. 1 stage. drag king culture kings of joy kings of joy all-stars Dec 06, 2022

Drag Kingdom on 8 December brings together the Kings of Joy community in an end-of-year performance night that is the biggest Drag King event of the year. Topped only by our first Drag Kingdom in August. With 30 Drag Kings performing, it's a celebration of the uplifting community we are part of and ...

Continue Reading...
When Kindness Works: a new partnership drag king culture Nov 29, 2022

I'm standing in the events space at the back of The Working Kind Collective and the founder of Bambuddha Group, Anna Sheppard is waving her hand enthusiastically towards the wall which will soon have mirrors installed for our new rehearsal and workshop space for Kings of Joy. She turns to me and say...

Continue Reading...
How we pay it forward in Kings of Joy drag king culture Nov 04, 2022

It all started when I got a call from Jim Junkie, our loveable, local Drag King Fitness Influencer.

Jim (Becks Blake) said to me,

“I loved being part of that first group of Kings of Joy with all first-time Drag Kings. I wasn't sure if I would ever get to find a creative community like this. I want...

Continue Reading...
Who's your (Drag) Daddy? drag king culture Sep 27, 2022

Midsumma Carnival 15 Jan, 2012 (L-R Danica Lani, Rocco D'Amore, Lucy Berry & Alison Shirley.) Photo by Alison Bennett

My Drag King apprenticeship really began in the salon chair. Rocco D'Amore was my hairstylist for many years - and my Drag Daddy. We discussed everything from representation in the ...

Continue Reading...
The birth of a new song for Block 13 drag king culture free block 13 Sep 08, 2022

A newly released song 'Joy' penned by one of our Kings of Joy, Bridget Harilaou aka Trans Mission, was written as a love letter to our LGBTQ+ friends living in one of the largest refugee camps in the world, in Block 13, Kakuma, Kenya. When you buy the song from Bandcamp, you...

Continue Reading...
 
Live from Drag Kingdom #1 drag king culture Aug 31, 2022

Live from Drag Kingdom!

Chris aka Chase Cocks 0:00
You know, I could talk about this whole thing all night but I think we would probably be best to hear it from the choreographer, the creator of Kings of Joy, my wife, Danica Lani…

Danica Lani 0:11
Now I’m gonna cry…

Danica Lani 0:54
I’ve been sta...

Continue Reading...
What?! Kings of Joy T-shirts! drag king culture Aug 16, 2022

This Thurs 18th August is our inaugural, never been done before night of Drag Kingdom, bringing together the groups of Kings of Joy in an epic night of boi bands.

And as another first, we are releasing our very first, brand new Kings of Joy t-shirts designed by King of Joy, Toby aka Martin Van Tasm...

Continue Reading...
Bye, bye, bye... (boobies) drag king culture May 13, 2022

Photo credit: Sarah Malone

Gender affirming surgery has been raised in political commentary leading up to Australia's federal election with current Prime Minister Scott Morrison helping spread alarmist views and misinformation about this topic, alongside one of his colleagues. 

Less than a week af...

Continue Reading...
Do one thing a day that scares you drag king culture performance queer relating May 06, 2022

Photo credit: Sarah Malone @sierramalevich

I have something deep to share with you this week. On Saturday night at Temple, I took fate into my own hands and... walked my first (mini) ball.

I've seen balls here in Syndey - Sissy Ball has been fabulous, but my very first ball was when I was living i...

Continue Reading...
Who really is in prison here? drag king culture queer relating Feb 10, 2022

Marrugeku’s Jurrungu Ngan-ga. Photo: Prudence Upton, Sydney, 2022

After a number of days deep in the work of distinguishing and untangling the impact of systemic racism that was raised by the BIPOC members of my Kings of Joy Naarm group and had us withdraw our show Queers of Joy from the Midsumma f...

Continue Reading...