By Collection Management Librarian Dontaná
Drag is an art and a performance. In As You Like It, Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage, / And the men and women merely players.”
Drag performers throughout history have taken this line to heart, including in Shakespeare’s own time. (Did you know that all the female parts were played by men back then? True story!) Performers use hair styling, makeup, costumes, and jewelry to become someone other than themselves, gaining confidence and presence that can carry over into their everyday lives.
Use this International Drag Day—recognized annually on July 16—to learn more about drag and famous drag performers or to kick back with a good book or classic movie.
Titles for International Drag Day
The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag by Sasha Velour
Why you should try it: 1) You love Sasha Velour. 2) You love when a book can combine personal memoir with historical context.
Description: From iconic queen Sasha Velour, a thought-provoking manifesto that explores the cultural influence of drag as activism, art, resistance, and identity, illustrated with her original artwork.
Glitter & Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman
Why you should try it: Drag as a form of self-expression has existed for centuries. This book explores the unique history of drag in the U.S. from the beating heart of NYC.
Description: From the lush feather boas that adorned early female impersonators to the sequinned lip-syncs of barroom queens to the drag kings that have us laughing in stitches, drag has played a vital role in the creative life of New York City. But the evolution of drag in the city—as an art form, a community, and a mode of liberation—has never before been fully chronicled. Informed by meticulous research and archival work, as well as original interviews with high-profile performers, Elyssa Maxx Goodman's history is a significant contribution to queer history and an essential read for anyone curious about the story that echoes beneath the heels.
Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag & Trans Performance by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Why you should try it: Drag is an exaggerated performance of gender. This book places drag within the context of resistance activism by looking specifically at Latinx expressions.
Description: This book focuses on drag and transgender performance and activism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. This interdisciplinary, auto-ethnographic, queer-of-color performance studies book explores the lives and work of contemporary performers and activists including Sylvia Rivera, Nina Flowers, Freddie Mercado, Javier Cardona, Jorge Merced, Erika Lopez, Holly Woodlawn, Monica Beverly Hillz, Lady Catiria, and Barbra Herr; television programs such as RuPaul’s Drag Race; films such as Paris Is Burning, The Salt Mines, and Mala Mala; and literary works by authors such as Mayra Santos-Febres and Manuel Ramos Otero.
Be Drag Fabulous: How to Live Your Best Drag Queen Life by Queen LaGrande
Why you should try it: Remember that Lady Gaga lyric "don't be a drag, just be a queen"? This book will help you embody that lyric and step out in your full glory.
Description: Get ready to perfect your shantay and slay like the queen you are. Containing 75 essential lessons, Be Drag Fabulous will show you how to become the most spectacular version of yourself.
And Don't f&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race (The First 10 Years) by Maria Elena Fernandez
Why you should try it: If you've never watched RuPaul's Drag Race and want to know what all the fuss is about, this is for you.
Description: This oral history of the first decade of the groundbreaking drag reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race examines how it has become a reflection of the changing cultural and political mores of our times.
The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul
Why you should try it: We couldn't possibly make a list about drag performance without including RuPaul's memoir.
Description: From an international drag superstar and pop culture icon comes his most revealing and personal work to date—a deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance.
Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars
Why you should try it: Drag queens are everywhere, even in cozy mysteries!
Description: When Misty Divine’s drag mother, Lady Lady, is found dead in her dressing room beside a poisoned box of chocolates and the performers are suspected by police, Misty must solve the crime before the culprit strikes again.
Luda by Grant Morrison
Why you should try it: With echoes of The Substance and a cover that invokes the infamous Divine, this thriller is sure to slay, literally.
Description: Superstar drag queen Luci LaBang, the mistress of the Glamour, a mysterious discipline that draws on sex, drugs, and the occult for its trancelike, transformative effects, tutors Luda, her young protégée, in the magical arts until people around them begin meeting untimely ends.
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar
Why you should try it: This perennial favorite is uplifting and encouraging. Plus: The amount of character building and research with real drag queens that Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, and Wesley Snipes did to prepare for their roles in this classic film cannot be overstated.
Description: En route from New York City to Hollywood for a drag queen beauty pageant, Noxeema, Vida, and Chi Chi are forced to take an unwelcome detour when their 1967 Cadillac convertible breaks down. Stranded in the tiny town of Snydersville, the three try to make the best of their unfortunate circumstance. And when their glitz and glamour wake up the sleepy local citizens, the stage is set for an outrageously funny weekend.
About Dontaná
Dontaná is a Collection Management Librarian who was born with an unending reading list. She is almost always reading two books simultaneously and is easily distracted by cool covers.