Growing up, Mrs. Kasha Davis and Aggy Dune didn’t expect to be drag queens. Femininity, and everything associated with it, was looked down upon — a form of self-expression reserved only for theater, school performances, and the imagination.
Over the past few months, the pair have made their way to the UR campus to share their work through a series of drag events, including Aggy’s performance at the BIC’s Spring LGBT Social, a showing of Kasha’s film “Workhorse Queen,” and a Student Drag Show hosted at I-Zone. At the center of their outreach lies Kasha’s “Drag is Not A Crime” exhibit at Frontispace, which was displayed from February 16th to March 23rd.
Aggy first found her way to Rochester around 40 years ago, following a trail of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” screenings when it stopped playing in her town. She soon found the city’s queer and drag community, marking her introduction to the tiny but mighty group of local queens.
Kasha, on the other hand, came to the city because of a divorce and a new job, yet quickly found herself deep in the folds of Rochester’s drag community.
“It was like moving to Oz,” she said, trading the grays of Scranton, Pennsylvania for the vibrant Flower City scene. While she hadn’t initially planned to become a performer –– especially full-time — Kasha cites fellow queens such as Aggy Dune, Ambrosia Salad, and Pandora Boxx for helping her take that leap. And, over 20 years later with the support of her husband (“Mr. Davis”), peers, and the community at large, her outreach has gone further than she could’ve ever imagined.
For both Aggy and Kasha, performing in drag allowed them to tap into a new level of confidence, understanding, and self-love. Not only was drag a protest to the pressures of masculinity that were placed upon the pair in their youth, but a way to express themselves to their full, complete potentials.
“Not all superheroes wear capes. Some of them wear big wigs,” attests Aggy to the freedom of self that drag provided. Kasha’s energy and confidence grew to cascade far beyond the stage. Her persona was not only a representation of the humor and diverse characters she wished to see in drag, but also figures in her life such as her mother and grandmother.
With the rise of queer culture to the internet’s center stage, it can be easy for younger audiences to forget its history as a taboo, even though that stigma persists among many. Even the smallest of gestures, from dressing as someone of the opposite sex to dancing with someone of the same was illegal, thus congregating a tight-knit and incredibly supportive community. Ranging their outreach from queer bars to national television such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (in which Kasha competed), drag has come a long way on behalf of queens such as this unstoppable Photo City pair.
As a drag queen, “you are an ambassador of the queer community […] the first and most recognizable,” Aggy said. Drag queens are performers, comedians, educators, and artists, all tangled up into one role — one that introduces a wide range of people to what it means to be queer, confident, and truly oneself.
With sass, class, and a whole lot of passion, Aggy and Kasha prove that all you need to brave the road ahead is your own (metaphorical) pair of high-top heels.
