It’s been more than a year since Halifax’s last bar dedicated to the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Menz & Mollyz, announced its doors were closing for good. The north end gem took to its Facebook page last April to publicize its shuttering, and Halifax has been lacking in queer-centered spaces ever since. For 15 years, Menz & […]
Drag
Posted inArts + Music
Get a Sweet Tease of burlesque and drag this weekend
Live shows are coming back to Halifax, and a group of 15 local burlesque and drag performers is kicking off the summer in the city’s north end. The show, Sweet Tease are Made of These, will take over The Derby Show Bar’s stage on Sunday evening. It’ll be a night full of burlesque and drag […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Elle Noir AKA Chris Cochrane is unapologetically herself
Educator, drag queen, aesthetician, actor, consultant: Halifax’s 2019 Pride ambassador commands the spotlight everywhere she goes. Now in her 14th year as a performer, Chris Cochrane—Halifamous for her drag persona Elle Noir—is finding balance and breaking boundaries as a dazzling new era brings drag into vogue. Strangers linger in a bustling Hydrostone coffee shop, shooting […]
Posted inArts + Music
Radical softness
“As a 2-Spirit person, I’ve never really identified as male or female, masculine or feminine roles,” says Brad Jones, “in or out of drag.” From politically inspired satin dresses to mirrored masks inspired by Final Fantasy, Jones—AKA Jennifer DaFuque—is refashioning drag culture and making space for 2-Spirit identity in Halifax. The only 2-Spirit drag performer […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Anna Thematic is genderqueer royalty
If you think of queer culture, one of the first things to come to mind—for better or worse—is drag. It’s a performance art that engages with and subverts gender norms, says local genderqueer drag performer Anna Thematic. “For me, drag has often been a safer space in which to explore my own gender identity and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Start your engines: RuPaul’s Drag Race takes over Halifax
Between Halifax Pride events and clubCOUTURE’s July event, a whopping THREE RuPaul’s Drag Race favourites will be sashaying into town this month. Add in The Board Room Game Cafe’s (1256 Barrington) RuPaul’s Drag Race trivia sessions (Tuesday, July 25, 7pm/10pm) and you can be thoroughly gagging on the eleganza. Halleloo! Jesus truly IS a biscuit! […]
Posted inArts + Music
Let’s learn non-binary drag with Rhett Slutler
[Image-1] Rhett Slutler spent the first year of drag learning the rules: Don’t show your tape. Make sure you’re not using a song that has too high of a voice in it. Make sure you’re using the right amount of socks in your pants. Then they started performing non-binary drag, moving beyond the strict binary […]
Posted inArts + Music
“We’re here and extremely queer”
“My mother calls it the gender frick show,” says local drag performer and Gender F_ck co-founder Rhett Slutler. Slutler’s saucy alter ego, Billie Coquette, will perform a “queerlesque” number at this Saturday’s Gender F_ck show at Menz and Mollyz Bar. The show also marks the infamous gay bar’s 11th anniversary. “I love burlesque but I’ve never […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Drag Performer
Rouge Fatale came off a triumphant summer helping put together Pride here in Halifax and now will be appearing on regular Sunday evenings at Menz Bar. All bow down before the new Ms Menz! “I’ll be doing mostly comedy,” says Fatale, “musical, the old-fashioned drag thing.” She says she plans to get the audience really […]