kenneth in the (212): Rediscovering 'The Drag Queens of New York' on the Bowery

Damian and I spent Saturday afternoon on the Bowery at HA/HA taking in "Then & Now," a gallery tour, discussion and video screening marking the 30th anniversary of "The Drag Queens of New York."

Julian Fleisher, who wrote the seminal book about the '90s NYC drag scene, guided the event and introduced the speakers, bringing the kind of insider affection that could only come from someone who lived and loved this history in real time.

This crowd was no drag

As he ushered us from room to room, Julian reminisced about the interviews he conducted with the reigning queens of the day -- all of which were prefaced with lengthy questionnaires ("Who did I think I was?") -- and steered us toward the eclectic collection of ephemera on display throughout (including the queens' handwritten responses) from the passion project that still clearly means a lot to him: First and foremost, Julian explained, he "was a fan," who used the project as an excuse to "hang out with people I admired."

'The Last Drag Supper,' as seen in Out magazine (photo by Joshua Kessler)

He then brought to the stage drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys, who gave a smart, engaging overview of the cultural landscape that shaped Fleisher’s book, with shoutouts to predecessors such as Carlton E. Winford's "Femme Mimics: A Pictorial Record of Female Impersonation" and Avery Willard's "Female Impersonation." His context underscored just how prescient the work was -- drag is strangely mainstream in a lot of ways now -- but also how much more there was to the art form beyond the late 20th century NYC time capsule Fleisher so brilliantly documented.

He was followed by the ever-hilarious, delightfully self-effacing Miss Guy, who shared that he never actually considered himself a drag queen -- androgynous is more like it -- but was offered a chance to be on stage so ran with it as a means to an end to kickstart his music ambitions. When forced to pick a drag moniker, he says he opted to keep his given name -- dolled up with a femme honorific -- so that decades later people wouldn't be screaming "Hey, Melinda" from across the room(!).

Guy then played a rarely seen 1995 interview with former go-go boy Mark Allen for the downtown cable show "Party Talk." The segment follows the two of them romping around Guy's memorabilia-packed apartment, eating cereal, getting prank calls and talking about “queer” rock 'n' roll in the early days of the Toilet Boys, Miss Guy's glamtastic band whom I saw open for Blondie back in '99. (There’s even early performance footage from Squeezebox, Guy's notorious party night at the erstwhile Don Hill's.)

Guy mentioned he still lives in the same place 30 years later, and that the clip contains the only footage of his late kitty, giving the moment an unexpectedly touching edge. Guy then screened additional videos from his career (Wigstock, Lollapalooza ‘95) -- providing a momentary mini–Miss Guy retrospective -- but adorably seemed to again shy away from the attention as he half-pleaded with the audio/visual guy to cut them short: "Events like this remind me how much I miss ... social distancing," he quipped.

As for Mark, it was so nice seeing him and meeting his handsome boyfriend, Will McLeod, whom I know from Instagram. Mark shocked me by revealing he hadn't been in the city in almost two years(!) -- and it was his first time with Will -- which is hard to imagine for a guy whose East Village apartment used to be live-streamed for the world to watch before that was even a thing.

If you haven’t stopped by yet, the full exhibition "The Drag Queens of New York" is on display at Howl! Happening through Nov. 30. It’s a lovingly assembled slice of LGBTQ New York history -- absolutely worth catching before it’s gone.