Berkshire County — A local branch of the national Drag Story Hour organization will hold its first event on Saturday, March 2, at 2 p.m., at the Berkshire Pride office located at 34 Depot Street in Pittsfield.
As per the national organization’s website, Drag Story Hour was created in San Francisco in 2015. Over the years, Drag Story Hour became a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization with a network of independently managed local organizations. The mission of the nonprofit organization is to celebrate reading through the art of drag. The organization “envision[s] a world where kids can learn from LGBTQ+ stories and experiences to love themselves, celebrate the fabulous diversity in their communities, and stand up for what they believe in and each other.”
The free family-friendly event on March 2 is organized by Casi Kristant, AKA Drag Queen Poppy DaBubbly. Kristant said that the local branch of Drag Story Hour is not affiliated with Berkshire Pride, but that Berkshire Pride is donating the community space for the March 2 launch event.
“Being a drag queen myself with three young kids of my own, I thought starting a branch of Drag Story Hour would be a great way to get drag involved with the local community,” Kristant said. “Local libraries, bookstores, and pride organizations are all places that can host a drag story hour. I have been holding ‘Poppy’ music classes, including ‘Bebop with Poppy,’ so I thought that drag story hour would be a good way to have a wider reach.”
Kristant is from the San Francisco Bay Area and lived in Chicago for some time before she and her husband moved to the Berkshires with over 20 years of theater-teaching experience. “Those two areas are so diverse, and the Berkshires, which I love, has such a small-town, intimate vibe,” Kristant said. “I think it’s important to create culturally inclusive spaces. It’s also important for this community to help spread that type of love and inclusive education where there are safe spaces for young children and their families to feel included. They should all have a space where they can grow together.”
Kristant explained that it is important for children to have strong role models, including those who are in drag. “Drag is a creative art form of self-expression,” Kristant said. “At the Drag Story Hour, children are going to be seeing someone who likes to express themselves in a fun, creative, and artistic way. It’s important to read inclusive stories that promote literacy in this technological world we’re in. We need to step away from our screens and cell phones once in a while and be in a space together with books. This event is a way for families and grownups to meet each other and to be together for some community building.”
Across the country, people have protested Drag Story Hours since their inception. In some states, legislators have put forward anti-drag legislation, including in Florida and Alabama. “I think the people who are creating the controversies don’t have the proper education about what the art form of drag is about, or what Drag Story Hour is about,” Kristant said regarding the controversies surrounding drag and the pushback that Drag Story Hour has received. “Part of what Drag Story Hour is about is to create conversation and to create spaces that are safe for young children to explore themselves and be their truest selves. I have not thought of myself in the past as a political person, but doing Drag Story Hour is a way that I can be part of a really important political movement. I recall that, just recently, RuPaul won an Emmy award for the show ‘Drag Race.’ At the ceremony, RuPaul said, ‘If a drag queen wants to read a story in a library, let them because knowledge is power!’ I think a lot of times people think that drag queens are only one thing, that they only dance in bars and they do provocative material. That’s absolutely not the case. Drag queens are all human beings that creatively express gender. For me, I’m a woman who is cisgender and does female drag. To me, drag is the ultimate joy.”
Kristant added that she is talking to library directors in the area for future Drag Story Hour events, but that future events are still in the planning stages.
For more information about Drag Story Hour email berkshires@dragstoryhour.org.
