It’s been less than two weeks since RuPaul crowned Brooklyn-based drag artist Sasha Velour “America’s Next Drag Superstar” ― and she’s already pushing the boundaries of that title into distinctly uncharted territory.
Velour’s win marks the beginning of a new era for “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” This season the show moved from subscription-based Logo to a primetime Friday night slot on basic cable’s VH1. It’s a shift that puts more eyes on the art of the drag and queer experience, and who better to lead the charge than Velour, a Fulbright scholar who is well-versed in queer theory and the nuances of gender and performance.
In her first act as reigning queen she’s released a thoughtful, visually-stunning exploration of queer familial bonds and community in the latest edition of her Velour magazine.
Velour, currently in its third edition, is an ever-evolving project. Each issue borrows a term from drag lingo or queer culture ― from “Realness” in the second to “Sister” in the third and latest issue ― and examines it on a larger scale.
For the “Sister” issue, Velour sought to provide context for creating art and dialogue around the familial bonds of the queer community, with an emphasis on performers.
“I think we really treat the relationships between drag performers as a kind of magical act that builds a whole world around drag – that keeps it safe, that contextualizes it in really interesting ways and that allows it to be more than just a personal experiment but helps it take on political and world-changing dimensions,” Velour told HuffPost. “We’re trying to explore the way we talk and what that illustrates.” Read more via HuffPost