WHEN it comes to Drag Night Namibia, dazzle and drama are par for the course. The queens are fierce. The shows are over the top and the audience drinks in every drop.
That’s the script and Drag Night has mostly stuck to it. That is until last Friday’s ‘Homecoming’.
In an event that saw each performer invited to the stage to address a photograph of their younger self, Drag Night got personal.
Sharing stories of bullying, rejection, loss of loved ones, finding their power and eventually their place at the monthly platform, Drag Night’s confident queens allowed a rare glimpse of the person behind the performer.
“The main reason for the pictures was a moment for us to check back in with ourselves,” says Drag Night Namibia founder Rodelio Lewis who hosts the show as Miss Mavis.
“I think a lot of the time what people forget is that, yes, we’re performers, we’re entertainers and the drag queens are phenomenal on stage but, at the same time, these are real people going through real things on a day-to-day basis.”
A humanising and tender tribute to the queens who have made Drag Night Namibia the incredibly popular show that it is, ‘Homecoming’s’ theme spoke to both the platform as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people and the symbolic coming home to
one’s true self.
“When you come home, you are the most authentic version of yourself,” says Lewis.
“I am happy that the audience received it the way they did because it was a homecoming moment for the audience and our performers to see each other in a different way.”
As Drag Night Namibia, now over a year old, continues to be a sought-after performance art extravaganza, Lewis looks to the future.
“What’s really exciting is seeing that we aren’t just locked to Café Prestige for our main mother show, Drag Night Namibia. We’re seeing many of our queens being booked for other opportunities as drag culture pops up everywhere else,” says Lewis.
“The dream is still to decentralise into the regions. I would love to have a ‘Drag Night Goes Coastal’ or a Drag Night in the north. It would be a dream come true for us to connect with those specific individuals who are in those areas and don’t have the
resources to get to Windhoek or to have their own platforms and space where they can be themselves.”
With ‘Homecoming’ done, Drag Night’s ‘Halloween’ show is on the horizon and Lewis encourages its audience to do what they do best.
“Every theme is an opportunity for the audience to dress up and I’m so excited when they do,” says Lewis. “I want people to be the scariest versions of themselves, spooky-ooky craziness. I want this Halloween to be a night that everyone remembers.”
Drag Night Namibia takes place every first Friday of the month at Café Prestige. Follow them on social media for more information.
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
