EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)- The City of El Paso Museum of History is inviting the community to celebrate Pride Month by attending two events, Family Day and Pop-up Exhibit, on Saturday, June 3.
Family Day: Pride- Free event from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Visitors can…
- Create their own headpieces inspired by drag queens and kings.
- Drop-in to Drag Queen Story Hour with Dede Camacho.
- Talk to LGBTQIA+ friendly community partners who will be sharing information and resources available in our community.
- Community partners in attendance will include the Borderland Rainbow Center, M Factor, Gender Studies Department at UTEP, the BLOOM Program, Pride Lab, PFLAG, and Centro San Vicente.
Pop-Up Exhibit: “Drag in Focus: A Close-Up of El Paso’s Drag Scene”– On display through July 8.
The exhibition celebrates El Paso’s contemporary drag scene through photography and costume by highlighting local performers as role models and vital members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The exhibit, which aims to assert that drag is a meaningful, highly skilled art that honors the diversity and expression of the human experience, gathers inspiration from our borderland as home to a vibrant drag community.
For decades, LGBTQIA+ nightclubs served as some of the only venues to showcase and elevate this art form.
In the last two decades, what initially began as underground performance art in queer spaces has now become a phenomenon around the world due to ongoing community activism and high-profile projects like “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “We’re Here,” “Boulet Brother’s Dracula,” “Call Me Mother,” “Queen of the Universe” just to mention a few. These projects have helped showcase drag on an international stage as an unapologetic assertion of freedom of identity, inclusion, and de-stigmatization.
Locally, El Paso’s Drag Queen Story Hour has brought drag to the mainstream for all ages in libraries, schools and bookstores, providing the community with examples of proud queer role models.
