VELOUR: The Drag Magazine

VELOUR: The Drag Magazine celebrates the art of drag through fine art, poetry, and interviews! Each issue pairs drag innovators with visual artists and writers to create beautiful and thoughtful pieces about the power, beauty, and purpose of drag. 

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We made a silly thing!!!!! The launch party for VELOUR: @thedragmagazine‘s second issue, “Realness”, is this Friday October 21st at 10PM! Hope to see you there!

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New Name! New Site! New Issue!

The Drag Magazine is coming out October 21st!

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October 21st. #thedragmagazine

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Behind the scenes: Vym magazine - STACK magazines

Johnny Velour of new drag magazine Vym on crossing gender lines, queer theory and indie comics

Johnny spoke with Stine over at Stack Magazine!

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VYMSPIRATION: Vegas in Space (1991) was the brilliant creation of San Franciscos Sluts-A-Go-Go members Phillip R. Ford and Doris Fish. This cult classic was filmed in 18 months but it took Doris and Phillip years to raise the cash to finish the film. Vegas in Space is a romp through the future resort colony of Clitoris where only women are aloud! We are VYM take the greatest of pleasures in this sci-fi fashion feast for the eyes!!

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The show is hung, it’s time for Night Rooms! 

Join VYM Magazine’s Sasha Velour for a night of art plus drag as she opens her gallery show at 9, followed by her critically acclaimed monthly drag show, NIGHTGOWNS, at 11pm. Tonight at Bizarre Bushwick with performances from Sasha, Untitled Queen, Patti Spliff, Fox Squire, and Olive d”Nightlife!

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Yes! Sasha Velour’s Night Rooms / NIGHTGOWNS is a top LGBT critics pick on Time Out NY! Alongside NYC’s, Bob the Drag Queen and VYM stars Kitten and Lou and Chris of Hur!

Come see this gallery show by our Artistic Director, @sahsashas (Sasha Velour), then stick around for the critically acclaimed NIGHTGOWNS this Thursday at 9pm at Bizarre Bushwick.

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“For Sasha Velour, drag is more than lip-synching in a cute look—it’s a form of revolution. Her monthly drag show, Night Gowns, takes a sensitive, politically charged approach to drag without compromising an ounce of sequins. On March 10, Velour will premiere Night Rooms, a series of large-scale, digitally illustrated giclée prints showing though May 10 at The Black Box gallery at Bizarre, in Bushwick. We chatted about the show, Velour’s magazine VYM, and getting eyebrow inspiration from Count Orlok.” - Mitchell Kuga for NEXT Magazine

Awesome write up of Sasha Velour’s upcoming gallery show!!! SO excited to see this come Thursday! (9pm at Bizarre) 

Photo: Marloes Haarmans

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Ted northe (1937-2014) was an activist, drag queen, and the founder of the Imperial Court System of Canada. Over the years, northe played an instrumental role in raising over $50 million for a variety of charities. Most famously, northe was a major leader for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada in the late 60s. Jaylene Tyme, a fellow drag queen and member of the Imperial Court remembered Ted northe in an interview with VanCity Buzz, ”[Ted] fostered countless amounts of people to support each other and never stop the fight for equality. It is because of people like ted that LGBTQ individuals enjoy the rights and freedoms we have today.”

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VYMSPIRATION: “When We Fight, We Win! - Twenty-First Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World” (2016) Created by long-time activist Greg Jobin-Leeds and AgitArte (an organization made up of artists who create work in solidarity with marginalized communities) this book is explores how important social change movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and the fight for a $15 minimum wage are connected, and how activists and artists create those movements. An inspirational (and practical) guide, “When We Fight, We Win!” shows us the great power we have to enact change in the world!

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TEASER TUESDAY: Sophie McMahan created the front and back cover of VYM’s second issue AND the end pages as well! We are so glad to include art from this amazing woman in our upcoming issue. Sophie’s work looks to the idealized portraiture and illustration of the mid-twentieth century and distorts them into a strange and fabulous new alt-reality. Can’t wait to get your hands on her cover? Snag a copy of issue one today!

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Hapi Phace is a performance artist, drag queen, and playwright who was an integral part of NYC’s legendary Pyramid Club in the 1980s. Their, she hosted a new wild drag party (created by Sister Dimension and others), Whispers — a response to the East Village’s gentrification and homogenization. Happy Phace also contributed to or was featured in nearly every issue of Linda Simpson’s underground drag zine from the 1980s, My Comrade. In the third issue, Hapi Phace stars in an imaginative photo essay in which she gives a tour of the “Institute of Homosexual Inclination” to straight reporters, presenting an exciting queer alt-reality. This amazing piece will be reprinted for the first time in nearly 30 years in VYM’s second issue! Hapi Phace currently resides in Cambridge, MA.

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VYMSPIRATION: ANARCOMA (1983, By Nazario, translation by David H. Rosenthal) first emerged in (a newly democratic) Spain during an explosive time of artistic and social change in the late 1970s. Nazario (who had faced backlash from the previous fascist regime) queered the traditional genre of Spanish mystery comics in his creation of Anarcoma — a transgender detective who solves mysteries and fights crime. This shocking and satirical work infused the genre with sex, violence, and a leading lady with a decidedly queer body. Anarcoma enjoyed great success in Spain and around the world, and is an incredibly important (and satisfying) work in queer comics history. (Contains graphic sexual content.)

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TEASER TUESDAY: Here is a glorious picture of Sasha Velour from an upcoming piece in our second issue. Using both realistic and surreal photography, this piece examines our relationships with beauty and pain, and how we use both to transform ourselves and our experiences. The shoot features art direction, modeling, and text from our own Sasha Velour, photos from Daphne Chan, and styling from NIGHTGOWNS darling Iru Ba. Can't wait for the Realness issue coming out this spring? Get your hands on issue 1 today at one of these fine booksellers.

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Vaginal Davis (B. 1969) is gender-queer drag superstar, a founder of the homo-core punk movement, an art-music icon, and a legendary performance and visual artist! Wow! Davis is known for her many concept bands (including The Afro Sisters), zines (Fertile Latoya Jackson), and her performance art among other artistic pursuits! José Esteban Muñoz has called her the originator of "terrorist drag” and her work disrupts assimilation by identifying problematic normative trends that emerge within the margins of queerness, gender, and race. Davis is an incredibly important drag artist and cultural critic and her work demonstrates the power of gender performance to disrupt, create, and empower!

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TEASER TUESDAY: For VYM’s second issue, illustrator and cartoonist Dan Rinylo (@screwballcanon) created a series of illustrations that will run throughout the magazine. His work features a fabulous range of wild drag looks that will have you laughing and screaming with joy! Can't wait to see our second issue? Start with #1 today!

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Joan Jett Blakk (b.Terence Smith,1957) started performing in 1974 and was a spokes-person for the Gay Liberation Front. Blakk’s signature mix of drag and politics led to a series of mock political campaigns where she called attention to injustice and the harmful politics of the day. Through club appearances and campaign videos (like Lick Bush in ’92) Blakk ran for mayor of Chicago in 1991, President of the United States in both 1992 and 1996, and mayor of San Francisco in 1999. Ahead of her time, a then-radical statement made by Blakk in 1996 now sounds like something from the most recent Democratic debate. “My constituents were militant in their distain for politics as usual… We will not be railroaded into a so-called ‘conservative revolution’ that includes denying health care to the poor, blaming queers for the breakdown of the family, teaching creationism in public schools, and blatant corporate welfare.” In this election year, Joan Jett Blakk’s legacy is a perfect reminder of drag’s powerful political potential!