The University of Waterloo (UW) Drag Club made their debut on Wilfrid Laurier University’s campus at Wilf’s this past Friday with their “Hallowdrag for Humanity” event.
They partnered with the UW chapter of Habitat for Humanity and raised $204.05 through a bake sale which accompanied the drag show. All of the donations will be given to the charity.
The show was a great success with many skilled drag kings and queens gracing the stage such as Manny Manila, Aria Arachne, Treasure and two local Laurier performers — Morgan Rivers and Velma Bones.
The entertainers showcased an array of talents from breakdancing to lip-syncing and rapping.
One of the coordinators of the event and president of the UW Drag Club, Lee Mousa, met the president of the UW Habitat for Humanity group through a club networking event and they were excited to collaborate with each other for charity.
“I thought it was great because I don’t think the club has ever done a fundraiser and this will be our very first one,” Mousa said.
Lee also collaborated with Jeyas Balaskanthan, manager of Wilf’s and director of hospitality services at Laurier, for the event.
Balaskanthan iterated that he was excited to host the club for the night.
“[Balaskanthan] was extremely welcoming and extremely accepting, it was a pretty smooth correspondence,” Mousa said .
After talking to members of the UW Drag Club, it’s clear that they love what they do. It’s both heartwarming and enjoyable to witness their passion and advocacy through their performances on stage.
Mousa has also expressed interest in having the Hallowdrag for Humanity show become another annual event, much like Drag Me to the Bomber.
He has plans to have a “Winter Holiday” themed show around the time of UW’s winter break. The club has had most of their shows at the University of Waterloo over the years, including venues such as The Bombshelter Pub and P.O.E.T.S Engineering Lounge.
The Bomber show is an annual tradition where the club partners with the UW Glow Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
However, as of late, the Drag Club’s executive team has taken an interest in expanding their horizons and branching out into Laurier.
“We’re gaining a lot more attention, we’ve got a lot more people interested in us, why restrict ourselves to UW?”, Mousa said.
“There’s students other places and Laurier has always been very closely tied to UW.”
The UW Drag club is a student-run, inclusive group.
They encourage anyone to join no matter what their gender identity or sexual orientation may be or what school or country they come from.
“We’ve had a professional drag queen before be a part of the club. She was a queen in Las Vegas and she ended up in KW and she was in our club for a summer which was amazing,” he said.
Mousa mentioned how drag is about breaking gender norms and realizing not everyone is able to fit into a box in terms of their identity.
“We just generally try to promote a wider definition of drag than the mainstream media likes to portray,” Mousa said.
After talking to members of the UW Drag Club, it’s clear that they love what they do. It’s both heartwarming and enjoyable to witness their passion and advocacy through their performances on stage.
“The whole purpose of drag is to try to break down gender norms and what everyone expects everyone else to look like or act like based on how they look and we just try to completely throw that out of the window and be like, listen, you can’t fit people into a small box, that’s not how it works,” Mousa said.
“And, we also want to promote the idea that it doesn’t have to be men dressing up as women, it’s more than that.”
“It’s about people trying to express their gender and explore their gender identity, instead of just people dressing up as something,” he said.