THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Thursday, June 5: Chicago Cultural Center¡ª Columbia College professor Amy Hawkins examines the place of lesbian drag in Chicago¡¯s genderqueer culture in a presentation entitled The Chicago Kings on Halsted: The Performance of Drag in Lesbian Culture, 6 p.m., 78 E. Washington, ùu) 744-6630, www.intersections.colum.edu .

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Since their beginnings in 2001, the Chicago Kings have become one of the hottest tickets in town, drawing hundreds of people to their monthly performances throughout the city. And while the Kings were conceived by four lesbian friends who met at the Closet in 2000, their appeal is pansexual¡ªat their recent Empty Bottle performance, a pack of straight women enjoying a bachelorette party were right up front, and a pregnant straight woman won a Kings poster later in the evening.

The Kings have earned a national reputation; not only are they the largest king troupe in the country, but they¡¯ve also carved out a unique niche as an ensemble of well-rehearsed performers. They¡¯re even entering the world of academia: Columbia College professor Dr. Amy Hawkins, herself a spot performer with the Kings, is presenting a lecture titled ¡°The Kings on Halsted: The Performance of Drag in Lesbian Culture¡± at 6 p.m., Thursday, June 5 in the Fifth Floor East Meeting Room of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. Admission is free. Information: ùu) 744-6630 or see www.intersections.colum.edu .

According to Dr. Hawkins: ¡°Recent shifts in lesbian culture¡ªthe demise of the lesbian bar and the increase in lesbian motherhood¡ªseem to have affected lesbian nightlife and underground culture. While I make no judgment, prediction or definitive statement regarding these shifts, I can say, without a doubt, that the Chicago Kings are, to a large degree, responsible for the recent explosion in lesbian nightlife and genderqueer culture in Chicago. Along with cultural artifacts and inspirations such as Dyke Diva.com (a lesbian operated and focused website), Chix Mix Productions (lesbian/ queer culture focused nightlife productions), Early to Bed (a lesbian-owned and operated sex store) and The Undergrad (a soon-to-be-released independent film written and directed by Chicago King, Michelle Mahoney), The Chicago Kings, and their members, need to be examined as a larger part of a genderqueer art culture that has developed in Chicago in the last few years.¡±

Windy City Times caught up with co-founders Maxx Hollywood, Mr. Big, and Harley Poker on a recent spring evening to discuss, among other things, techniques for obtaining women¡¯s phone numbers and the Kings¡¯ role in the evolution of Chicago¡¯s lesbian culture.

WCT: Are all of you native Chicagoans?

MR BIG: I¡¯m the only native Chicagoan¡ªI was born in Wheaton.

WCT: What inspired you to form the Kings? Was there something in Chicago that you felt was lacking, were you bored?

MB: All of the above! (Laughter) I had just moved back to Chicago¡ªI was living in Buffalo, NY. Buffalo was my introduction to drag, but only drag queens. It¡¯s a really big scene out there, and I happened to see a New York drag king at a fashion show, Dred King. He was a very famous, and infamous, African American drag king. He¡¯d been all over the country and the world. I was blown away by this thing called a drag king, that I¡¯d never heard of. When I came back to Chicago, I immediately began looking for opportunities to do something like that myself. There was nothing, until a traveling troupe of kings from Columbus, Ohio, came to town and did a benefit show, and they invited amateurs to come up and perform with them. I was dressed for the occasion, I got some facial hair put on me, and I put together an act totally on the fly, ¡°Superfreak,¡± and made a lot of tips and had a total blast. And I decided, ¡°I¡¯ve got to do this.¡± This was in 2000, and the Kings started the following year.

WCT: What blew you away when you saw Dred for the first time?

MB: Dred took on multiple male characters. She calls herself a gender illusionist, and a lot of his performance is based on sort of historical references, musical references, like the ¡®70s superpimp. She combines it all into a big, 10-minute musical act that she puts together, and then she wraps it all up in her closing number, where she transforms back into a woman. I think what amazed me was first of all, that she did play a couple different kinds of males, very convincingly, and then played a female, and was just as good at that. Her lip syncing was very, very good. It almost seemed like she was singing. She became these men onstage.

WCT: Why do you think you were personally drawn to performing as a king?

MB: I almost considered myself a closet cross-dresser. But I didn¡¯t have any words for it. When you think of a cross-dresser, you usually don¡¯t think of a lesbian woman. I had all these random parts of suits that I¡¯d gotten from thrift stores in my closet, and I¡¯d sit around at home and get an idea, ¡°I¡¯d like to do something different, I¡¯d like to dress up today.¡± And then I¡¯d be sitting at my computer or whatever, wearing a three-piece suit. Because it made me feel good. I had some experience in performance, and I really like entertaining people. It didn¡¯t cross my mind to put all these different things together, until I saw Dred perform. There she was, a gorgeous male, wearing all kinds of attire and singing, supposedly, and dancing, and creating characters and entertaining all these dykes and queer folk, and straight folk, everybody was having a great time, and that was really exciting.

WCT: How did the Kings come together?

MB: Maxx and I had known each other for a couple years. We met in Buffalo. Harley and Pussy Galore had also just relocated to Chicago, kind of around the same time as me. We met them at the Closet. And I¡¯d run across them here and there, didn¡¯t know them very well at first. The one thing that kept coming up was that both of us were trying to discover the Chicago scene. We didn¡¯t know that many people. I knew Chicago, because I had lived around here my whole life, but I was starting fresh. I¡¯d just moved back, didn¡¯t have any friends, didn¡¯t have any social life. I was trying to find one, and they were trying to do the same thing. We couldn¡¯t find our peers. We couldn¡¯t find twentysomething, thirtysomething dykes who were in a similar income bracket and had similar punk/queer influences, artsy dykes. Where were the dykes who liked to party, liked to go out, wanted to meet other women, wanted to maybe even hook up, just have a lot of fun. All we had were the bars, which was disappointing to say the least. There was no place to hook up, go dancing, have fun, have a conversation, see a show, anything relating to nightlife.

HARLEY POKER: Pussy and I had been trying to start a ¡®zine. We passed out flyers at the Dyke March 񢉐), but didn¡¯t really get many responses. We were trying to connect with nightlife in Chicago for dykes, whatever the hell that is. I myself had been reading some of the early literature pertaining to kings, and saw some photo books which just really blew me away. We found Mr Big and Maxx, and just hung out, and slowly started putting together our act. Pussy worked at Jack¡¯s Tap, and he told her she could have the back room to do whatever she wanted. So we were like, ¡°All right! Our first show!¡±

MAXX HOLLYWOOD: I moved to Chicago from D.C. in December 2000. Cathy Opie lectured at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the winter of 2001, and Mr Big, Harley, and Pussy all came over for brunch at my place the day after the MCA party, which happened right after the Opie lecture. We just all hit it off.

MB: It was so exciting to be around talented artistic dykes, all around our age.

MH: We were sitting around drinking Bloody Marys and eating lots of food, complaining about how there was nothing to do, and we decided to just go ahead and do something. We had our venue, courtesy of Pussy. When I was in D.C., I saw drag king shows, so I was totally jonesing to join them, and had gone to a couple of meetings to perform with them. ... I was surprised that Chicago didn¡¯t have anything. In retrospect, it¡¯s actually kind of funny that we went totally balls out to do the first show. The weekend before, we made flyers and flyered, and we flyered at the very first Black Bra party. We didn¡¯t know what we were doing¡ªwe knew nothing about sound, music, DJ, lights, any of it. We didn¡¯t have performers except for the four of us and maybe a few of our friends. We had to go through with it, because we handed out flyers. And then Harley and Pussy went out of town! So while they were gone, we decided to put an ad in the paper to try and recruit, and Mr Big and I were praying that Harley and Pussy wouldn¡¯t back out! Luckily, they were totally on board. We put this thing together, and we had seven songs for that first show, and 11 performers. And everyone was real new¡ªMr Big was the only one with any experience. We would have been happy if maybe 50 people came. We had more than 350 people. And it was raining¡ªeverything went wrong. We had a flood, the floors were covered with water, we had to shut down the bathrooms, but nobody cared. There was a real diverse cross section of people, all ages, queens, men, women, leather daddies, women in drag, coming out to Greektown, the middle of nowhere.

WCT: Were any of you exploring your gender identity at the time the Kings were founded? Why did this appeal to you as opposed to forming a rock band?

MH: For me, I always felt very boyish, and wanted to be one of the guys. Not until I really saw drag kings on stage down in D.C. was there a real manifestation of that. I would get mistaken for a guy all the time, and I kinda played with that and enjoyed that. Initially, when people would call me ¡®sir¡¯ in a store, I would correct them. But I don¡¯t correct them anymore. ... I want to support the idea that gender is fluid.

WCT: How do you identify currently?

MH: I generally identify as a queer dyke. For all of us in the group, we tend to use male and female pronouns, and our drag names and our birth names, in the same sentence.

WCT: Is it important to maintain a boundary between your drag selves and your more private selves?

MH: To a certain extent, yeah. For example, I¡¯m doing this interview as Maxx. I feel like Maxx is my exterior persona, but it¡¯s very much an extension of who I really am.

HP: Being Harley has definitely helped me become more confident. I¡¯m naturally a really shy person, so I¡¯ve come out of my shell since becoming a drag king. It¡¯s more than just performance¡ªit¡¯s about claiming my own identity. It¡¯s like saying to society that I am whatever I want to be, and you can¡¯t do anything about it. Being more like a guy has made me have more confidence, which is fucked up, because women should have confidence too. It¡¯s a weird thing that unfortunately, men have a lot of power.

MB: Something that hasn¡¯t been said is that it¡¯s fucking sexy. It is hot. When I saw my first king show, every dyke there was watching Dred and salivating and they all wanted her number. He was giving them what they wanted. And I wanted to be that onstage. They were appreciating her because she was gender ambivalent. Because she had male attributes in a female body¡ªall the things society tells you is not attractive. Don¡¯t be a funny girl, be quiet, be nice, have a civil demeanor, don¡¯t be crazy, flamboyant, loud, aggressive. She was also humorous. The crowd ate it up. ... That¡¯s a big reason why a lot of the kings get involved. And it¡¯s grown beyond getting women¡¯s phone numbers and being sexy for dykes, but it¡¯s also about entertaining people, helping them to see the world in a different way, using strengths that are normally seen as liabilities.

WCT: Is there a median age of performers?

MB: Anywhere between 20 and 40.

WCT: Have any youth expressed interest in being involved?

MB: Yes. We don¡¯t have a problem with it, as long as the performers are over 18. Unfortunately, some venues, namely those that serve alcohol, prefer that everyone be at least 21. We¡¯ve got 40 active performers, so unfortunately, there aren¡¯t any spots open for troupe members right now.

MH: But we¡¯re fortunate enough to have a monthly gig at Circuit (Kingdom Come), and we invite walk-ons to bring a CD and perform a song onstage there. So that¡¯s one way for new people to get involved.

WCT: One thing I noticed is that very few women of color attended the Kings¡¯ May 10 performance at the Empty Bottle.

MH: We try not to look at the color of people¡¯s skin. We do have people of color in our troupe, though it isn¡¯t a high percentage. ... Different venues draw different people. One thing that we have to look for in a venue is capacity and ability to be able to perform there on certain nights, like a weekend.

MB: Diversity is something we think a lot about. We don¡¯t spend a lot of time processing these things. But any time someone has a concern, we try to raise it with the group. But the founders talked about it quite a bit. ... Folks have to take their own initiative and get involved in things, and it doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re a person of color or not. If they¡¯re not participating, we can¡¯t really hold people¡¯s hands. We work our butts off just to keep it running and put on good shows, put on benefit performances. We¡¯re always friendly and open ... [and] welcome suggestions as to how we can become more diverse.

WCT: How has the community responded to you?

HP: I see us as primarily a troupe of performers, and a group of friends who are having a good time. We¡¯re trying to open minds and provide entertainment. I think we¡¯ve succeeded in opening women¡¯s minds and showing them a new world they may not have seen before. At the same time we were getting started, dykediva.com started doing stuff, ChixMix ... it was great to finally have some options. It was a really fun time. I was really excited!

MH: We get a lot of straight people, boys ... our shows attract a wide audience.

WCT: What¡¯s the king scene like nationally?

MB: Troupes seem to be the thing of the day. It goes in cycles, and drag kings started coming out again 10 years ago in New York, mostly lone kings who operated together to put on shows but didn¡¯t consider themselves a troupe. In the last three-four years, drag kings started banding together, working together, doing group acts and putting together shows, going on the road. We¡¯ve seen in the last year, another five troupes surface in big cities all over the U.S.

WCT: How have drag queens responded to you?

MH: Mixed ... there seems to be a lack of understanding that on a very fundamental level, we¡¯re the same. It¡¯s like¡ªthey are taking on a female persona, they want to be called ¡°she.¡± We¡¯re doing the opposite. It¡¯s interesting. Their style of drag performance tends to be very different from ours. Queens tend to be solitary performers, and emulate one specific woman; we tend to stylize male archetypes, like the ¡°mechanic¡± archetype or the ¡°cowboy¡± archetype. Ours are more exaggerated. We couldn¡¯t really pass seriously as some of our characters because they¡¯re so over-the-top. But when we want to pass, we can do half-drag convincingly, for example, bind but not pack, or pack but not bind, use facial hair or not. And queens can¡¯t play with it that way¡ªthey have to go all out and put the whole package together.

MB: Some queens haven¡¯t taken us seriously. They treat us like little boys, which we are to their eyes, I guess. They¡¯re physically giant doing stereotypes of women, towering over us, and we¡¯re funny little men, running around at their feet. We have encountered some queens who have given us a lot of respect as performers.

WCT: Have any of your members transitioned?

MB: Yes. Cody Pendant is transitioning. He¡¯s a great performer¡ªhe¡¯s been with us pretty much since the beginning. He had performed drag multiple times before he came to Chicago, and then joined up with us. He talked about transitioning here and there, and then decided to do it. He¡¯s decided that once he reaches a certain point in the transition, that he won¡¯t call himself a king anymore. We don¡¯t have a problem with it, and we hope he¡¯ll continue performing with us as a male. And I really respect that. I think we all have our own interpretations of what a drag king is. For him, it¡¯s a definite choice that if he is in fact male, he can¡¯t play-act a man onstage.

WCT: Do you see yourselves as agents of change in Chicago¡¯s lesbian community?

MB: Definitely.

WCT: Did you start out expecting that to happen?

MH: No!

WCT: Do you want that?

MH: Now, yeah. We wanted to change things, but we didn¡¯t think of ourselves as critical players in the lesbian community.

MB: Us, DykeDiva.com, I Heart My Clit, Sereah from Early To Bed¡ªwe¡¯re all making queer history, which is really cool.

MH: It¡¯s hard for us to see it that way, because we¡¯re involved in it. We¡¯re just trying to keep going. Things like reaching out to youth, and being a visible part of the community, benefits and events that cross diversity lines, has become very important to us. We do want to be part of the active community overall. And I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something we thought of at the beginning. We were outsiders at the beginning. We couldn¡¯t find anywhere that we fit in. Obviously, a lot of people in Chicago felt the same way!

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