In this episode of Drag Pod, Jordan Pike looks at a selection of articles from the 2021 special issue of Canadian Theatre Review on Drag in Canada. CTR, an academic journal that examines contemporary theatre in Canada, invites contributions from a range of practicing drag artists, scholars, and queer journalists who provide a glimpse into the lives and practices of drag artists from across Canada. Jordan explores an interview Harley Queen, an Ottawa based “faux-queen” (cisgender female drag performer) and the practices of gate keeping around gender in drag, and a roundtable discussion by Ryan Persadie and a group of BIPOC drag artists in Toronto, discussing how racism, colonialism and homonormativity impact their art and their lives. At the time of recording Jordan Pike was a fourth year Media Studies major at UBC Okanagan.
Reading: Crookston, Cameron and Puter Kuling (Eds.) Canadian Theatre Review. Special Issue: Drag! Volume 185 (Winter 2021).
Drag Pod- CULT 400: Drag and Popular Culture
Dr. Cameron Crookston
The Drag Pod assignment in CULT 400: Drag and Popular Culture was created to give students a chance to further engage with a course reading, practice their research skill, and explore their own personal interests in the course material. Each student selected one of the assigned course readings as the topic of their podcast. They were then asked to provide a close reading of the text and conduct some basic additional research on one element of the text to provide further context for their audience. Podcast episodes were shared with the rest of the class to as a kind of “study aid” and to prompt class discussions.
