We Went to Bushwig 2016, Tits Out

by Michael Anthony Farley Whitney Kimball on September 15, 2016 slideshow + We Went To...

bushwig

Kandy Muse and Mo Mo Shade

Bushwig 2016: Five years ago this scrappy drag/performance art festival opened out of its namesake neighborhood’s Secret Project Robot as an alternative queer festival for everything a little too weird for mainstream drag culture. Now Bushwig’s founders Horrorchata and Babes Trust have moved the event on up to The Knockdown Center in Queens. The festival is able to accommodate more performers, thousands of audience members, vendors, and much-needed air conditioning. This spanned two days, hundreds of drag performers (Full disclosure: including Michael, as Ellen Degenerate), and non-stop “techno brunch” on the patio. It was a lot to take in. 

Whitney: I am a tourist. But, being a “Drag Race” aficionado, I get what you’re referring to by the mainstream, read: a series of “American Idol” auditions. (Why does every “Drag Race” contestant have to do flying splits??)

There were still a few of those here, but the overall event seemed to be about being yourself, whether that’s in a kippah or unicorn horn. For that reason, I felt weirdly uncomfortable in clothes, so I took mine off and had a much better time. The setting kind of calls for it. Ellen’s breasts were also on view:

ellen-degenerate

Michael: I don’t foresee myself ever being able to do a flying split, and for that reason Bushwig will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve never really fit in with the drag queen scene, even in a freak capital like Baltimore, so it always really means a lot to me that Brooklyn’s drag scene has invited me in and provided an outlet beyond my native habitat of barely-legal warehouses and punk dive bars! It’s so inspiring to get to hang out with like minded people who aren’t trying to “clock” each other for being too lazy to do acrylic nails or too broke to afford lace front wigs or lacking in conventional “talent”. I can’t understate the importance of just being around a lot of people who like playing dress up and dancing and feeling welcome without taking themselves too seriously.

Whitney: SO true. When I first met you, you made me wear some kind of sparkly jumpsuit for no particular occasion other than leaving the house. Just the idea that tonight, you would be from Blade Runner, Paddy would be from Star Trek, and I would get to be fabulous—even though I’m not a punk or a drag queen or a cosplayer, I had permission to do that. Watching you rifle through a pile of makeup and old lady hats for your Spock ears, just as something to wear that day, has truly changed my idea of who I could be and therefore what’s possible in life. That’s a really corny sidetrack, but I felt that inclusion at Bushwig, too.

Michael: I loved that night—we were heading to my friend’s sci-fi birthday party, and it was great. Hearing you say that makes me feel so happy! I like to think that in some small way, all drag queens are making the world a better place with spirit gum and stacked wigs. And really, Bushwig was a pretty crazy life-affirming reminder of that. My only hope in this life is that I can someday bring as much joy to a cavernous room full of people as Latrice Royale managed to just by showing up, looking beautiful, and doing a few half-kicks on stage. There was so much positive-vibes this weekend that I think even famously-offensive Lady Bunny refrained from making any 9/11 jokes Sunday night. Right? My favorite one was “People always ask me, ‘Lady Bunny, have you had silicone injections in your ass?’ and I tell them yes, but not to make it bigger, just to stop the leaking!”

Lady Bunny

Lady Bunny

Whitney: She was bitchy, but not cruel, which was setting-appropriate– you can be edgy without antagonizing your audience. Only people in power (including herself) were ridiculed. RuPaul was on the receiving end of a glory hole joke, and that one got a big laugh. Mamma Ru was out; crazy alcoholic Aunt Lady Bunny was in charge! Even her election material was pretty good (small hands, private servers, ha ha). Which brings me to drag king Reggi Regina, who threw tacos out to the audience in a suit and pig mask, lipsynching Donald Trump talking about Mexican rapists to alt rock. If it were performance art in a gallery, it would be ~a little on the nose,~ but it didn’t have those pretensions. It more solidified the general message of “fuck bigotry,” shared by all.

Lucy Balls

Lucy Balls

Not this fucking song again was probably a lot of people’s reaction when Lucy Balls came out to “Sissy That Walk,” RuPaul’s numbingly repetitive and terrible single which contestants slavishly runway-model to on every episode. But then it was okay! It turned out she was holding a wok. Even the most overplayed top forties felt kinda fresh; a lesbian version of Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” actually feels holy when you’re watching a bearded B Hollywood kneel down in a Byzantine Madonna robe. I hear that song a lot, but in the world of mainstream club music, it was meaningless.

B Hollywood

B Hollywood backstage

Michael: I definitely had my “feeling the music” moment right when we met up Saturday night, while Rify Royalty had a pillow-fight of punk-ish twinks on the runway to Le Tigre’s Deceptacon and the whole crowd was jumping and singing along. Never have I so intensely felt “THESE ARE MY PEOPLE!”

david-serotte

David Serotte

But I think the ultimate religious imagery show-stopper was probably David Serotte’s live rendition of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and Hassidic striptease. Like, in a day of really, really strange and wonderful performances, this was still totally surprising and far weirder than anything else. On a personal note, I’ve known David since we were baby gays in Baltimore and remember him describing how awkward it felt to be (potentially the only?) Jew who was deeply involved in the city’s majority Christian-African-American vogue/ball scene. I recall my surprise at the fact that so many young gay men were actually practicing religious and it wasn’t unusual for people to go from voguing in the club on Saturday night to church on Sunday morning. But here, combining some truly bizarre pop/queer performance art with Hassidic garb felt like the truest expression of what a Bushwick drag vernacular should look like:

David Serotte “Wuthering Heights” at Bushwig 2016 from Adam Baran on Vimeo.

More highlights:

Akira's performance with backup dancers.

Akira’s performance with backup dancers.

Grayson Squire

Grayson Squire

bushwig3

Neither of us could remember this performer’s name, but she weirdly spun the creepily sexual aesthetics of “Toddlers in Tiaras” into something that felt really liberatory.

K James

K James serving boyband realness

bushwig-wedding-dress

Lynox Theroby (photo by Johnny)

Lynox Theroby (photo by John Rigsby)

 Huckle Fairey

Huckle Fairey

 

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