The Berenstain Chers? The Stinky Cheese Transman? From the Mixed-Up Nail Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?
Children, the library is definitely open for reading, reports SFGate.com. The San Francisco Public Library, that is–which has partnered with nonprofit Radar Productions to bring drag queens in to do story hour for kids.
On March 12 at noon, at the Eureka Valley Harvey Milk Memorial Library, in the heart of the Castro, drag queen Honey Mahogany, from Season 5 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” will be reading (stories, not the kids), painting (beating?) faces and passing out cookies (hopefully not “magic” ones).
Radar executive director Juliana Delgado Lopera said that the group had hosted previous such events, including one in December.
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“I think generally queers are not mixed with kids—especially drag queens,” she said. “It’s really beautiful to have drag queens painting children’s faces and telling stories. It’s disrupting that idea that queers can’t mix with kids.”
She added: “It’s a kid’s world to be very imaginative. If children were allowed they would dress up every day. I don’t think they’re thinking about gender assumptions. They’re just seeing the drag queens as other people who are being imaginative.”
At the December event, said Delgado, many of the kids themselves appeared gender neutral. “What I really appreciated was I saw kids come in wearing a skirt and like a boy’s shirt. I appreciated how their parents allowed them to be creative and imaginative.”
Drag Queen Story Hour is part of Radar Productions’ larger effort, Queering the Castro, meant to highlight the full range of queer culture in a traditionally gay area that has become increasingly wealthy and white.
Who’s next on the roster? Bianca Del Rio doing Charlotte’s Weave? Shangela reading Make Way for Tucking?
