Meet the Headline Performers of East Lansing’s Pride Celebration
East Lansing will celebrate Pride Month with a downtown festival that includes live music, art, food vendors, a drag story hour at the East Lansing Public Library and drag performances from local artists tomorrow, June 14.
ELi spoke with four of the drag performers to learn about their personas, background and responses to criticism against their craft.
Matty B just turned 28 and has recently returned to the stage after a seven-year absence. He discovered drag at a gay bar in Battle Creek.
“I fell in love with it all, just from that first show,” he said.
What is his secret to a good performance?
“It’s really [about] feeling what you’re performing, engaging with the crowd and making them feel like they’re part of the performance,” he said.
Matty said his most frequently lip synched artist is Lady Gaga and he encourages people to come out and see this weekend’s performances before assuming anything about the drag community.
“We’re not trying to endanger children or expose them to any inappropriate subjects,” he said. “I’m going to stand tall and show that I’m not what they think I am.”
Matty hopes to perform his own music in the future.
Fantasthma attended East Lansing High School before heading to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
She’s only been doing drag since last fall.
“I was so in awe of all the performers,” she said. “Afterwards, I went up to someone that had been in the show and asked them how do I do this.”
She has experiences with theatre, minoring in drama at Michigan and frequently serving as a stagehand or assistant for productions.
About the character she created, she said, “She’s the version of me that I don’t necessarily want to be. She’s not as smart as I am, but she’s much more confident. She’s beautiful, too; even when she’s being gross and scary and nasty and ugly.”
Fantasthma frequently practices horror drag, performing in monster alternative themed shows. She has also hosted events at the Salus Center in Lansing. She identifies as an AFAB queen, a drag performer who was assigned female at birth.
“Lansing is a really great scene if you have a non-traditional style of drag performer,” she said.
Salinity Manifesto got her start in church pageants and high school plays.
“I’ve always been drawn to [performing],” she said. “I’ve been a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race for as long as I can remember. It’s just fun TV, and it really always seemed like it tapped into everything that I loved about being a performer.”
When asked about her onstage persona, she said it was composed of “every single aspect of my personality that I’ve repressed for the sake of making other people happy.”
Salinity has a soft spot for Kesha or anything that’s a little sassy and has a beat you can dance to.
The self-confessed “Cartwheeling Queen of Clinton County,” said that the ongoing vitriol thrown at the drag community comes from a lack of understanding.
“For me, drag is about expression,” she said. “I tell people all the time [that] drag is a vehicle. It’s a vehicle for self-expression, for catharsis, for art, for finding who you are.”
Thon Zillenial, born and raised in Lansing, developed a love for musical theatre when they were growing up. It was this passion and a history of performing that tempted them to try drag at an open stage night nearly a year ago.
They shared the origin of their name.
“Thon is technically a neopronoun meaning ‘of that one’ or ‘the one,’ they said. “Zillenial is where I find myself generationally, somewhere between Millenials and the Gen Zs.”
The performer feels very welcomed in the Lansing area drag scene.
“It’s a very open minded and diverse place,” they said. “The community is sweet and supportive. We have a lot of allies. There are some loud people, but they are in the minority.
“Drag is for everybody. Drag is about expressing yourself. No one can take that away from us.”