The Everything Drag Club is one of the newest student organizations on campus. Founded by Co-Presidents junior Raine Lentz (or Miles From Nowhere) and first-year Liam Schrom (or Zestina the Drag Queen), the club seeks to create a fun, supportive and safe space for students to explore the art form of drag.
The founding of the club came after both Lentz and Schrom were separately thinking about starting a drag club, coming together to make it happen, asking Coordinator of Gender, Sex & Sexuality Programs (GSSRC) Eli Scriver to be the advisor.
“I was so excited to be approached about the new Everything Drag Club. Our drag events are always successful and I think this is an organization that makes a lot of sense for the campus and has a lot to contribute,” Scriver said via email.
Lentz and Schrom got into drag personally at different times. Lentz decided to try drag at an amateur drag show at Hamline after seeing a drag king at a professional drag show on campus, which made them realize drag kings are a bigger deal than they previously thought.
“My friends and I went and they had a couple of kings, and one of them was Tyler T Love and I remember being absolutely enamored by him,” Lentz said.
Schrom made his official drag debut in high school. His introduction to drag was through watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” One specific drag artist from the show made a lasting impact on him.
“When watching Season 13, my whole world changed when Gottmik joined the show. They're a transmasculine drag artist who fuses drag with goth and high fashion elements. As a trans man they were a huge inspiration to me even before I started drag,” Schrom said via email.
Both Co-Presidents spoke of the importance of the club during a time of rampant anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
“Drag is a very beautiful queer art form and I think with especially with everything happening right now with legislation and people generally being more scared to be who they are, I think it’s really important to have a safe place to let people explore who they are and what they want to do,” Lentz said.
There are many common misconceptions when it comes to drag, one being that it is limited to queens.
“Kings and things are great, and then even within the stereotype of it just being queens, there’s this stereotype that it’s only cis gay men, specifically white cis gay men, which is not true at all,” Lentz said. “So drag is open to everybody of all, like genders, abilities, sexualities — anybody can do drag.”
Schrom noted drag’s historical origins in Black and transgender communities.
“A lot of the drag we see today came from the Black community in New York and Chicago — specifically ballroom culture. Within and outside of ballroom culture, drag has been a way that trans people expressed themselves for decades,” Schrom said via email.
Lentz added that another misconception is that drag is only for able-bodied people.
“Some of the best performers I know are disabled and they perform either in with their mobility aids or they perform modified routines,” Lentz said.
So far, the club has been doing well, hosting different events on campus and receiving support from the Hamline community and Twin Cities LGBTQ+ organizations. An upcoming event of theirs is a fundraiser for gender-affirming undergarment store, UnderDARE, on April 29. As for the future of the club, they hope to have more open-stage shows and events. Schrom also hopes students can feel seen by their club.
“I hope to see any student come to a drag show or event that we host, and possibly say ‘I can do that.’ Even if that just means that they start wearing that t-shirt in their closet that's been waiting to be worn. I want students [who] attend our events or club meetings to feel seen, supported, educated, inspired and excited,” Schrom said via email.
They also hope more people join. For those interested, they currently meet in Drew Residence Hall Studio 67 during Thursday convo hour. Everyone is welcome, especially those interested in drag, performance or art in general.
“We’re a space for people to kind of explore what they’re curious about and get out of their comfort zone if that’s what they want to do and get connections within the drag scene if they want to be a performer or just a fan or a different kind of performer or anything. We’re very open to everybody,” Lentz said.