This old school Sharon Needles video isn't safe for work. AT ALL.
Pomp drag outsider artist Sharon Needles snatched up the winning title on season four of RuPaul's Drag Race, shaking up the public perception that all drag is pretty and glamorous. She'll perform at Queen, the newest addition to East Dallas venue It'll Do's programming line-up on Thursday, August 30.
Aaron Coady, the meditative creative beneath the 14 pounds of makeup, is known for intentionally stirring the pot by addressing topics like racism, homosexuality and heart-sinking language in his live shows. The media piled on, attacking his character and dismissing the performance art as thoughtless confrontational shock. But for Coady, these actions ran much deeper than their superficial judgement. "I've always tried to mock the things that scared the shit out of me when I was younger," he said, defending his work to Atlanta's GA Voice.
He's done that by wearing a swimsuit tagged with a swastika, while singing about the ease of being blonde and traditionally normal, and by using racist words that still hit us all in the gut. But to Coady those acts were a means of demolishing phrases that hold fear and anger in their composition by airing them out during a public spectacle.
Needles will never be the gently teasing, hair shushing, lash batting lady in the room; that isn't her job. She's here to show us the raw side of Pittsburgh's drag scene and to angle the gel lights on those dark things that lurk in dusty corners. Hell, she'll even stomp on the ones that try to scamper away, cracking their necks in 8-inch leather heels.
See Sharon Needles on Thursday, August 30th at It'll Do Dancing Club, located at 4322 Elm Street. Prices and pre-sale hasn't been posted at this time, so keep up with the action on Queen's Facebook page.
