Drag Artist Interviews

This dataset consists
of 30 transcripts and audio files
of interviews with drag artists
about with their personal story with drag
and their ideas about drag.
25 more are on their way.

I taught Sociology of Drag in Spring 2019 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. As part of the course, my students each interviewed a drag artist. These were semi-structured interviews that used a common set of questions we developed as a class.

The first file below is a Word document containing transcripts of these 22 interviews, along with an appendix with the survey instrument. The second file is a PDF version.

You can go to https://ezratemko.com/category/drag/drag-artist-portrait/ to find links to each individual interview, which include audio files of the interviews. There is also a link to the webpage where the audio file can be accessed at the beginning of each transcript in the database document.

This is a public dataset – we collectively went through the Institutional Review Board process and our research participants consented to the interviews and to the transcripts being published.

In Spring 2020, my student Destiny Baxter conducted eight additional interviews with drag artists, using the same survey instrument, and intentionally reaching out to drag artists that would expand the diversity of representation in our dataset. The third and fourth files contain those eight interview transcripts, in .docx and .pdf forms respectively.

I taught The Art of Drag in Spring 2021 at SIUE. Students again interviewed drag artists. The questions were the same as in 2019 and 2020, with the exception of an additional question about the pandemic. A graduate student working with me also interviewed two drag artists. There are 25 interviews from this semester. They are available at https://ezratemko.com/category/drag/drag-artist-portrait/. Once they are all reviewed and edited, they will be collectively put together into another single document, so check back.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!



2019 interviews (Drag artist name, artist’s location, date, interviewer)
Kyra Banks, St. Louis, MO, April 7, Sam Huster
Crystal Clear, Edwardsville, IL, April 9, Alizeja Gipson
Roxxy Malone, St. Louis, MO, April 11, Devon Kaminski
Jenna Cydal, St. Louis, MO, April 13, Valla Diskin
Mahogany Knight, Springfield, IL, April 15, Marliena Robson
Lady Luscious, St. Louis, MO, April 15, Seth Walker
Logan Zass, Chicago, IL, April 16, Jazsmine Towner
Charlotte Sumtimes, St. Louis, MO, April 23, Hayley Mickelson
Brother Daniel, St. Louis, MO, April 23, Henry Schilling
Rachel Michaels, Paducah, KY, April 24, Emily Love
Diana Tunnel, Chicago, IL, April 24, Sam McKeehan
Ginger KaiKai, Rochester, NY, April 28, Nikki Scoggan
Cece Drake, Evansville, IL, April 28, student
Tiki Vonte, St. Louis, MO, April 29, Emily Dant
Aime Vanite, West Reading, PA, April 29, Sandhya Jacob
Janessa Markstone Mornette-Highland, St. Louis, MO, April 29, Rhian Baker
Dixie Que, Peterborough, ON, April 29, student
Khatrina Jackson, Lafayette, LA, April 29, Tyler Hartman
Heaven Leigh, St. Louis, MO, April 30, student
Jessica Leigh Foster, St. Louis, MO, May 2, student
Regina Steelheart, St. Louis, MO, May 4, student
Sabrina White, St. Louis, MO, May 10, student


2020 interviews (Drag artist name, interview date, drag artist’s location, interviewer):
Amoura Teese, April 13, San Francisco, CA, Destiny Baxter
Bella Noche, February 12, New York, NY, Destiny Baxter
Die Anna, February 12, Los Angeles, CA, Destiny Baxter
Gigi Gemini, February 12, Las Vegas, NV, Destiny Baxter
Mick Douch, February 18, Chicago, IL, Destiny Baxter
Tomahawk Martini, April 16, Albuquerque, NM, Destiny Baxter
Twinkie LaRue, February 23, Toronto, Ontario, Destiny Baxter
Wendy Warhol, April 28, Montreal, Quebec, Destiny Baxter

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