This article is part of the official Virginia Pride Festival Guide, released ahead of the celebration on Saturday, September 27.
Presented with the support of Out RVA, Allianz, Hit Play, Virginia Lottery, CarMax, Bank of America, CoStar Group, Genworth, CapTech, and Bar West, with media support from Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond Magazine, Queer RVA, and RVA Magazine. Special thanks to Steve Davis of River Fox Realty for his support.
The complete Pride Guide is available for download HERE, and you can also visit our dedicated festival page for all event details, schedules, and updates as your one-stop hub for everything Pride Fest HERE.
Richmond’s drag scene is often associated with glitter, glamour, and camp but for Qing Imzadi, known on stage as Qing Blaze, drag is also a tool of survival, storytelling, and defiance. A thinker, maker, and performer, Imzadi moves between roles as program director at Diversity Richmond, a drag king, a burlesque artist, a comedian, and a community organizer. At the center of it all is a question: how do we use the past to shape a better future?
“I position myself as a conduit between the past and the future,” Imzadi explains. “Drag, theater, comedy, burlesque they’re all ways of telling stories that amplify the needs of my community, whether it’s food insecurity, public health, or just the visibility of queer and trans people of color.”
Raised in a strict Jehovah’s Witness household, Imzadi learned early what it meant to be on stage. As a child, they delivered Bible vignettes and knocked on doors on Saturday mornings. That training gave them confidence in public speaking but also prepared them for alienation. “It meant learning how to be the one kid who said, ‘I can’t stay for the Christmas party.’ It was training to think outside the box,” Imzadi recalls. That discipline eventually became a strength when they began exploring their own gender identity through drag.
Their first character was a hyper-feminized burlesque persona, an intentional challenge. But after the pandemic, Imzadi created Qing Blaze, a drag king who feels “so extremely me.” Blaze allows them to explore masculinity, gender performance, and how audiences react. “Even if it’s a lighthearted performance, there has to be a story that connects me back to my why,” Imzadi says. “If someone has never seen a person like me before, what do I want them to walk away with?”
Part of that exploration includes adopting cowboy as a pronoun, a nod to their grandfather’s love of Westerns and their father’s immersion in motorcycle culture. It’s also a reflection of their belief that we all live in drag, whether we admit it or not. “Every time you choose an outfit, every time you decide what gendered aisle you shop in, you’re making choices about drag,” Imzadi says. “The world is a stage, and gender is performance.”
That philosophy is deeply rooted in history. Imzadi cites influences like Stormé DeLarverie, the Black drag king who played a pivotal role at Stonewall, and Gowongo Mohawk, the first recorded Native drag king on the American stage. “If people were willing to risk jail or their lives to live authentically, what does that say about the power of drag?” Imzadi asks. “Their work lights the path for us now.”
In Richmond, Imzadi is committed to making queer spaces more inclusive, particularly for Black and brown communities. “This is a good city for queer folks, but we still have work to do,” they say. Through their role at Diversity Richmond, they organize everything from religious trauma peer support groups to memoir-writing workshops, resume-building sessions, and comedy classes. “I think of these programs as the foundation for celebration,” Izmadi explains. “Pride is the big party, but what happens when you need housing, or help with bills, or a network of support? That’s where we come in.”
For Imzadi, Pride remains an act of resistance. “There are people actively working to erase our stories. The ultimate act of defiance is to celebrate anyway, to show up, to pool our resources and protect one another,” they say. “Joy is deeper than happiness. It’s the comfort of knowing you’re visible, you’re supported, and you’re not alone.”
Photos by Mx.Bex
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