Diversity Richmond’s ever popular drag bingo returns!!
Drag Bingo at Diversity with $2000 in prizes.
Ten games with $100 winners and one huge jackpot of $1,000! Featuring Ms Black Pride, Aaliyah Michaels Ova; beautiful Natasha Carrington and notorious Grace Wetpants. $20 admission. Cash only. ATM on premises.
Hot on the very high heels of the wildly successful epic extravaganza, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music,” the incomparable Taylor Mac makes his Richmond, Virginia debut to share a little holiday sass and dazzling glitter with “Holiday Sauce.” It’s Christmas as calamity when MacArthur Fellow (2017) and Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac celebrates the season’s dysfunction in the ultimate holiday survival guide. Joined by longtime collaborators Machine Dazzle and Matt Ray, and a spectacular band, Mac reframes the songs you love and the holidays you hate in a brilliant, and at times shocking, take-down of the sentimentality of the holidays.
Please note: This performance is not child friendly.
The creatives behind Quirktastic grew up without a space for black youth in nerd culture… so they made their own.
“You’re not really the right race to dress up as that character.”
“You don’t really look like a geek.”
“Are you pretending just for guys’ attention?”
Lauren Grant has heard everything in the book. But together with Bryanda Law and Larissa Orakunda, she’s cultivated an inclusive space for geeks, nerds, and weirdos to freely be themselves with no judgement.
Quirktastic is a website dedicated to all things alternative, featuring articles, videos and quizzes on everything from anime to crystal healing. Beginning as a blog in 2014, Quirktastic has grown into a full fledged, LA-based media company.
Law’s goal when creating Quirktastic was to make an outlet that people wished existed when they were growing up quirky, alternative, and black.
“There was no other site dedicated to creating black-business lists that cater to quirky black women, or anyone writing love letters to black men who play with LEGOs,” Law stated in a 2017 interview. “I wanted to be that site.”
Grant, a VCU Broadcast Journalism alum, joined the team in 2017, two days after leaving the worst job of her life. One of her best friends tweeted her Quirktastic’s call for writers. When she saw the website, it was love at first click.
“When I clicked on the website, I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of Quirktastic before!” says Grant. “Quirky black girls like myself were writing pieces that related to me, pieces I actually wanted to read not only from the perspective of a nerd, but from the perspective of being a woman of color.”
Grant has moved through the ranks and is now the Chief Content Officer of Quirktastic, producing all of their video and podcast content.
Grant has always known life as a geek. She first remembers getting into the culture at about seven years old, when her childhood friend Amanda introduced her to Sailor Moon, a popular Japanese cartoon and comic book about a group of magical teenage girls saving the Universe.
However, largely due to her gender and race, many people have looked at her interest with an air of skepticism.
“I wish I could say that it’s stopped, but even as someone who has worked in a geeky space for years, I still am hearing, ‘You don’t look like a geek.’”
Even black female celebrities have recently come under fire for their interest in nerd culture. Rapper and singer Lizzo dressed as Sailor Moon for a concert. Megan thee Stallion did a photoshoot for Paper magazine as Todoroki, a character from the anime My Hero Academia, and has multiple mentions of anime in her lyrics.
Both celebrities, especially Megan thee Stallion, were accused of faking their interest in order to chase “clout” and exploit “real anime fans.”
This strict gatekeeping has been one of the greatest hurdles that the Quirktastic team has tried to overcome since relocating to LA. During many investor meetings and networking events, they keep hearing, “Well, you don’t really look like geeks.”
Quirktastic has made strides in creating a community for those who feel ostracized. With the creation of a friendship app and the hashtag #thisiswhatageeklookslike, the Quirk community has a strong emphasis on inclusivity.
“We give everyone a chance to shine, especially women, people of color, and the LGBTQIA+ community — but our platform doesn’t just cater to minorities like ourselves,” said Grant. “We don’t care who comes into our nerdy space, as long as you come in with empathy and respect… and often that’s all anyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, wants.”
When it comes to advice for young black nerds who might feel alienated, Grant has plenty.
“Find your tribe! Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you don’t belong in this space. There’s room for all types of geeks! YOU are what a geek looks like!”
Top Photo via Quirktastic
For Hollywood stars whose relevance is fading, sharing discriminatory hot takes on causes you don’t understand is a bad way to get back in the spotlight.
This week, things took an awkward turn when it turned out that Zach Morris is not actually the Saved By The Bell cast member who is trash. Instead, it turns out, it’s good ol’ AC Slater. Former Saved By the Bell actor Mario Lopez, who is now a host on the entertainment news show Extra, is confused — and he thinks you actually care about his opinion.
He especially seems to think you care about his problematic (read: dangerous) opinion about parents who support their transgender children. Originally Lopez appeared back in June on conservative YouTube talk show The Candace Owens Show and was asked about parents allowing their children to express traditionally-opposite gender interests. Specifically, he remarked about how children don’t understand what is going on anyway, and how dangerous it is.
Owens, who was previously a nanny, opened the questioning by prodding that children don’t have the mental authority to understand gender identity.
“I’m kind of blown away, too,” Lopez told Owens, according to NBC News. “I’m never one to tell anyone how to parent their kids, obviously, and I think if you come from a place of love, you really can’t go wrong… but at the same time, my God, if you’re 3 years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way, or you think you’re a boy or a girl — or whatever the case may be — I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination.”
“When you’re a kid … you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid,” Lopez said.
While this may be true depending on the source you cite, it should be noted by anyone with any sense that gender and sexuality are two separate entities. Conservative media enjoys conveniently combining them, but it should again be noted that they are, seriously, not the same thing.
It took a while for anyone to notice his appearance on the show, but finally people found out about it, and now Lopez has come under fire on social media. Naturally, he backpedaled the hell out of there as soon as the clip went viral, commenting on Wednesday about how sorry he is and how much he supports the LGBTQ community.
“I have been, and always will be, an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself,” Lopez said, according to Insider. “Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.”
I would like to point out that if he really agreed that these comments were in poor taste, he wouldn’t have waited until the last day of July to jump on that. To quote my dear father, “You’re not sorry you did it, you’re sorry you got caught.”
For the record, the producers of Extra were not on board with what Lopez had to say, issuing a statement of their own about the whole affair. “While we have enjoyed a long relationship with Mario Lopez, who we know to be a caring person, the opinions he expressed in this interview do not reflect those of Extra,” they stated, according to Deadline. “We wholeheartedly embrace our friends from the LGBTQ community and believe they need support and love.”
Hopefully cast members from 90s teen sitcoms will give us more of that support and love in the future. And hopefully Mario Lopez will follow through on that promise to educate himself about an issue he has proven himself ignorant about.
Local drag performer Chicki Parm focuses on the funny, hosting a monthly comedy show in Richmond between tours across the country.
Chase Keech has turned his love of drag and comedy into a full-time career performing as Richmond’s drag star Chicki Parm.
“I would have never guessed I’d get to be a full-time drag queen. My wildest dreams have already been shattered with drag,” Keech said. “I used to do drag goals for every drag birthday. I used to write out fifteen to twenty quantifiable goals, but I don’t even do that anymore. I would break them beyond my wildest dreams.”
Keech was introduced to the world of drag in 2014 after meeting a drag queen at a house party. A natural-born performer, he was immediately drawn to drag.
“It was so new to me. From there, I binged RuPaul’s Drag Race and I saw that there was a real lack in the Richmond scene of the kind of drag queen that I was always drawn to — which is a comedian, a comedy queen,” Keech said, “I saw a path for myself, started drag, and became the comedy queen of Richmond.”
Keech had been working in IT at the DMV at the time, and he balanced his two worlds for over three years while he worked all day and performed all night. As Keech’s popularity rose and the bookings became more frequent, however, doing both was no longer an option. In November of 2018, Keech made the decision to quit his day job and to fully pursue his dreams of performing, turning his passion into a thriving career.
“With drag, it’s only as much of a business as you make it. If you’re just doing gigs and not thinking about the bigger picture of what you’re doing, you’re not really trying to profit, then you don’t see much of a profit. Very early on into starting drag, I knew that’s what I wanted to do: do it for work,” Keech said. “I just have to be very business savvy with it all. You have to be very strategic; you can’t say yes to everything all the time. I have to be picky about what I do on the weekends because those are my big money-making days. And then I have merch — I’m able to sell a patron something besides my performance. You really have to go about it with a business mindset.”
That ambition is what’s taking Keech all over the country as he travels state-to-state hosting and performing, as well as hosting multiple shows all over Richmond. He hosts Quenched Wednesdays every week at Thirsty’s RVA, as well as his own monthly show at Fallout, Extra Cheese, which features both drag performers and stand-up comedians.
Keech pitched the idea for Extra Cheese when he was in the cast at Fallout’s Wicked Wednesdays shows as a drag stand-up comedian. This August 12th will be the third anniversary of the show, which falls on Keech’s 25th birthday.
“It’s really nice to be able to have a show dedicated to the art forms I love, and dedicated to me being silly on the mic. My single favorite thing about drag is being on the mic and just killing a joke. That is better than performing or anything to me,” Keech said. “I always tell myself that my job is to be a comedian, and drag is the avenue through which I do my job. Drag is how I do my comedy.”
Keech’s comedic chops are a huge part of the Chicki Parm persona, as well as his defined aesthetic.
“I have tried very hard to create a brand, a color palette,” Keech said. “I want you to be able to look at me and say, oh, that’s a very ‘Chicki’ look.”
When creating a look, Keech often draws on themes of futurism mixed with classic drag elements, like outrageous curves and head-to-toe rhinestones, all inside the strict color scheme Keech has set for himself.
“I only wear three colors of hair: baby pink, platinum blonde, and silver. I only wear orange, blue, pink, black, and red,” Keech said. “I try to be consistent.”
Among his influences are Bob The Drag Queen, the season 8 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Nicki Minaj — whom Keech cites as his “problematic fave.”
His love of Nicki Minaj is what landed him with the drag name Chicki Parm, a name that has received lots of attention recently after Trixie Mattel of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame shouted out the fun and campy name.
“Chicki came from my boy name, Chase, plus Nicki Minaj. So I sat on Chicki for a while and then one day I was watching Parks & Rec and there’s a bit where Aziz Ansari calls Chicken Parmesan ‘Chicki Chicki Parm Parm.’ I just thought, ‘ohmygod that’s me,’” Keech said, “And there’s so much I can do with it; Extra Cheese, and my merch with the spaghetti demons. I can do Italian-inspired numbers. I love my schtick. And so does Trixie, I guess.”
The name Chicki Parm completes the strong branding that Keech has always aimed for in his drag career.
“I think I’m unique in that I knew what I wanted to be, coming in to drag. I have a lot of people tell me, ‘I saw what you were doing early on and it’s been cool to see you polish it up.’ Even my colors, I knew early on,” Keech said. “It’s been such a cool journey, being able to develop that and grow with that. I really think it’s important, if you want to make it, to have a brand. People are weirded out by that word, or don’t understand, but it’s really so important to know who you are.”
Keech’s performance style as Chicki is engaging, hilarious, and intentionally individual. He keeps an audience on their toes and playing along, even promising to scream in your face if you tip higher than a one-dollar bill — much to the delight of everyone watching. The Chicki Parm persona is defined and marketed, but never disingenuous, and always a great time.
Chicki Parm is quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the Richmond drag scene, and Keech shows no signs of stopping.
All Photos courtesy Chicki Parm
