The University of Massachusetts Boston’s ever-inclusive environment was on full blast on April 28 when the Queer Student Center put on its Annual Drag Show.
Hosted by Miss Verna Turbulence, the evening was the perfect promotion of equality, sexuality, and awareness, all masquerading as a marvelous time. The show hosted a myriad of different performances, each exploring the creativity of drag, mixing comedy, drama, song, and dance with themes of sex and inclusion. While each act performed by the queens all had different themes, they were all equally entertaining and empowering.  
The queens themselves all had personalities as vibrant and over-the-top as their outfits. The queens, Miss Kamden Rage, Kris Kinevel, Verna Turbulence, Karisma Geneva Jackson-Tae, Lakia Mondale, and Destiny, all put on lip sync performances to songs or remixes of their choice, incorporating any kind of dramatic performance they saw fit.
Some performances decided to take a comedic route, like both of Miss Kris Kinevel’s performances of “Let It Go,” which involved a number of fart jokes, and of a remix of Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” which replaced the lyrics with not-so subliminal hints of fellatio.
Some took on the aura of a full blown concert, like Miss Destiny’s performance of a Nicki Minaj medley. Destiny, who looked much like Minaj herself in her first performance, broke it down and made her performance as close to a full blown party as possible. She even invited one of the audience members up onto the stage during her second performance and taught her how to dance.
Miss Lakia Mondale’s performance of Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone” was a full-blown interactive performance with the audience, with Miss Mondale perching herself on the lap of an audience member, the fictional Tyrone. Miss Verna Turbulence had also found herself dramatizing her skits, acting out her performances of Beyoncé’s “Love on Top” and her tribute to Donna Summers as though she was on a Broadway stage.
Other performances, however, were downright sexual and hilarious. During Miss Karisma’s performances of Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be,” and Selena Gomez’s “Love You Like A Love Song,” she engaged in almost every type of sexual act one possibly could with multiple audience members (well, pretended to, anyway).
The professional drag queens in attendance weren’t the only ones in on the fun either: UMass Boston’s very own queens joined in on the festivities and put on their own performances. Three of UMass Boston’s own students had dressed to the nines and got on stage, dancing around and through the audience.
The performances—though sexual, hilarious, and over-the-top—sent massive waves of culture shock to those who had never been to a drag show before. While at first, this drag show was perceived to be all fun and games, it was really a fluid and entertaining conversation about sexuality and inclusion.
Wild and entertaining, informative and influential, UMass Boston’s Annual Drag Show is, without a doubt, a fabulous and incredible event that sets an important precedent in the conversation of rights, services, and inclusion within the LGBTQ community.

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One of the drag queens from the event. Photo by Mickey West/Mass Media Staff.