Lessons in Drag

The day before Kareem Khubchandani’s Franke Lecture in the Humanities (“Aunty Aesthetics, or More Ways to Be an Aunty”) they will perform a drag show as your favorite South Asian drag aunty, LaWhore Vagistan. Dr. Vagistan brings the nightclub to the classroom (and vice versa) to explain how critical social theory matters in queer nightlife. Touching on themes that include globalization, feminist theory, and Islamophobia, she stages the nightclub as a site of politics and pleasure. Part lecture, part lip-sync, part audience participation, the show demonstrates how much drag teaches us—even requires us—to be in relation with the rest of the world.

LaWhore Vagistan is everyone’s favorite overdressed, overeducated, oversaturated desi drag aunty. Her music videos have screened at the Mississauga South Asian Film Festival, Austin OUTsider multi-arts festival, Hyderabad Queer Film Festival, and 3rd i San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival. She has performed at the Austin International Drag Festival, Mustard Seed South Asian Film Festival, The Asia Society, AS220, Queens Museum, Jack Theater, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Not Festival, Links Hall, and A.R.T. Oberon. You can find her on YouTube delivering a TEDx talk titled “How to Be an Aunty” and serving looks on Instagram at @lawhorevagistan.

Poster