The Art of Drag

Curated by Clover Honey

Drag Goddess and star of Cable TV’s Under the Pink Carpet, Clover Honey, hosts an evening of the most exciting drag talent in town. Join the Fresh Fruit Festival in examining the "art of drag" and the many ways this art excites, stimulates and moves us towards a bigger, brighter and better world.

Featuring: The Church Ladies for Choice, the Radical Faeries, Millie Sheaintwright, Lady Maria Chaste Diva (live opera singer), Jacqueline Jonee (classy cabaret artist) and Native American drag performer, singer Samantha Richards of the Brush Arbor Girls. Come enjoy the sparkle, freedom and fun only glitter, sequins and a new dress can bring.

First 15 audience members in drag are half price. The next 15 get $10 off the regular ticket price. Special Rates for groups.

LADY CLOVER HONEY has emerged as one of the most versatile Drag Queen personalities. She performed at the grandest of show palaces, like Carnegie Hall, where she sang and acted as Maestro Conductor, and the Waldorf. She has also played at funky downtown clubs, like CBGBs, Bowery Poets Club, The Slide and C Note. Born Mr. Kevin Clover Welsh in Totowa, NJ, Clover moved across the Hudson River into NYC as a young adult. "He" started "doing drag" for parties and soon found more women’s clothing in his/her closet than men’s and almost always going out as a Lady, calling herself Clover Honey. She eventually graced the Cabaret circuit and became a top Socialite seen at the City’s most prestigious benefits, constantly getting her name in the gossip columns. As a Political Advocate, she sits on the Board of Directors of the Stonewall Democrats and the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, providing a Trangendered viewpoint. She made History as the 1st Trans Reporter and the 2nd Drag Personality on national TV and the 1st Transgender Conductor at Carnegie Hall. She is always pushing boundaries and hopes to make alternative gender expression a more expectable art form and way of being.

THE CHURCH LADIES FOR CHOICE OF NEW YORK CITY was conceived in 1990 by the underground activista mastermind, Yasha Bunchik, to bring performance values to Pro-Choice Women’s Healthcare Clinic Defenses. Yasha convinced her good friend and occasional nun, Sister Mary Cunnilingus, to open not only her heart, but her closet. The Church Ladies For Choice have been singing (Pray for pitch!) and joking (at the expense of religious bigots everywhere) for 16 years now. They are considered the Cheerleaders of Choice and the USO to Clinic Defenders everywhere.

LADY MARIA CASTA DIVA was Born Maria Josephina Ignacia Carmelina de los Angeles y los Santos Guadalupe Patrocinio Espinoza Alfaro Marquez y Garcia in Southwestern Idaho to Mexican immigrants. At the age of 14 it was discovered that she had a most unique voice and was enrolled in the Conservetoire di Regretta von Offenbach in Paris…Paris, Idaho. Post completion of her vocal training while working as a minstrel girl in the streets of Paris …Paris, Illinois, she was discovered by Maestro Petro Ferrero. So impressed was he with her display of fluent oral skills that she was contracted as an understudy to internationally renowned Italian soprano Madama Renata Corelli. Due to a most “unfortunate accident” involving her brakes Madama Corelli was unable to perform the dance of the seven veils in Gonoud’s “Salome”. Before the curtain had fallen Maria Casta Diva – – had become La Casta Diva.

MILLIE SHAYNTWRITE (pronounced "she ain’t right") is the hostess of Lavender Vaudeville, a night of Queer poetry jam and performance art at Downtown’s Nuyorican Café. Her petite body is unmatched by her huge mouth, voice and type A personality! Her vocal singing and great moves made her a hit at many NYC Gay Men’s chorus drag and dance production numbers performed at Carnegie Hall and other notable concert venues.

JACQUELINE JONEE – Not only does she play the piano a la Liberace and Victor Borge mixing classical and popular music selections, she also sings and holds two beauty pageant titles including Mrs. Fire Island and Miss Cherries 1997, and was first runner up in the recent Miss New York City Pageant 1998. She has performed extensively on Fire Island and in New York at Don’t Tell Mama, the Triad, the Oaks, Lips and at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

RADICAL FAERIES are a loosely affiliated international group of mostly gay men and counterculture pagans. Started in California, it has spread throughout the world over the past several decades. The group challenges the commercialization and patriarchal aspects of modern gay life. Members embody the fae or feminized ideals in gay men.

The Art of Drag is presented as part of the Fifth Annual Fresh Fruit Festival.