Courtesy of Mia Cortés Castro

This Sunday, the New Haven Pride Center kicked off its Pride Week with its largest Drag Artist Story Hour ever. 

Hosted by Connecticut-based drag artists Frizzie Borden and Ram Shackle, Drag Artist Story Hour formed part of a nationwide initiative encouraging local drag artists to serve as queer role models for children. During Story Hour, the two drag artists read six books aloud to a group of parents and children between six months and 10 years old. They also asked kids questions to spark conversations on their passions and interests. 

“I think it’s important to introduce kids and parents to these types of stories,” Frizzie Borden told the News. “The kids were so engaged, they were answering our questions, so I think these stories are good to help introduce more difficult conversations in an easier way and to help answer any questions that the kids may have about these complicated topics.”

The New Haven Pride Center hosted the event in its own office space on Orange Street after various Drag Artist Story Hours were bombarded by criticisms, protests and death threats. Hosting the event at the Center instead of in partnership with the libraries has helped foster a safer environment for both the families that come to the storytelling and the queer artists who host them. After four years of Story Hours, the Center invested in colorful mats for the kids to sit on, as well as their own library of queer-focused children’s books, in order to self-sustain the initiative. 

“I had a very traumatic drag artist story hour experience as a drag artist, so it made me want to create that safe space for families to come,” Dunn said. “Being a parent is hard in and of itself, but being a parent that is either LGBTQ or has a queer kid is like an extra layer of complicated, so being able to host a space where parents can build relationships with each other and hopefully have playdates and stuff like that creates a great community.”

The six books read during Drag Artist Story Hour were “Harriet Gets Carried Away” by Jessie Sima, “Neither” by Airlie Anderson, “What Riley Wore” by Elana K. Arnold, “Julián Is a Mermaid” by Jessica Love, “Call Me Max” by Kyle Lukoff and “From the Stars In the Sky to the Fish In the Sea” by Kai Cheng Thom. All of these books belong to the GLSEN Rainbow Library Collection, and some are Lambda Award winners.

In addition to reading the books aloud, drag artists Frizzie Borden and Ram Shackle also talked with the children about the characters in the books. They were surprised to hear that some children already owned the books and had read them at home. 

“I really enjoy hearing their [the children’s] answers to my questions and it’s also really nice that a lot of them had these books already because it means that their parents care about them understanding queer concepts,” Ram Shackle said after the event. “I think it’s fun for the kids to see people in fabulous costumes reading to them, it’s really exciting, and that also makes them enjoy these stories themselves.”

During the Story Hour, the children laughed along to the stories, stood up and danced around when they felt restless and were given candy at the end of it. 

Many parents in attendance expressed their appreciation for the sense of community built by the New Haven Pride Center. 

“I think it’s just important for children to know that they can always come to a place where everyone is accepting of everybody no matter who you choose to be or how you choose to represent yourself,” said Katrina Hopkins, one of the parents in attendance at the event. “If you bring them when they’re this little, they don’t know any different, they just grow up knowing that this is normal and that anyone can be anything and that that’s normal. They might not get that everywhere in the world so I’m glad that the New Haven Pride Center makes a point to create a space like this.”

The New Haven Pride Center has diversified its drag artist roster in order to introduce children to a diverse array of artists and to mix up the Story Hour styles. The Center is also a primary advocate for creative expression in the New Haven queer community, preaching art as a tool to bridge gaps between identities. 

Recently, the Youth Services office at the Center expanded in an effort to provide aid and mentorship to more queer youth in the New Haven community.

New Haven Pride is taking place from Sept. 11 to 18.