In 2018, Reelout is proud to present Miss Tyffanie Morgan (Miss Gay Kingston), Lilith Cain (both fabulous drag performers and McBurney Park Neighborhood residents) and Fabula North to read A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MARLON BUNDO (Chronicle Books) written by Marlon Bundo and Jill Twist, illustrated by EG Keller and created by the team at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and MY PRINCESS BOY by Cheryl Kilodavis, illustrated by Suzanne DeSimone (Simon and Schuster).
Drag Queen Story Time is:
Saturday, June 23 at 1PM
Sunday, June 24 at 11 AM
This is a co-presentation with Reelout Film Festival.
Drag Queen StoryTime is now a world-wide phenomenon and has even been written about in the NY Times. The Times article however, erroneously credits a group out of San Francisco as starting the trend in December in 2015 and they seem to be taking the credit. So in this age of alternate facts, here’s the T.
Drag Queen StoryTime originated in Kingston, Ontario, in June of 2015 at the Skeleton Park Arts Festival.
Executive Director of Reelout, Matt Salton had just returned from a trip in Toronto where he picked up a new book for the Reelout Lending Library from the Glad Day Bookstore called 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert, illustrated by Rex Ray published by Seven Stories Press.
This beautiful story follows a young transgender girl named Bailey and her love for dresses. A couple of days later called Matt received an email from Mariah Horner, one of the festival’s coordinators, asking community-serving agencies who had booths in the park to find unique and family-family ways to engage with attendees at the festival. As Reelout is primarily an LGBTQ+ festival for adults, Matt pondered how the organization could thematically engage with families as he walked home and as he had many friends in the community who were drag queens and with the new book still fresh in his mind, Matt quickly reached out to his drag queen friends and asked if they would like to read the book to children on the day of the festival and it would be called Drag Queen StoryTime.
And so, on a sunny afternoon in McBurney (Skeleton) Park in June of 2015, the world’s very first Drag Queen Story Time was borne with Fabula Queen of the North and Lily Devine reading 10,000 Dresses and And Tango Makes Three (Simon and Schuster) by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, illustrated by Henry Cole. Drag Queen StoryTime is now a staple of the programming at the Skeleton Park Arts Festival every year.
About the Queens:
Fabula North
From the Second planet orbiting the North Star, Fabula North has been sent as an ambassador of her people. Arriving in the strange land of Kingston, Ontario she encountered the planet’s residents for the first time at a local pride parade. Disguising herself based on the local population — she begins her study of life on this little planet.
Miss Tyffanie Morgan (Jim Puckalo)
Tyffanie Morgan comes from a long line of drag queens in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She was crowned Miss Gay Kingston in June of 2009 by her drag mother and reigning Miss Gay Kingston, Miss Jas Morgan in recognition of her years of service to numerous community-serving agencies. Having her finger on the pulse of the queer community in Kingston, Tyffanie shares news and events through her podcast Breakfast with Tyffanie and her blog at tyffanie.com.
Lilith Cain (Tyler Brown)
Lilith Cain started her drag career in Toronto 3 years ago, A maverick drag performer who bucks traditions, Lilith self-taught everything from makeup, lip syncing, dancing, and creating performances. Her style of drag mixes a bit of glamour, camp and horror/shock (don’t worry she’ll tone it down for the kiddies). She takes inspiration from artists like Lady Gaga, Gin Wigmore, Marilyn Manson and many others.
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