INTERVIEW
Have you ever been a part of the cast when you were the only person of colour ?
Oh , yeah . Lots of times . I think with smaller casts and smaller promoters , I understand that there is a budget in place . Sometimes they can only afford to have three performers . And if that means that they have a line up where there is more diversity and representation in those three people , then that ’ s cool . That ’ s fine . I ’ m happy if I ’ m the only POC person there , and if they got another drag king and then some Asian representation . Something to show diversity in the cast , and I think that ’ s absolutely fine .
But when there ’ s larger groups and companies that have bigger budgets , where there is like six plus performers , then you really need to be thinking about how you ’ re spending your money and why you ’ ve got six white cis people in the cast .
If you get invited to perform at a show , do you always check the line up now before you agree to join the cast ?
It ’ s hard because I have so many bookings and so many things that I ’ m doing . It ’ s hard for me to sit down and look at absolutely everything that I ’ m involved with . But usually as soon as the posters go up or I see who else is on the cast with me , it ’ s very evident if I ’ ve been tokenised as a black person .
I don ’ t think it ’ s about scrutinising and making sure people are doing their jobs . It ’ s just calling them out when it ’ s obvious . There is a fine line between always banging the door down and making people feel bad when they genuinely don ’ t know what they ’ re doing wrong , and not saying anything . You got to go in the middle somewhere in order for people to listen , because if you ’ re always shouting and always screaming , people are like “ Oh , they ’ re always screaming about something ”, and if you ’ re not saying anything , it ’ s like “ Well , why are you not using your voice ?”
When you started doing drag a few years back , did you think that because it ’ s a queer art community , which is already a diverse , minority group , that there were going to be fewer issues with inequality and representation ?
Good question . I don ’ t think I really thought about it at all . It ’ s not something I think about when I go into anything . I never think about my colour , I just do me and what happens , happens . I don ’ t think I really thought anything of it . And in fact , I was quite ignorant towards it for a while when I first started , until a couple of years in .
Then I started feeling weird at drag shows where I ’ d watch like 10 drag queens on stage . I ’ d think “ I feel strange . Why do I feel strange ? Oh , it ’ s because I ’ m a person of colour . I don ’ t see myself up there on that stage , or somebody like me up there and it doesn ’ t feel good .” This is why it ’ s important to have a diverse line-up , why a cast needs to be diverse .
So it took me to experience it , to understand that kind of thing . And that ’ s even me being a person of colour . It ’ s not something I really thought about . I was just like , let ’ s go and perform . It ’ s drag . And it honestly started there , which is , you know , it ’ s sad . Where I grew up in Bournemouth , there weren ’ t really many of those conversations . We were all very young , fresh , drag queens that didn ’ t really know better about things .
Was there any particular moment when you decided to start speaking up and be more of a voice for the community ?
If I ’ m completely honest , it would have been only last year that I started really actively talking about things . Before that , I always thought I was speaking up about things , but actually I was too worried about damaging my own image rather than speaking up for what ’ s right , which is really stupid and selfish . If I could go back in time , I would slap myself and be like “ Soroya , say something !”
“ I ’ d think ‘ I feel strange . Why do I feel strange ? Oh , it ’ s because I ’ m a person of colour . I don ’ t see myself up there on that stage , or somebody like me up there and it doesn ’ t feel good .’ This is why it ’ s important to have a diverse line-up .”
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