Among other things, UNC Asheville students care a lot about sustainability and LGBTQ+ rights. So it’s not hard to imagine that the two causes would come together in such a way.
March 29 was the Zero Waste Student Drag Show. The event was a collaborative effort between the Student Environmental Center , Women Gender Sexuality Studies and Trans Student Union , as part of Greenfest to promote zero waste initiatives on campus.
SGA Vice President Victor Cabral was asked to host the event by organizers. He said the show was meant to celebrate queer students as well as zero waste initiatives.
“It was a show to celebrate our queer students, put together a performance for everyone to enjoy and to promote zero waste and recycling within our student body and within the queer arts,” Cabral said.
The organizers didn’t want performers buying anything new and required them to create their costumes from thrifted material or using clothes they already owned. This even extended to the wall decorations, which came from a Greenfest event earlier in the week where participants made bugs from recycled cardboard.
The event was organized by Frankie Ratowitz and Al Gallagher who work as a gardener and Eco-Rep for SEC respectively. Ratowitz said the idea came about from a desire to get rid of extra clothes from the SEC free store and the pair’s shared love of drag.
“We both thought that we should do something with a ton of the clothes that we have at the free store and we both like drag, so yeah,” Ratowitz said. “We reached out to Dr. Amanda Ray from WGSS and she put us in touch with some performers. Then we worked with the TSU so that performers would be paid. Then we reached out to our friends and other students who might want to perform.”
The event included food, drinks and four performers with unique, eco-friendly costumes. Among the performers was UNCA alumni Nova Jynah who graduated in 2023 and has been doing drag professionally for six years.
“I got a DM from somebody with the SEC and I’m always happy to come back to UNCA to do drag shows,” Jyna said.
“I think I hosted one of the first ones back in 2022 and it was a really good time. I always enjoy the energy that students bring, because for a lot of these kids this is their first introduction to drag and I want to give them a good impression of what the local drag in Asheville is like, and also give them the opportunities and information on where they can enjoy drag in town,” Jyna said.
For some audience members this was their first time at a drag show and Jyna helped teach them about drag etiquette. Cabral said he really enjoyed the show and feels that overall it was a success.
The drag performers pose with an audience member for a picture. (Photo by Anthony Frederick)
“I was really excited to be here, I think the event went great,” Cabral said. “I feel like the crowd was really, really excited and receptive. We had some great performers. One of our professional performers was an alum, and it was so great to see Nova paying it forward in that way. So I really had a great time tonight.”
In addition to being entertaining, the show carried plenty of meaning for the audience to take away. Though it was part of Greenfest, Cabral said it was a good opportunity to highlight the intersection between environmental and queer issues.
“Environmental issues and queer issues are not disconnected from one another,” Cabral said. “They are very, very deeply connected, and this event shows the way that we can fight against the oppression of queer people and the destruction of our environment in one way, together as one community.”
