Celebrating the end of Pride with amazing queer drag artists
Last week a celebration was held by the legendary digital media brand, CONVICTS, to commemorate the end of 2021 Pride. And this party was held at one of Brooklyn’s chicest bars and event spaces, Ponyboy. The event was titled NFTripping Down the Rabbit Hole, and was an epic live drag performance by some of New York’s most iconic drag artists: Nicky Ottav, God Complex, Junior Mintt, Neon Calypso, Chiquetetta, and DJ Dreamboi. Additionally, there were exclusive drag merch available for purchase in the form of NFTs. Fans could purchase one of a kind video NFTs of each artist and all proceeds go directly to the artist featured in the NFT. The purpose of this is to not only celebrate and elevate the LGBTQ+ community but allow them to have more control over their careers and allow them to have more income to support their art.
The drag lineup at this event is legendary and a celebration of queer talent with most of the performers being either trans or nonbinary. The host God Complex kicked off the show by performing an incredible Alice in Wonderland themed number which incorporated magic tricks such as spitting fire to putting out a lit fire on their tongue. Nicky Ottav was next up and performed a number while dressed in a beautiful gown resembling the shape and appearance of a butterfly. And in their second act, performed a number where other artists shaved off Nicky’s hair which was incredibly powerful and mesmerizing. Up next was Junior Mintt, a name everyone who is a fan of drag should know and support. Junior Mintt’s drag performances for this night were politically charged and powerful in the message it represents. Her first number was a combination of the American National Anthem mixed in with spoken word about the Black experience in America which ended in a monologue speaking the names Black lives that were unjustly taken from the world due to things like police brutality and overt racism in America. Her second performance was on point with her “drag preacher” personality where she took the audience to church and finally did an outfit revealing the trans flag colors on a preacher’s outfit. Both performances incorporated comedy, choreography, spoken word, and were equally as powerful and moving. And lastly was Chiquetetta, a household name for fans of Brooklyn drag. During her performance that night, she performed to Baby by Marina, Luis Fonzi, and Clean Bandit. Chiquetetta performed her lip sync with emotion and attitude and commanded the audience’s attention the entire time. Our favorite part of the performance was when she wanted to go further into the venue and parted the audience like that of The Red Sea.
This party hosted by CONVICTS was one of the best ways to end Pride. And if you haven’t heard of CONVICTS yet, just know that their mission is to develop and distribute premium purpose-driven original content and programming about the creators, characters and movements in contemporary culture for today’s digital platforms and socially-minded audiences. They are now starting to host more events like they did pre-pandemic so be sure to keep an eye out for their upcoming stuff.