An intimate night with some of the most beloved queer creators and entertainers.
June is Pride Month and to celebrate being proud, Discovery+ and Tribeca Festival hosted an eventful panel last week at The Crosby Hotel to celebrate. The event was called Always Proud and a panel of amazing speakers came to talk about the queer shows they created on Discovery+. The panel included legendary drag performer, Trixie Mattel, who created the show “Trixie Motel”, as well as Eric Cervini and Alex Newell who are in “The Book of Queer.”
Trixie kicked off the panel and talked about the inception of wanting to own and create her own motel. The location being San Diego was a meaningful place for Trixie as she cites that it was the original gay city. Trixie then wanted to create a safe space motel in San Diego alongside her partner with heavy inspiration from her Trixie Mattel drag persona. In the show, you can see all the thought that goes into creating this motel and how Trixie inspires every inch of the motel. Trixie also says that this show was especially important to her because it takes this very heteronormative TV show concept of home renovation and adds a queer lens to it which is going to help break down certain barriers in the future.
The panel then shifts to Eric Cervini and Alex Newell from “The Book of Queer,” where Eric is the Executive Producer and host of the show and Alex is the celebrity narrator of the show. The show’s concept is to talk about the history of queerness and how queerness has been an integral part of history without people realizing it. Eric noted that the inspiration is to trach queer history to people because queer history isn’t something that is taught in schools or after you graduate. Alex then added on that the show was especially meaningful to them because they got to explore the intersection of queerness and Blackness as well while doing this show. Eric then went on to tell some jawdropping stories that he researched while creating this show. One particular story that got our attention was how Eric cited that Abraham Lincoln was known to have “shared a bed” with another man longer than he “shared a bed” with a woman.
The last part of the panel featured an incredible special guest. Tyra Banks, who is the Executive Producer of the new show “Generation Drag.” This show follows 5 teens on their journey to compete in a drag pageant for queer youth called Dragutante. Throughout the show, you see the ins and outs of these teens’ lives as well as getting to know their family and their journey as well. The preview that we saw of the show evoked a strong sense of love and is easily one of the best feel-good shows out there. Tyra then brings out the cast of the show for their own little panel. Tyra talked to each one of them and asked them about their experience creating the show and competing in the pageant. What was especially moving was when Tyra got the cast to talk about their families and it was clear that each cast members’ family supported and valued them throughout this whole process.
The panel wrapped up and a nice cocktail party followed the event. These shows that are featured on such a big platform like Discovery+ help create new meaning and a sense of pride this Pride month. Be sure to check these shows out and support queer programming.
