CQA knows what you did last Friday

The leggy speaker standing in front of a runway in five-inch leopard-print heels and a mini-dress on Friday night could have signified a campus fashion event hosted by CU Couture. Yet, on second glance, the sassy diva turned out to be Bryan Wesley Reid, CC ’10, the President of Columbia Queer Alliance—or Vivian Hardwood, his stage name for the night. The event was not a typical campus fashion show featuring Milly and Tory Burch designs, but the first-ever drag pageant “Last Friday: A Queen Culture Show,” hosted by drag sensation Sahara Davenport in Lerner Party Space.

Davenport strutted down the stage in a bedazzled and form-fitting blue ball gown, posed coquettishly for the cameras, and promised an unforgettable show starring Columbia students.

After a few RuPaul-related jokes, the drag contestants—both male-as-female and female-as-male—Alejandro, Gina Pastrami, Oishii the Successor, Fancy Peachtree, and Lulu Montes emerged from the back screen. Each contestant walked the runway twice and was given the chance to express his or her personality. Alejandro glanced not-so-subtly at the legs of each contestant and Fancy Peachtree frolicked giddily across the stage.

Following the introductions, the contestants were sent backstage again to prepare for the Q&A portion of the contest. Davenport came back on stage in a futuristic gold bodysuit, lip-synching a Beyoncé song medley, hip thrusting with the audience members, and jumping into the splits twice.

After much bubble-blowing and flirtation with the audience by Davenport, the contestants appeared on stage one-at-a-time for minute-long Q&As. “These are real pageant questions, everyone,” Reid said. The audience burst out in laughter at the sexually-loaded question, “Are you a giver or a taker?”

As the pageant drew to an end, the contestants were given the chance to leave a lasting impression on the judges with one last strut down the runway. In the end, the judges chose Gina Pastrami and Alejandro as winners. The two proudly hooked arms and walked down the runway in victory.

While the audience in Lerner Party Space was not as large as it could have been, students who came to the event shared plenty of laughs, cheering for their peers who had the courage to bend their gender identities. After the pageant, the space was quickly converted for the traditional Last Friday dance, and students celebrated the contestants’ achievements in body-grinding glory.