Drag Story Hour

Episode Transcript

Melisa McCarthy It was weird. It was so weird. You know, we're down here, like the South-est of Brooklyn in Gerritsen Beach, which no one's ever heard of before. And all of the sudden, I'm getting emails going: Did you know your library is a Gothamist today?   

[Music]

Emily Heath Melisa McCarthy is a children’s librarian at Gerritsen Beach Library. In June 2019, she organized a story time at her library. Something she does all the time. But this particular story time made local news.  

Melisa McCarthy I had only been at the branch for a couple of years. But being a queer person, I really wanted to sort of make the space a little bit more open, a little bit more embracing of, you know, our community. That was important to me. And so I thought, all right, like, let's try this. This is something that the library sponsors. It's something that I think is going to be really fun for the kids.   

Ali Post This story time was unique because it was hosted by Drag Story Hour. Drag Story Hour is exactly what it sounds like. A library story time where the storytellers are in drag. Emily, you’re a children’s librarian. So you’ve been to a drag story times before, right?  

Emily Heath Yes, and they’re so much fun! I mean, you always get to sing and dance with kids when you’re leading a story time. But drag story times are so colorful. They're really engaging. It’s about reading books, but it's also about accepting everyone as they are. 

Ali Post Right, and Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting Drag Story Hours since 2016. For the most part, our patrons love them just as much as they love our regular story times, which is why Melisa at Gerritsen Beach Library was surprised at the reaction to her Drag Story Hour event in 2019.  

Melisa McCarthy By the time we were a couple weeks away from it, we had people on Facebook that were sort of posting terrible messages and things about everything. We had patrons calling in and telling us that they didn't approve, patrons stopping us in the branch, telling us that they didn't want to spend their tax dollars on that.   

Emily Post And then, on the morning of the event, that article in the Gothamist that Melissa mentioned came out. Gothamist is a local New York City newspaper, and the article in question mentioned that anti-Drag Story Hour protesters were going to be organizing outside the Library during the reading. And, the protesters went further. 

Melisa McCarthy Some of them actually snuck into the branch and they actually had religious information, pamphlets and stuff, that they were sticking inside of the children's books. Like we had to go through most of the children's collection and kind of pull out these pamphlets in this religious, like, sort of messaging, some propaganda, things like that. 

Ali Post When it was time for the story hour, protesters lined up behind a police barricade. They held signs with Bible verses, and accused the storytellers of grooming children. But they weren’t the only voices heard that day. 

Melisa McCarthy What was really exciting to see was that our crowd of counter-protesters was like two or three times the size of the crowd of protesters on the other side of it. So that was amazing. We got really embraced by our community that day. 

Emily Heath Inside the library, things were more peaceful. There were people who had come to attend the program, as well as those who were at the library for other reasons. And Melisa said the story time went on without a hitch. 

Melisa McCarthy Angel Elektra was the first performer we had out here, and she was amazing. She came in pretty incognito, got herself ready, like, did the thing. And then at the end of it, when the protesters were still there, she actually went out and she, like, greeted the people that were there that were being supportive and waved at them and was just really lovely and, like, so unabashedly confident and, like, not afraid at all to kind of go out and face these people who were really being very ugly on the corner. And just seeing that, I was like, okay, like if you can do this, then I'm good. I can be the librarian that's in charge of this.   

Ali Post Today on Borrowed, we are talking about Drag Story Hour, why it's important, and how it’s had to change in recent years to respond to an increasingly tense political climate. I’m Ali Post, librarian at Mill Basin.  

Emily Heath And I’m Emily Heath, children’s librarian at Brooklyn Heights and Red Hook Libraries, and the co-host of this episode. 

Ali Post You’re listening to Borrowed: Stories that start at the library.  

[Sound of clapping from Drag Story Hour event] 

Miz Jade Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for coming... 

Ali Post Brooklyn Public Library was the first library system in New York City to host Drag Story Hour in 2016, and since then the library has hosted over 600 programs with Drag Story Hour, including story times and makeup tutorials for teens. Last June, Emily and I visited a Drag Story Hour at Clinton Hill Library. 

Miz Jade My name is Miz Jade. Can you say Miz Jade? That's right. I am a drag performer and I've been with Story Hour for six years? ...

Emily Heath On this particular day, the drag storyteller, Miz Jade, was wearing a beach-y pink and orange dress with a large butterfly on it. She started the program with the basics.  

Miz Jade Anybody know what a drag queen is? Well, a drag queen is someone who puts on clothing and a personality to create a character. Who here has ever dressed up for Halloween? Who's ever dressed up for Purim? Then you've done drag befire if you've ever dressed up! You become your favorite superheroes, your Disney princesses ... 

Emily Heath Drag Story Hour is an organization that began in 2015, and grew to have chapters across the country. The New York chapter started in 2016. Not long after, Drag Story Hour began partnering with Brooklyn Public Library.  

Ali Post But Drag Story Hour doesn’t just work with libraries. They do programming with middle schools, high schools, and universities. They also work with books clubs, elders in assisted living facilities, and kids with autism and other disabilities in New York City.   

Emily Heath At Clinton Hill Library last June, Miz Jade did stretching exercises, sang songs like “The Hips on the Drag Queen” to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus,” and read a book about a rooster who orders some new jeans. 

[Singing from the event] 

Ali Post The little library was completely full of children and caregivers. The atmosphere was warm and energetic, and kids ran around and sang along. We spoke to a few children and adults.  

Parent I actually was just singing that song to my ten-month-old on the subway this morning. Not "The Hips on the Drag Queen," but "The Wheels on the Bus." But now we have a new version to sing to her.   

Kid: I like that I got to listen to new books. Emily: Yeah? Which book did you like the best? Kid: Um, I like the rainbow one. Emily: The rainbow one with the wig? That was pretty cool. Do you like dressing up? Kid: Mhm. Emily: That's awesome.

Parents I doesn't even have to be Pride Month. I'm coming whenever you guys are having it. ... it creates, uh, you know, this environment where everybody is comfortable and nobody's judging anybody. So, I love this for them. I love it. 

Emily Heath Drag Story Hour is clearly a lot of fun for the kids ... but it also has an impact on the adults in the room. The parents, the caregivers and the librarians. This is Miz Jade again. 

Miz Jade I think one of my favorite moments doing storytelling, is when I see the adults being moved by what I'm saying and my experience. Because, they might see themselves in those stories. And the adults that are here, I want them to give themselves permission as well as the youth around them permission to be who they are without question, without scrutiny, without projections of shame. 

Rachel Payne When I first started doing Story Hour, you know, I started back in 1997 ... I was a little cautious about maybe reading LGBTQ picture books, you know. 

Ali Post This is Rachel Payne, a children’s librarian and coordinator of Early Childhood Services at Brooklyn Public Library. She was one of the librarians who initially brought Drag Story Hour to BPL. She talked about one of the first events they did, a drag story time at Park Slope Library. 

Rachel Payne It was packed. I mean, the Park Slope Library is not a huge branch, but it's a nice old Carnegie building. And basically it was the whole half of the library just filled to the brim with people. And, you know, I often tell parents or others that ask me about it, like, "Well, I'm not comfortable with drag." But I'm like, well, drag has been in children's entertainment for years. I mean, if you think about things like Peter Pan or the Opera of Hansel and Gretel, even some performances in The Nutcracker do have drag elements in them. So, this is nothing new to children's performance.

[Music]

Ali Post But in recent years, there has been considerable backlash to Drag Story Hours across the country. It’s connected to the unprecedented number of book bans and challenges in schools and libraries, something we talked a lot about in our last season.   

Emily Heath In Wadsworth, Ohio last year, protesters stormed a Drag Story Hour that was taking place in a public park, yelling racial slurs and inciting violence.   

Ali Post A group of neo-Nazis protested in front of a Concord, New Hampshire coffee shop that was hosting a drag story time event, wearing masks and chanting through the windows. 

Emily Heath In Jackson Heights, Queens, in 2022, protesters including members of the Proud Boys rallied outside the library to intimidate participants of a Drag Story Hour event inside. And in September of last year, a bomb threat at our own Cortelyou Library forced staff to move the Drag Story Hour across the street out of concern for safety. The threat turned out to be unfounded, and the story time went forward as planned. 

Ali Post These are just some of the protests that have happened at Drag Story Hours over the past few years. According to GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, there have been 161 incidents of threats, protests or intimidation at drag performances and events across the country since 2022. Many of these incidents involved drag story times at libraries, businesses, and public places like parks. 

Emily Heath These protests coincide with a greater attack on LGBTQ+ rights more broadly in this country. Here’s Jonathan Hamilt, the executive director of Drag Story Hour, and one of the co-founders of New York City’s Drag Story Hour chapter. 

Jonathan Hamilt Drag Story Hour started in the wake of the Trump presidency, and a lot changed between the January 6th insurrection and Roe versus Wade being overturned. It's when we saw a real shift in our organization as far as what safety looks like at our events. I think that goes in any event that's Queer-related or LGBT-related, regardless of drag or not. It's just, this is that time in history right now where that's what we're up against. 

Ali Post The storytellers in drag feel the impacts of increased protests and attention, too. Here’s Miz Jade again.

Miz Jade I will say that when there are protesters and agitators, it doesn't always feel safe. And one of my first readings that had a huge turnout of people with protests, there was also a nice amount of people rallying in support of us. But, being dropped off at that location, I was like, oh, these people aren't just protesting Story Hour, they're protesting me and my existence. So that did not feel safe, that did not feel good, that did not sit well in my spirit. And I can't expect people to walk through protest and negativity and be okay. I feel responsible for the tone of the story hour, to make it feel like a safe space, because we are under such scrutiny. So, I always try to make sure the energy is feeling nice and safe and everyone feels held. Maybe we have our hands on our stomachs and breathing together. Maybe we are turning to our neighbor and saying something encouraging or nice to kind of, like, settle our nervous system.  

Emily Heath In order to support their storytellers and their partner organizations across the country, Drag Story Hour is rolling out more protocols and resources so that people can feel prepared for any potential backlash. Here's Jonathan Hamilt again.

Jonathan Hamilt When we first started the program, if somebody reached out to me in a different state or a different city, I'd be like, sure, this is the best practices we use, this is our favorite books go forth and multiply and have fun. But now, it's a lot more nuanced and takes a lot more planning and a lot more security initiatives to be put in place. We're developing our Shields Up program, which is a de-escalation, venue safety resource for organizers and for storytellers to have a safe and happy event no matter where they're at. 

Ali Post For many, the benefits of Drag Story Hours outweigh these necessary precautions. At least at Brooklyn Public Library, our patrons demonstrate their support for drag story times by showing up, singing along, and having fun. At their core, these story times are about celebrating difference and accepting people the way they are. 

[Music]

Jonathan Hamilt Drag is an art form that no one should be scared of. Just because drag is rooted in queerness doesn't mean it can't be modified for different audiences, just like any other art form. And it's a really great way to have your kids experience theater and live performance and storytelling and be read to in a fun place, especially at your public library. Libraries are a space for information. Factual information that you may or may not agree with, but it's out in the world and it's out with the community. And just like any other story hour you would have with a firefighter or a ballerina or a police officer, you can have a drag story hour. 

Emily Heath Melisa McCarthy, the children’s librarian at Gerritsen Beach Library, echoed that perspective. After experiencing the protesters at her branch, she said she’s determined to keep hosting diverse and engaging story times. 

Melisa McCarthy At branches like Gerritsen, some of our smaller branches, some of our more sort of conservative areas in Brooklyn, there are kids here that aren't seeing representation. They're not seeing themselves in anything. So, if I can bring somebody into the branch for an hour and that's going to give them someone that they can relate to ... that's that's my job. If I can do that, then I feel like I did what I was supposed to.

[Music] 

Ali Post Borrowed is brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. This episode was produced by Virginia Marshall and written and hosted by me and Emily Heath. Emily and myself conducted the interviews. You can read a transcript of this episode and find a list of LGBTQ+ story time books for kids at our website: BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts.   

Emily Heath Brooklyn Public Library relies on the support of individuals for many of its most critical programs and services. To make a gift, please go to BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] donate.

Ali Post Our Borrowed team is made up of: Virginia Marshall, Adwoa Adusei, Fritzi Bodenheimer, Robin Lester Kenton, Damaris Olivo, and me, Ali Post. Jennifer Proffitt and Ashley Gill run our social media. Our music composer is Billy Libby. Meryl Friedman designed our logo.  

Emily Heath Borrowed will be back in a couple of weeks with another episode.