AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Talking about climate change can really kill the mood at a party. That is, unless you're a drag artist who knows how to turn a dance number about divesting from big oil or plastic pollution into a joyful blowout. This Pride Month, Ezra David Romero from KQED in San Francisco spent some time with drag performers who are using their routines as a form of climate activism.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
EVE SWALLOWS: OK, Queer Surf, are we ready to see some drag?
(CHEERING)
EZRA DAVID ROMERO, BYLINE: San Francisco drag queen Eve Swallows is kicking off the show here at Pacifica State Beach before a crowd of around 200 queer and trans surfers. Her outfit's a nod to an oil spill. She's wearing a black latex gown, and her headpiece looks like an oil pump.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GASOLINE")
BRITNEY SPEARS: (Singing) You're so bright.
ROMERO: The performance held earlier this month was meant to call out the Trump administration's aim to expand offshore drilling. Eve Swallows has chosen a petrol-themed medley, including the song "Gasoline" by Britney Spears.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GASOLINE")
SPEARS: (Singing) Gasoline.
ROMERO: If you've ever watched "RuPaul's Drag Race" or been to a drag show, you know the art form can be ultra campy and full of flips and humorous - like some of the performances of Nymphia Wind, a winner of the show who is famous for her rhinestone-studded banana gown. But while drag isn't always serious, its roots are based in queer activism. For Eve Swallows, incorporating climate activism into drag was second nature.
SWALLOWS: Drag kind of, like, accomplishes a paradox of embracing joy and fun and also really serious issues of liberation and social justice and climate justice.
ROMERO: She's part of a growing family of artists who are dragifying (ph) climate activism. For several years now, an environmental activist drag queen from Oregon called Pattie Gonia has been performing in person and attracting fans online. For the past few months, she's been on a national tour called "Save Her! An Environmental Drag Show." Here, she's performing "Barbie Girl" by Aqua.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BARBIE GIRL")
AQUA: Come on, Barbie. Let's go party.
(Singing) I'm a Barbie girl.
PATTIE GONIA: Sometimes we get a number that is a very sexy honey bee performing a bee/pollinator mix. Sometime it's just a campy, dumb, fun number about how life in plastic is not fantastic.
ROMERO: At a different performance this month, drag king Vera performed another climate act at San Francisco's Baker Beach with the Golden Gate Bridge behind them. They wore a gown made of used red, yellow and green netting and danced to Florence & the Machine's "Cosmic Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COSMIC LOVE")
FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: (Singing) The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out.
ROMERO: The Oakland-based artist says they perform climate drag to encourage more queer and trans people to mobilize on behalf of the climate.
VERA: Of course, you do it because we can't be out here just fighting for queer and trans lives if we don't have a planet to stand on.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
(CHEERING)
ROMERO: Vera says the number of climate-minded drag artists is growing, thanks in part to the national show they co-lead with Pattie Gonia.
VERA: It really also creates in that way, like, a big environmental loving family that we have now across the nation.
ROMERO: That family is reflected all around Vera at this show - their queer community cheering them on with the beautiful Pacific Ocean in view.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COSMIC LOVE")
FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: (Singing) They have all been blown out. You've left...
ROMERO: For NPR News, I'm Ezra David Romero in San Francisco.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COSMIC LOVE")
FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: (Singing) And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat. I tried...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
(CHEERING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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