Hello Big Other readers!

I’ve got an artist to share with y’all, and I am hoping you will help me support her work.

Debbie Fox is a Chicago drag queen who is competing in an online “fan favorite” contest that will secure her a slot on the fifth season of the reality television series RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. I am a big fan of queens in general — not just because they are glamorous and often subversive — but because they are true DIY multimedia performance artists who must develop skills in a broad range of visual and performance-based media, often in bar and nightclub environments that are not especially conducive to art-making. This impresses the shit out of me.

I like Debbie in particular because while on the surface, she appears to be a very beautiful, polished, pretty queen — not my usual cup of tea — she is versatile and full of surprises, able to dirty it up, take risks and get unconventional, as well as funny and theatrical (when I first saw her perform a couple of weeks ago, she did a live performance of a musical theater song usually associated w/ male performers). I like people who can code switch and are canny. The camera loves her and I think her personality will be well-suited to television.

Anyway — she’s actually doing really well in this online voting thingie and stands a decent chance of winning, so I wanted to see if I could ask y’all to take a quick minute to watch her hilarious video and vote for her. There are some other folks in the running whose personal style is maybe more aligned with my own, but I think she is very “full package” in terms of how well-suited she is for this show, and I am excited to see her kicking as much ass as she is. And so I want to do what I can to help push her up over the edge. Thanks!