PERFORMANCE

LaWhore Vagistan is everyone’s favorite over-educated desi drag auntie. She brings the nightclub to the classroom, and vice versa, teaching critical race, postcolonial, and gender theory through lipsync and lecture. She has performed in the U.S. at the Austin International Drag Festival, Queens Museum, Jack Theatre, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Austin OUTsider multi-arts festival, and in India at the Kitty-Su nightclub franchise. Her music videos “Sari” and “There’s a Stranger in My House”, and her TEDx Talk "How to be an Auntie" are available on YouTube. In her solo show “Lessons in Drag,” Dr. Vagistan enacts the pedagogies of queer nightlife by turning the lecture hall into a nightclub, or the cabaret into a classroom, depending on the space. Coupling critical theory with costume changes, she reveals how drag can stage postcolonial, ethnic, and gender studies by engaging sufi music, Disney imagery, Bollywood tropes, and ethnographic research.

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You can see more of her on Instagram: @lawhorevagistan