Drag Story Hour is Education for Action
Per Sia reads tales of work and solidarity
Saturday, February 25, 2023 | 11am -12pm
Free!
Treasured SF drag performer, educator, and artist Per Sia returns to the Tenderloin Museum for a Drag Story Hour at which she will use drag to read books that explore the themes of work and solidarity, subjects of TLM’s special exhibit Education for Action: California Labor School 1942 - 1957.
Drag Story Hour is Education for Action! The beloved program (originated in 2015 in SF!) features storytellers using the art of drag to read books to kids in libraries, schools, bookstores, and museums! TLM is honored to host DSH, which captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. DSH creates spaces where kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where everyone can be their authentic selves!
The creation of radical and empowering spaces resonates with the legacy of the California Labor School, a union-founded workers’ school active in the ‘40s & ‘50s that was famously headquartered in the TL at 240 Golden Gate and is the subject of TLM’s current special exhibit. In addition to offering trade and technical training, CLS hosted popular arts and language classes, as well as presentations by Civil Rights leaders like Paul Robeson & W.E.B. DuBois.
What do labor organizing and working class culture have common with drag performance? Plenty! As a veteran of the San Francisco drag scene with a pedigree from weekly performances at the bygone iconic queer bar Esta Noche in the Mission, Per Sia knows a thing or two about being a working drag queen. In addition to prolific performance, Per Sia’s career trajectory has included art curation, stand-up, television, and maybe a quinceañera or two in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and México. Currently, Per Sia is an educator in residence at an after school arts program in the San Francisco Unified School District and a regular performer in the nationally acclaimed "Drag Story Hour.”
On Saturday February 25th, 2023, Per Sia presents a Drag Story Hour inspired by the themes and ideas in Education for Action. Set against the backdrop of TLM gallery show Legends of San Francisco, a photo and floral show celebrating elder queens, this special Drag Story Hour sports another programmatic connection: the intergenerational exchange at the heart of the Legends of Drag project also burns bright in the activities of DSH!
Learn more about Drag Story Hour at https://www.dragstoryhour.org/
The special exhibit Education for Action and this related programming is made possible thanks to a grant from California Humanities.