Several months in the making, URSMD Spectrum, OutGrads, and the Office of Equity and Inclusion held a drag benefit show on Thursday evening in the May Room.
One of the organizers of the show, Cass Warfare, a part-time drag performer and full-time med student more commonly known as Kaden Zellers, performed to My Chemical Romance’s “Famous Last Words” for their first performance on UR’s campus. When describing choosing the song, he said, “it was a song I really connected to because of my father.”
Zellers, who hopes to potentially work in longitudinal primary care, was one of three student performers that night. This included stage names Alexia Mirage — a Simon Business school student — and Ezra Pecker — a graduate student — performing to Beyonce and FEMM.
The show brought together graduate, medical, and undergraduate students attending and participating in the event. It’s normally difficult to bring together students from the different campuses for any event, but the May Room was packed with students filling the seats and lining the walls.
Samantha Vega, former Miss Gay Rochester, started the night off with a performance of “Greatest Love of All,” by Whitney Houston before hosting the event, introducing performers amid several wardrobe changes.
Professional performers included Vivian Darling, the reigning Miss Gay Rochester, and Jack Vanity, each performing two songs and doing full wardrobe changes to songs by Mika and Meghan Trainor. Performers interacted with the students running off the flimsy May Room stage avoiding near-death experiences with heels catching onto the stairs of the stage. There were slight wardrobe malfunctions as accessories previously super glued on flew off mid-performance. They danced around the room directly engaging the crowd with Alexia Mirage even being presented with a bouquet of flowers amidst the money from the crowd.
My favorite performance of the night was from Jack Vanity starting off with a performance to “Grace Kelly” by Mika, ending the night in a sleek gray checkered suit paired with bright satin red gloves and red suspenders. It was their first performance in a while but that didn’t stop him from being the center of attention at the show, not only interacting with the audience but having a friendly rapport with the host as well.
Near the end of the night, the event also included a brief stand-up segment by Zeller. As an organizer of the event, Zeller expressed their favorite part of the event was just “being able to see people have a good time and creating a sense of community on campus.”
The event resulted in over $1,300 being raised for The Center for Youth, a Rochester-based LGBT+ community center. It was important to the organizers of the event to choose an organization focused on helping queer youth facing homelessness, especially among recent attacks and stressors in the community.
The Center for Youth focuses on providing emergency and transitional housing, crisis services, and school-based after-school programs for queer youth in the community. The money raised from this fundraiser goes specifically to the maintenance of the Arnett House, an LGBT and trafficked homeless youth shelter, run by the Center for Youth.
Any additional donations for the Arnett House can be made through the Center for Youth’s website.
