While recording tracks for their new album, Aja listened to the drums in the studio and a sense of calm washed over them for the first time in months. It was the summer of 2019, and the then-25-year-old former drag queen and two-time contestant onhad just struggled through one of the hardest years of their life. Crippling self-doubt, toxic relationships, and hordes of racist fans had brought Aja, who uses the pronouns, to the edge of self-harm.
Aja lives in a strange and often baffling world of “sub-lebrity.” These pseudo-celebs are known to millions thanks to reality TV and social media platforms, yet they’re relatively anonymous—hustling to turn that following into a career, cobbling together gigs and sponsorships, and chasing the dream of a stable and fulfilling creative life.
While pretty much every contestant on the show receives some amount of abuse on social media, queens of color bear the brunt of the nastiness. In the years since Aja first appeared on the show, the problem has gotten worse. Fans leave monkey emoji on Black queens’ Instagram posts and urge queens they don’t like to commit suicide, and someone reportedly threatened to set one contestant on fire because she’s Black.
Two days later, on March 9, 2020, Aja flew to Australia to perform at the Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras festival. By the time they got home, most of the United States was in quarantine. Bars across the country were closed, live performances canceled, and COVID-19 had spread to almost every state.Like the rest of the drag world, Aja was out of work and locked down. No tours, no international flights, no nightclubs. For many drag performers, this has been the worst year of their careers.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.