Queens of a Certain Age Deserve All the Flowers

Coco LaChine. Photo: Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus On the night of the winter solstice in 2017, Brooklyn-based artist Harry James Hanson and floral stylist Devin Antheus, both 32, paid a visit to Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a queer bar in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. They’d come for “church,” which is to say, a drag show.

That sense of knowing, of motherly love, features prominently in the portraits of the five New York queens excerpted below — Barbra Herr, Coco LaChine, Harmonica Sunbeam, Simone, and Witti Repartee. They are saturated in color and brimming with jubilation, in rich regional flavor: In Herr’s portrait, the Chrysler Building is foreground by sprays of purple and lavender florals; in a bright-red dress, Simone beams in front of Village Cigars, across the street from the landmark Stonewall Inn.

On performing, early on: “I was very old-school, but I never did impersonations. I used voices. My big go-to voices were Streisand, of course, and Shirley Bassey. I did a lot of disco divas and latin music, too. Most other queens [in Puerto Rico] didn’t know English, so being able to perform both brought me up quicker. Ironically, now living in New York and working in the Latin bars here, I started doing more Spanish songs. It kind of flipped.

Drag origin story: “It began on Halloween. Then it became Valentine’s, then Pride. Before you know it, I was beginning to do it on a more regular basis.”On performing: “When I put on the makeup and wig and dress, I’m a completely different person. I’m not Charles anymore. I’m Coco. It’s a switch in my personality. My whole being changes when I dress up … It’s not just a façade for me. I transform into a different entity; not just a character, but a complete being.

Affiliations: House of Adonis. Drag Queen Story Hour. Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. African American Office of Gay Concerns.Drag origin story: “Paris Dupree threw the Paris Is Burning balls. She was known for giving out the biggest trophies. She had a category called ‘Butch Queen First Time in Drags at a Ball,’ which is a gay guy getting in drag for the first time at a ball.

Photo: Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus Stomping ground: Christopher Park, in Greenwich Village — the site of the Stonewall Monument. “When I’m here, I’m safe.”Drag origin story: “[In the ’90s,] I performed at lots of bars, lots of clubs. I was the first queen to perform at Lips restaurant and anyone who says differently is a fucking liar! Every night was wild. A lot of people were trying to make a name for themselves, trying to put an image out.

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