The resilience of the LGBT community, and specifically our trans brothers and sisters, is currently being tested like never before. Thankfully, performers like RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Amanda Tori Meating are galvanizing the community and producing events like DOLLAPALOOZA (this Saturday at 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn). Amanda and I caught up earlier this week to talk about crafting this amazing event, the drag and trans excellence in the Brooklyn scene, and why support from our cisgender allies is crucial.
Michael Cook: So much has changed since we last spoke, both in the world and for you as a performer and person. First; how are you right now?
Amanda Tori Meeting: I am gonna borrow the turn of phrase that I picked up in a dressing room from Aja because I asked her a similar question. Her answer was “Still alive, but at what cost”?
MC: The world is so chaotic now for so many, but especially for the trans community. That is why your DOLLAPALOOZA event at 3 Dollar Bill this weekend is so important. Our rage is being channeled into some gorgeous art by some truly dynamic performers!
ATM: It is actually my first time doing this, I am very new to producing, I produced a smaller show with some friends last month at C’mon Everybody, which was my first foray into producing. This is a a larger undertaking for project number two. It was largely inspired by wanting to channel all of my rage, frustration and occasional despair into some sort of positive action. Back in February I launched my personal recovery for my FFS recovery and I was not expecting it to pop off the way that it did. I was planning a smaller fundraising show at C’mon Everybody, and then in the first thirteen hours, I met my goal. I was overwhelmed with the generosity with the people that felt inclined to help me recover from the surgery that I am getting and I was also acutely aware that I would not have met that goal anywhere near as quickly without being on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
It was amazing that being on that show has facilitated that for my life. There are a lot of trans girls in Brooklyn and I feel like post Drag Race, I have connected with and learned from a lot of them and have found a beautiful sense of community with them. I think i just really wanted to create some sort of space where we can raise money for the trans artists in NYC nightlife. Its one thing to be trans and existing and surviving in todays world but also to be depending on nightlife to pay your bills, which is an incredibly unpredictable world.
MC: Has anyone in nightlife truly inspired you to expand your own advocacy?
ATM: I was really inspired by Julie J, a good friend of mine who does Stand Up NYC and that show raises so much money for so many causes. We could totally adopt that model and make it specific to this community. Stand UP NYC is a beautiful sample platter of NYC drag, and if we could curate that platter to just the dolls…I was at Trish a couple months ago and Lexi Love, Maddelynn Hatter, Sasha Velour and Ivy Fischer, who was new to the Brooklyn scene, but instantly iconic. And obviously, Charlene Incarnate, the Queen Mother! That show with mostly dolls on the lineup & it was packed and the energy was electric. I was like, this is trans excellence!
MC: There is something about Brooklyn that truly cultivates the trans excellence you speak of I think.
ATM: Most of gigs are in Brooklyn, most of my friends are in Brooklyn, it seems to be the place that the queers are at in New York.
MC: Brooklyn truly is becoming the birthplace of amazing New York nightlife!
ATM: Yeah and if anything, if there is a tourist in New York, Manhattan is going to be the easiest and most accessible thing to them. If people are interested in the more experimental, more artistic, Brooklyn is the place for that.
MC: As a trans woman, what is it like for you existing in the country today?
ATM: Its scary; it really is. I think even just walking down the street there is a big concern of safety these days. Especially with the way that HRT has been maximizing my personal slay, I have to be a lot more conscious of not having cleavage showing in certain places because I don’t want to attract the kind of attention that could lead to “XYZ”.
MC: In today’s day and age, producing events for the trans community is important, but filling it with trans performers and giving them visibility is crucial. How did you curate this roster?
ATM: This is genuinely, everyone on the cast is a trans woman or a non-binary trans femme performer. I wanted to have Ru-girls, I wanted to have Dragula-girls, I wanted to have New York legends, divas coming in from Philly, and I have some girls coming in from LA. There are so many different people that are trans, and trans can look like anything. Obviously there is a certain womanly, very Sasha Colby kind of drag, it is very gender affirming; to exist like a beautiful naked lady does a lot for the soul. That is not everybody though.
One of my really good friends is more into the creepy/scary, but she’s a doll, just like the rest of us. I wanted to have spooky stuff in here as well, there are girls doing comedy numbers, scary, political, I really wanted to give a wide spectrum.
MC: The current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10 has a third of the first bracket representing trans excellence in such a wonderful way. How are you enjoying the show and this new format?
ATM: I hosted a viewing party for the first couple episodes this past weekend and I just kept saying on the mic “Everyone shut up RuPaul is explaining math” (laughs)!
MC: With the Pride season upon us, what are you personally doing to make it the most proud that it can be?
ATM: I just feel like I’m just trying to get all of these cisgender allied people that say they support us to open up these pockets on Pride. I think it’s going to be a lot about having some honest conversations about what it means to show up for other people.
Follow Amanda Tori Meating on Instagram
For tickets to DOLLAPALOZA click here
