The dangers of
smoking,
the
benefits,
how
to
quit,
pages 8-9
The Louisville INDEX
News ..................... .. .. ... .. .. .. .. page 2
Focus .. .. ... ........ .... ... : .. .. ....... .. page 8
Sports .................................. page 18
Ca lendar ........ ... .... ...... ........ page 24
Horoscopes ........................ page 24
Classif ieds .. ......... ... ..... .. .... .. page 25
Opinion .............................. page 26
The University of Louisville Independent Student Newspaper • April17, 2001 1-0 1-0
'Pink' showcased drag queens at the Red Barn last week
By Matt Evans
Managing Editor ·
They told jokes ,
bump'n' grrndcJ,
and worked the
audience li:1r all their wotth. The
audience at the Rt.:xl Barn yeUcd
and clapred so loudly mat you
might 1hink tor the drag queens
this ww; their day joh. But f(ir
many of the dr~g queens in
.. Pink;· a show spunsored by
commonGround, a group lhat
pron lOie.':> equality and union in
all sexnal orientations, it W<L'i
their first time pertorming in
heels.
"Most of the performers
were new members, (they've)
been members for about six
months," said commonGround
President Shaun Daniels, who
pointed out that this was a first
for many people. "It was the
first time I saw a lot of them.
The dedication of these kids
was phenomenaL I was sur­prised
by the size of the audi­ence
and how smooth every­thing
went"
The show started off with
a dance number with all the
participants, a rendition of
"Freedom" by English pop star
George MichaeL Drag queen
Miss Hurricane Summers was
the maiter of ceremonies, of­fering
a persona based upon an
"old girl who sits behind the bar
that gets your drink and tells
youajoke."
'Tonight is all about under­standing,"
Surrimers told the
audience. "I've been watching
these bitches backstage get
ready, and I don't even under­stand
it"
Summers elaborated on the
motivation behind the jokes
after the show: 'The way I look
at it is, for years they made it .
feel uncomfortable for a lot of
people. 1 want to tum it around
an let them know how it feels."
The show had many indi~
vidual and group numbers, a!-
lowing performers to dance
and lip sync to everything from
Janet Jackson, to Brittany
Spears, to the musical Grease.
Many of the performer's
names were play on words, like
MissAryn Mirage Payge, Miss
Penny Candy and Miss Vir­ginia
Slim.
"I can learn something
from everyone because they
bring personality with it," Sum­mers
said after the show. "Ev­eryone
brought a spark. I
learned that they all had good
ideas."
Matt Sexton and Company
showcased a group of guys
~rforming boy group songs to
a near-perfect synchronization.
The show charged a $2
cover and then offered candy,
loud music, dancing and jokes
to the audience.
''We kept the time limit this
year," commonGround Advi­sor
Keith Mitchum said. "Last
year it was over three hours,
·this year we came in at about
two and a half hours."
The drag show helped
raise money for the Ken
Terrill Scholarship Fund,
which goes to two under­graduate
students that are
actively involved in gay is­sues
in the community.
Terrill, who passed away a
few years ago, taught the­ater
arts at U of L and served
as the advisor to the Gay­Lesbian
Student Union, the
predecessor to
commonGround.
"The fact that these
people are giving so much,"
Summers said. "When I
came out many years ago,
there was nothing like this.
That's what the country is full
of, guidance for people who
don't need guidance. Lots of
people who need guidance
are not getting guidance these
days, and I think groups like
this help a lot."
"I can learn something from everyone
because they bring personality with it.
Everyone brought a spark," said drag
queen Miss Hurricane Summers who
was the master of ceremonies, shown
above. Both men and women
participated in various stages of drag.
Photos by Jeff Hay
ALSO INSIDE: New planetarium to open soon, coverage on pages 14-16