The Common Press is excited to host the ‘Decolonise Drag’ book event by Kareem Khubchandani on 18th May from 6:30 pm - 9 pm. Kareem is the author of the award-winning Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife, co-editor of the Lambda Literary-nominated Queer Nightlife, and curator of Critical Aunty Studies. Decolonize Drag details the ways that gender is used as a form of colonial governance to eliminate various types of expression, and tracks how contemporary drag, including that on Drag Race, both replicates and disrupts these institutional hierarchies.
Who knew a critique of the political economy of drag could be so fun? Every chapter packs a pun(ch)! This multi-layered analysis is timely, worldmaking, and most importantly—glamorous.—Alok Vaid-Menon
“We’ve needed this book . . . Khubchandani describes legendary drag acts, interweaves personal experiences, and formulates unflinching critiques of systemic inequalities that shape how all drag is received . . . An absolute must-read for fans,
practitioners, and scholars of drag alike.”—Sasha Velour
About the book
Although imagined as a queer subcultural practice, drag seems to be everywhere we look: from AI filters on TikTok to brunchtime entertainment, from state legislations to political rallies. Yet as drag enters the mainstream—largely due to the intense, global popularity of reality TV competition RuPaul’s Drag Race—some kinds of gender-based performance fall out of the purview of what we (could) call drag.
This book focuses on several gender performers that resist and laugh at colonial projects through their aesthetic practices. It also features the voice of Khubchandani’s drag alter ego, judgmental South Asian aunty LaWhore Vagistan. From the firsthand perspective of a drag artist, LaWhore describes encounters with depoliticized versions of drag that leave her disappointed and perplexed, and prompts Khubchandani for context and analysis. Their dynamic sets the tone for the book, investigating how drag—and gender morebroadly—has been privatized and delimited so that it’s only available to certain people. Decolonize Drag argues for more abundance in and access to fashioning gender, and considers how drag changes meaning and efficacy as it shifts across geographies.
About Author: Kareem Khubchandani
Kareem Khubchandani is an Associate Professor at Tufts University. He is the author of the award-winning Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife, co-editor of the Lambda Literary-nominated Queer Nightlife, and curator of Critical Aunty Studies. He also performs as LaWhore Vagistan, everyone’s favorite South Asian drag aunty.
About Marwan Kaabour
Marwan Kaabour is a graphic designer, artist and writer, and the founder of Takweer – an online archive of queer narratives in Arab history and popular culture. He designed the much-celebrated Rihanna book, a Time magazine Best Photo Book of 2019. His new book, The Queer Arab Glossary, is out on June 6th. The Queer Arab Glossary is the first published collection of Arabic LGBTQ+ slang. Here, leading queer Arab artists, academics, activists and writers offer insightful essays situating this groundbreaking glossary in a modern social and political context. Publishing June 6th by Saqi Books,
- Doors open at 6:30pm
- Discussion and Q&A from 7pm - 8pm
- Book sales and signings from 8pm - 9pm
- The space in which this event is taking place is wheelchair accessible.