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Move over RuPaul,
there's a new king in town
Front of Book - Kingdom, magazine for drag kings -
Brief Article
Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management,
March, 2002 by Whitney Joiner
A parade of drag-queen-themed movies put this form of performance art on the cultural map in the 1990s, but the hottest kind of gender-bending these days is male impersonation. Increasingly, drag kings--people who perform masculinity onstage through costuming, lip-synching and choreography--are squeezing in on their queen sisters' spotlight.First came Judith Halberstam's The Drag King Book, published in 1998. Next, HBO's "Sex and the City" featured a king subplot in the 2000 season. Now this subculture is the subject of a new magazine called Kingdom. Co-edited and co-published by Washington, D.C.-based kings Ken Las Vegas (aka Kendra Kuliga) and Winnipeg, Canada-based Carlos Las Vegas (aka Clarissa Lagartera), Kingdom first appeared in gay and lesbian bookstores across the United States and Canada last November. Packed with tips on breast binding and facial hair application, and featuring drag king photos and interviews, the premier issue sold out.The inspiration for Kingdom came when Ken and Carlos met at the second annual International Drag King Extravaganza in November 2000. After Ken put together a small 'zine about the conference, Carlos suggested something bigger. The idea was to make an international drag king magazine that covers the events and ideas constantly evolving within the drag king community, says Ken.The launch of the 700-circ, biannual title snared mainstream media attention--The Washington Post and the Toronto Sun both ran pieces on drag king culture and Kingdom soon after its premier. The coverage was "more than we ever expected," says Ken.Says one reader, "[Kingdom] makes it look like being a drag king is pretty mainstream and this just happens to be a magazine about it." Ken and Carlos, the cover models for the launch issue, "look totally hot and very GQ. They're stylin'. You wish you were cool enough to be reading this."
COPYRIGHT 2002 Copyright by Media Central Inc., A PRIMEDIA Company.
All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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