In collaboration with LGBTQ+ Programs and Womxn’s History Month, this special episode features guest host Gray Strain, Assistant Director for Diversity and Belonging at BGSU, and Dr. Lady J, who was keynote speaker of the 2021 Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Research Symposium at BGSU. The pair discuss drag scholarship, community activism, the untold history of the artform, and the integral role transgender and cisgender women have played as performers since drag’s inception.
Announcer :From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is BG ideas.Musical Intro:I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment. Gray:Welcome to the BG Ideas podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. My name is Gray Strain, Assistant Director for Diversity and Belonging at BGSU. And I'm happy to be guest hosting a special episode today in collaboration with LGBTQ+ programs and Women's History Month. Thank you to Dr. Jolie Sheffer of ICS for allowing us to guest host this episode. We appreciate the opportunity for collaboration. This special episode of the BG Ideas podcast is being recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. That means we're not in studio, but instead are talking via Zoom and phone. Our sound quality will be different as a result, but we want to continue to share with our listeners some of the amazing work being done on and around our campus. We at ICS and LGBTQ+ programs think it's important to celebrate great ideas. As always the opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees.Gray :Today, I am thrilled to be speaking with Dr. Lady J the Director of Programming, Education and Outreach for Studio West 117 in Cleveland, Ohio. The official drag historian for the Austin International Drag Festival, the creator and host of the podcast Untucking the Past and the keynote speaker for the 2021 Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Symposium here at BGSU. A pillar of the Cleveland LGBTQIA+ community, she represents the city on the national drag scene and leads locally through activism, entertainment, and education. Her dissertation from RuPaul to the Love Ball: The Mainstreaming of Drag in the 1990s, has been downloaded over 3,800 times. And her work as a historian has been featured everywhere from vice.com to the journal of the American Musicological Society.Gray: Dr. Lady J joins me today to discuss their work in the field of drag history, the politics and inclusion of women, both transgender and cisgender in drag communities and how she serves diverse LGBTQ+ populations today in the Cleveland area. So thank you so much for joining me, Lady J. Before we dive into the fascinating topic of drag history, I do want to touch on the work that you're doing with Studio West 117. Could you tell me a little bit about your role and the vision for Studio West?Dr. Lady J:So thank you first of all, so much for having me, Gray. I'm really excited to be here, and I'm really excited about the upcoming events that we're going to be doing together for Bowling Green. So Studio West 117 is an LGBTQ hub for the Northeast Ohio area and specifically Cleveland and Lakewood, especially. We're going to be doing everything from supporting LGBTQ+ local businesses, especially starting with BIPOC businesses first. We're working with our business tenants to provide ways of entry that are low barrier of entry. Everything from working on subsidies for businesses to working on a podcast and broadcast studio. We're going to have a makers space, an artist’s co-op, a coffee co-op. So there'll be a lot of different opportunities for people to break into kind of gig based jobs that may require a lot of equipment on the front end and to use high end equipment for a really reasonable price that is affo
