A dream thwarted by the pandemic took center stage this weekend at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord.
Journee LaFond, who does burlesque and drag performances under the name Onyx Reigns, wanted to give other Black performers a space to make ripples in the art community. During the pandemic, LaFond hosted an online event — the Black Legends Revue — featuring an all-Black cast of drag and burlesque dancers.
Now that community venues are back open, it was time to create an in-person event — and the result, they said, was everything they hoped for.
“I'm hearing about other producers who try to create these spaces, especially an all-Black cast, and unfortunately, sometimes no people show up,” LaFond said. “It's heartbreaking honestly because we do have so many stories to tell. Our history and our ways of expressing ourselves are so rich.”
In particular, LaFond said they wanted to see and appreciate the intersections of the Black community and queer culture, especially in New Hampshire, where Black voices aren’t always at the forefront of artistic spaces.
LaFond hosts monthly drag performances, dubbed The Free Range Revue, at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage. But they said holding a drag performance during Black History Month allowed them to go beyond the history of the Black community and into what’s next.
Among those taking the stage was a Coco Bean Reigns, who has been studying under LaFond and is part of the House of Reigns, a family of drag performers. She has been doing shows for about a year and said this was one of her best yet.
“Being with Onyx and being able to watch them perform and like getting taught by them – it's really amazing,” Reigns said. “It's really great that it's in New Hampshire.”
She said she thought performing drag in New Hampshire was going to be rougher, but instead she found a community that has been warm.
She started her Black Legends Revue performance with “I’m Here” from the movie The Color Purple, drawing cheers from the audience. She said she picked the song because her adoptive parents, who are white, have not been supportive of her artistic work. She said no one in her adoptive family has been to any of her performances. To her, the song was a way to say she wasn’t going anywhere.
“I really wanted to kind of give like, ‘I can do it without you, type of way,’” she said.
The night ended with the ensemble singing “Last Dance,” by Donna Summer with the audience invited to join on the dance floor.
