It is a known fact that a woman do carry an evening bag at dinner time

Saturday, October 21st.

9:30 PM.

GSU Alley.

Boston University.

Drag on Fire had just begun.

I know, I know, Jasmine and Dillon already posted about drag this week.

But I’m going to as well.

When Evan told me in June that he wanted to plan a drag show on campus through the Trans Listening Circle, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.

I knew that planning a show would be a lot of work.

I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in attending it.

I wasn’t sure that anyone would even notice that the little trans club on campus was doing it.

But I supported him.

I was there while he searched to book local drag queens.

I was there when the idea was thrown out and enthusiastically accepted to turn the show, which was originally an event to put BU’s trans community on the map, into a fundraiser for Youth on Fire.

I told him that I had some friends in the SOT who would be interested in performing.

I was there when he tried for over a month to get a queen booked, only to be shot down.

I was there when Severity Stone offered to come in for free.

All of a sudden, I found myself diving headfirst into this with him.

We spent weeks and weeks meeting with SAO; we spent weeks requesting catering, booking as space, finding a floorplan, working with SPS to design something fitting for a, frankly, less than ideal space.

It was stressful. It was hectic.

Weeks prior, we had gathered materials for raffle baskets from Shiney James in the Office of Orientation, a friend of Evan’s who worked at Chipotle, and Good Vibrations. The night before the show, and the morning of, we spent shopping for more raffle basket materials.

Then, we went to decorate the space.

We didn’t have much. It really just consisted of the Halloween decorations I already had hanging about.

And then, SPS began loading in around 6pm.

I had the design concept from my roommate, and I just kind of ran with it to get a rough focus and pick something close to the colors she wanted.

In the middle of trying to coordinate a sound check and get together everything the performers needed, talking to the emcees, getting ready ourselves, and having people from the Daily Free Press come up to us for the interviews we were going to give them, we needed to find our catering.

It was 8:20, and we were supposed to have gotten it at 8pm.

We finally found it, somewhere around 9pm, when the event was supposed to start.

Needless to say, it started a bit late.

But it started.

And it went off without a hitch, practically.

The audience was beyond receptive. They were wild and rowdy, giving themselves over to the show. They were lost in it. (It certainly helped that a good portion of the room was comprised of SOT’s junior class).

And I felt A L I V E.

To be completely honest, it is the most proud I’ve been of a show in a long time.

It was so incredibly wonderful to put together something that was so enjoyable, and was not held up to extreme expectations.

It was immeasurably amazing to be able to fundraise for such an incredible cause. We found out, just before the show, that Youth on Fire, which had lost its funding and was set to close its doors in December, had in fact been funded through the year the day before, and our donation would be able to help them on their way to getting back up on their feet. You can find out more about this wonderful organization, and how to donate, here.

It was such a moving night.

It was what I want to be a part of.

Catch us next year, when we go on this wild ride once more.