The Cape Charles Library has entered the Drag Race as it now offers The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag by RuPaul starlet Sasha Velour.
In her debut, Velour, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season nine, interweaves her autobiography with the cultural history of drag. Placing her own achievements within the context of the gay rights movement and breakthroughs by previous drag artists, Velour recounts how the Stonewall riots and the emergence of queer theory and grassroots LGBTQ community movements in the 1980s and ’90s influenced the creation of NightGowns and her zine Velour.
Velour details the backstage preparations for her pivotal finale performance on Drag Race and elaborates on the inspirations. Throughout the text, the author includes Post-it note asides, scrapbook photographs, line drawings, and full-color storyboards (Velour has a master’s degree in cartooning).