NYC DRAG QUEEN OF THE WEEK- KRYMSON SCHOLAR
There is no shortage of drag queens in NYC. You can’t throw a rock without hitting some twink in a dress thinking he’s got what it takes to shantay down the runway just because he’s seen every season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race while practicing YouTube makeup tutorials. There’s a difference, though, between learning how to just paint your face and turning that face into a work of fucking art. This weekly series highlights the queens who stand out from the crowd and rock those heels til they bleed.
Meet Krymson Scholar
Photo Credit: AmesBeckermanPhotography.com
You’re transgender. Did you transition before or after you started drag?
I started transitioning when I was 15 and I’ll be 25 in August. I started drag in 2014.
What was it like to transition at 15 in Mississippi?
It was difficult. I went to school with bible thumpers and children who think it’s not ok to be different. In the South I basically grew up inside a church and they preach that if you’re that way you’re an abomination. I got threatened every day. I got bullied every single day. It was tough. People looked at me like, “What are you doing?”
How did you family react to you wanting to transition?
My mom was very accepting. My mom actually bought me my first wigs. She bought me my first outfits. She was one of those progressive moms. My dad, he was one of those true blue southern rednecks, he hated gay people but when I married my husband he finally came around and saw that I am me and now he calls me by my legal name and he’s come around to accepting me as me.
Photo Credit: Jessye Herrell
How did you get into drag?
In Tuscaloosa, Alabama is where I started. My husband got me started in drag. He took me to a drag club and I fell in love with the style of drag, from the artform, the costumes, the hair, the make-up, all of that.
How does the drag scene there compare to New York?
Southern drag is very pageantry. It’s very cookie cutter because you have to be a certain way to actually fit in. You have to be a title holder, a pageant queen to get a booking in the south. Here in New York you can pretty much be anything you want to be and be accepted.
What made you move to New York?
My drag career, it wasn’t going anywhere in the South because I’m not a pageant girl. I would never get a booking. Here in New York, every night of the week there’s something going on whether it’s in Brooklyn or Queens or Manhattan. You can go out any day of the week and you can do a show. It does not end here. We never stop going.
What’s been your best night in drag?
I would have to say when I did Pride in the South. I got to ride in the parade in Oxford, Mississippi. Being around gay people in the South was so overwhelming, I’d never felt so much love from the Southern people. It was one of those nights you feel honored to be a drag queen.
What are your goals as a drag queen?
My goal is to keep pushing Krymson as far as I can go. I want to be an advocate for trans drag queens because if I can do it they can do it as well.
You can catch Krymson Scholar every Thursday with The Nobodies at Brooklyn Bazaar and every 2nd Thursday for Ladyqueen at Bizarre Bushwick. On June 8th she’ll be at Lunella Ristorante in Little Italy.
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