A drag queen centre stage at storytime will not be everyone’s cup of tea when walking into Wollongong Library, but the manager doesn’t care.
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In a first for the city, Roxee Horror (Adam Larkham’s alter ego) will entertain during Drag Storytime, an inclusive event for all family make-ups across the region on July 21.
“The central library is a pretty big place, and our community and our world is a big place and there is space for everybody,” Jenny Thompson said.
“We offer a range of different events for all different parts of the community and this is, I guess, part of our community we haven’t done that overtly for before. So it’s important to us that we’re getting with the program.”
Drag Storytime and The 78ers – a separate event involving activists from Sydney’s first Mardis Gras – are part of the Library’s contribution to the Queer Arts Festival, Thompson said.
The 78ers will be a discussion panel on Wednesday July 18. It will centre around the original gay liberation protests in 1978 Sydney which has evolved into the annual Mardi Gras parade we see today.
Ken Davis will be sharing his personal experiences as a co-convenor of the “peaceful” protests which turned violently ugly.
“Older people will remember Australia was in some ways not a very tolerant society, there wasn’t a lot of freedom,” Davis said. “But for younger people, it’s hard to understand things like social issues, gay and lesbian freedom, abortion – these freedoms people have now – they exist because of struggles from the past.”
More details at www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/