Sasha Velour to Illuminate the Phil Lind Initiative’s Speaker Series on April 18 – TICKETS AVAILABLE TODAY AT NOON!

Sasha Velour to Illuminate “The Big Reveal: Why Drag Matters” at the
Phil Lind Initiative’s Speaker Series:

Pop Politics: Pop Culture and Political Life in the United States

The 2024 Phil Lind Initiative continues in April with critically acclaimed gender-fluid drag queen, visual artist, speaker, illustrator and author, Sasha Velour. Sasha will bring her rousing voice to the Phil Lind Initiative’s Pop Politics: Pop Culture and Political Life in the United States speaker series on April 18. Audience members can attend in person at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC or watch online via live stream. Tickets will be availble at noon on March 7.

Sasha Velour, renowned as the winner of the 9th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, brings her unique perspective to the forefront in a captivating talk titled “The Big Reveal: Why Drag Matters.” Exploring the intersections of pop politics and pop culture, Velour will delve into the profound roots of drag, its historical significance in queer culture, and its evolution into a politically-charged art form that delights and disrupts.

“Drag embodies the queer possibility that exists within each of us,” Velour states, “the infinite ways in which gender, good taste, and art can be lived.”

Her first book, The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag has been heralded as “a rousing tribute to a revolutionary art form and its practitioners” (Publisher’s Weekly). Velour’s first one-queen drag show Smoke & Mirrors was called a “spell-binding tour de force” (Forbes) touring to over 80 cities around the world from 2019-22. Her acclaimed NYC drag show NightGowns was adapted into a docu-series in 2020 and recently completed a sold-out residency at Manhattan’s Le Poisson Rouge. Velour’s star continues to rise with a brand-new stage work created in connection to her book, as well as a role hosting the fourth season of HBO’s Peabody and Emmy-Award winning tv show We’re Here. She was also recently commissioned by the Tony Award-winning Tectonic Theatre Project to star in and co-create a new theatrical work premiering in 2024.

Join us for an evening of inspiration, empowerment, and a celebration of the transformative artistry that is drag, as Sasha Velour takes the stage to explore “The Big Reveal: Why Drag Matters” in the context of Pop Politics and Pop Culture. The event will be moderated by J. Logan Smilges.

Presented by the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs in partnership with the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, the 2024 Phil Lind Initiative features five inspiring talks from: Jia Tolentino (January 25), Suleika Jaouad & Jon Batiste (February 15), Viet Thanh Nguyen (March 14), X Martinez (March 21), and Sasha Velour (April 18).

The event takes place Thursday, April 18 at 6:00pm at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the UBC Vancouver campus (6265 Crescent Road). Tickets areFREE (max 2 per order), registration required. Livestreaming will be available for this event. You do not need a ticket but you do need to sign up for the Phil Lind Initiative email list. In the case of a sold-out event there will be a standby line outside the venue before showtime for any last-minute tickets that may become available.

Full details: https://lindinitiative.ubc.ca/

ABOUT THE PHIL LIND INITIATIVE

The Phil Lind Initiative is hosted by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. The initiative’s mandate is to invite prominent U.S. scholars, writers, and intellectuals to UBC to share ideas with students, faculty, and the wider community on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Media release provided by Cynnamon Schreinert, Hartley PR