Pride St. Louis is excited to announce the entertainment lineup for Virtual PrideFest 2020. This first-of-its-kind STL Pride event will feature a wonderful mixture of national recording artists as well as regional and local entertainers. Many national recording artists will headline the festival, including Ava Max, Betty Who, Kim Petras, R&B sister duo Chloe X…
Performers
Inside the Whirlwind Experience of Competing in the Miss Gay Missouri America Pageant
The theme for the soon-to-be rescheduled 47th annual Miss Gay Missouri America pageant is “Viva Las Vega.” It’s an homage to the reigning MGMA 2019, Vega (John Michael Tabakian), who will give up the crown after a banner year as our state’s symbol of excellence. Pattaya Hart, Miss Gay America 2020 is expected to co-star.…
GutterGlitter Kicks off Lesbian Visibility Week
It’s time to don your fanciest flannel, your largest pompadour, and your slickest Birkenstocks to celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week! The growing event is likely to be stifled in much of the world in light of the current quarantine. However, that’s not stopping the folks, womxn and non binary babes at GutterGlitter from putting on a…
Trinity “The Tuck” Taylor, Season 4 Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, to Emcee Missouri Entertainer of the Year Pageant
Steven Delaney, owner of the Missouri Entertainer of the Year Pageant, announced that Trinity Taylor, National Entertainer of the Year 2014 and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 4, will be the emcee for Missouri Entertainer of the Year’s 2020 Pageant on Sunday, May 17th at Hamburger Mary’s St. Louis. Tabbi Katt, the…
Black Tulip Chorale Celebrates 500 Years of LGBTQIA2+ Music With Free Concert Nov. 16
Black Tulip Chorale closes its second season with a performance celebrating more than 500 years of music from LGBTQIA2+ artists, ranging from art songs and arias to 21st century pop music. Featured artists for the “Our Song” concert include Grammy award winner Christine Brewer and members of the St. Louis Wind Symphony. Production manager Ken…
New Cabaret Venue Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge Opens with Ken Haller Oct. 31
Twenty years ago pediatrician and cabaret favorite Ken Haller started a special fund for a yet-to-be-determined retirement passion. Although he has no plans to retire at the moment, when producer and entrepreneur Jim Dolan invited him to invest in a Central West End cabaret venue this past March, Haller basically said, “Take my money!” See…
Strike a Pose: St. Louis has a storied ball scene — and its stars are ready to strut their stuff at Pride
It was 2001 when Mechee Harper took her nineteen-year-old friend Meko Lee Burr to Chicago for his first ball. “We ended up taking over a KFC as our dressing room,” Harper recalls. “And the employees were like, ‘Well, alright!’” The underground, largely black and Latinx LGBTQ ball culture has mostly existed out of mainstream awareness…
Better Together: How Alicia Markstone and Janessa Highland saved each other — and rose to the top
When Janessa Highland became show director at Martha’s Vineyard in Springfield, Missouri, in 2011, she knew she was following in big footsteps. That included those of Alicia Markstone, the 2002 Miss Gay USofA at Large, who had gone from small-town Missouri to Florida to be the show director at the famed Suncoast Resort Hotel. But…
For Chuck Pfoutz, New Show at Third Degree Glass Factory Is a Triumph Over the Haters
Blacklisting is an art deeply woven into the culture of St. Louis, a city that produces cold winters, but even colder shoulders. The July and August 2017 efforts of a disgruntled rival to blacklist photographer and producer Chuck Pfoutz, however, completely lacked the hallmarks of our local style. There was no subtlety and intrigue, no…
Ladies, All The Ladies: “The Queens” at Hamburger Mary’s
Spend Sunday evening immersed in the fascinating world of competitive female impersonation. Feature-length documentary The Queens, screening at Hamburger Mary’s, dives deep into the Miss Continental Pageant, based out of Chicago’s iconic Baton Show Lounge. Unique among female impersonation pageants, Miss Continental is open to transgender performers. Director Mark Saxenmeyer will be on hand to…