[INDYSTAR] Forget pajamas and cartoons. For Halle Pino, Ida Kay and Blair St. Clair, Saturday morning meant story time for a room of young kids — and dress-up story time at that.The occasion? Drag Queen Storytime at the Indianapolis Central Library. The trio read tales with superhero themes to the kids who sprawled out on the floor, in the seats and on parents' laps in Clowes Auditorium.
On the program were "Ten Rules of Being a Superhero," "Princess Super Kitty," "My Mom Has X-ray Vision" and crafts that included mask-making and coloring. The trio took turns reading the books, sprinkling color commentary throughout that appealed to the few dozen kids and adults.
To keep up engagement, the trio asked questions, including "What did you learn about being a superhero?" and, in reference to superheroes' need to snack, "Do you like cookies?"
The latter seemed to be the most popular topic among the youngest audience members.
The mission of Drag Queen Storytime is to promote literacy, diversity and artistic expression, said Stephen Lane, a library activity guide who plans programs for kids. "I want kids to experience just the fun of being around drag queens, the creativity, their style, their expression of their individuality," Lane said.
I've been around drag queens twice in my life. When I was just a young fellow, studying Vietnamese, I went to a club in San Francisco call Finocchio's. You either know or can find out what the name means in Italian. I had some fairly trendy friends at the time -- this was in 1966. At that age I wanted to be fairly trendy too. I'm afraid the entertainers made my skin crawl. A little later (1982) I went a hee-hee-larious joint in Spain. I think it was call Tio Pepe's or something like that. He made my skin crawl too. I guess they didn't get to me young enough.
The event shows kids that it's OK to be different — it's what makes you special, Pino said.
Why's it mandatory to be different? You can be different if you're remarkably ugly or if you have a hare lip or you're deaf or blind. Having a club foot or being a dwarf makes you different. Being a drooling idiot or a lightning calculator or genius -- you're different. I can't see that being different, even unique, is either a good thing or a bad thing. It's my opinion that dressing up like a girl if you're male or a guy if you're a girl is a pretty cheap (and reversible) path to being different, and by this time with nothing unique about it.
"When we put on drag, that is a superhero costume because it is an extension of our existing personality," Pino said. "It allows us to do something greater than ourselves by being faces in the community and by being voices in the community."
Put on a Superman costume and leap over a tall building in a single bound. Lemme know how that works out for you.
Saturday's event was the second of its kind at the library, Lane said, and he would like to organize more in the future. He worked with the Indy Bag Ladies, an HIV and AIDS fundraising organization, and Open for Service, an organization that supports businesses promoting diversity, to program the first Drag Queen Storytime to coincide with the Circle City IN Pride festival in June.
I suppose there's still a good supply of little kids to corrupt.
Lane saw a news story about Drag Queen Story Hour — which takes place San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York — posted to a friend's Facebook page and thought a similar event would be a good fit for Indianapolis.
June's event drew about 100 people, activity guide Shelby Phelps said. For Stephanie Galbreath, Drag Queen Storytime offered something that captured her daughters Sariah, 4, and September, 1.