If you’re missing this year’s Pride celebrations, why not join in tonight’s virtual drag show?
This is usually the weekend when fun-loving bogotanos get to choose between sweaty headbanging at Rock al Parque and slightly less sweaty rainbow flag waving at the city’s Pride march. This year, the only way to participate in either event is through your computer screen.
Idartes have organised a series of online events and activities that you can join and watch from home. And the people behind a new physical and virtual LGBTQ+ space in Chapinero have picked today to launch their first podcast — a virtual underwear party with Mis Amigas Drag.
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Cristina Rodríguez, Maritza Tamayo and Carlos Medellín tell me that Mis Amigas Drag al Desnudo has an “undress code” and will be the first of many online events, and eventually physical ones too. Whether it’s lectures, dances, DJs, the idea is to create a space that recognises the importance of identities, bodies, sexualities.
There’s a voluntary COP$5,000 donation that goes to Red Comunitaria Trans. Aside from that if you want to take part, all you need is a willingness to shake off your inhibitions and dance the night away via zoom. The organisers assure me that you don’t have to strip down to your undies, though they say the idea has gone down well with instagrammers who are already posting pictures.
Cristina explains it’s more about being who you are and being proud of who you are: “There are different types of bodies, it’s not that you always have to be a perfect person with a beautiful body.”
More broadly, Carlos says, “The idea of the body and identity come across in a thousand different ways, but it doesn’t have to be a vision that is vulgar. It can be something that we talk about honestly.”
The show starts at 9pm tonight – get your tickets on their website.