Diamonds & Pearls (Club Sway, June 20, 2025)

I rolled into Diamonds and Pearls Friday night after spending 4 days and 3 nights on a mountain.

I needed time away from the Cisth* and I had a light week, so I escaped to Mt. Nebo. I will write about it over on the “My Queering Up” blog

Diamonds & Pearls is a monthly drag show at Club Sway that has been running for some time now – at least a year, or more. The show is a showcase of Black Excellence in Drag here in Little Rock.

American Drag, like most things “American”, has Blackness at its roots.

Hop into the National Archives and listen to the recordings of enslaved people giving interviews during the 1920s and 1930s. They tell stories of mothers raising their boys as girls to escape the fields or being sold away to other whyte Slavers.

After Emancipation, freed Black Americans started holding massive – and I am talking thousands and tens of thousands of people – balls and festivals in DC and New York CIty that today we would call “Drag Shows.”

Here’s a book you need to read:

And it is Black culture and community which has shaped the jargon and “rules” of Queer culture.

So when you see a Diamonds and Pearls show, you are seeing more than just a few Black drag artists; you are seeing history.

I had a hard time photographing the show.

I had been in the mountains for a few days, taking pictures of trees and flowers and shit.

And you might already know, those things don’t move.

But Envy S. Hart, Aubi Gold and Devi Diamond? These. Queens. Move.

Envy asked the crowd to choose a song by a Black woman to perform towards the close of the show: and then she twirled so fast my camera couldn’t keep up.

Aubi Gold – she is so fast that my camera LITERALLY overheats anytime I try to take pictures of her. My autofocus cannot keep up unless there is a bright spotlight.

Devi Diamond – if you haven’t seen this Queen perform, I think Imma have to revoke your Queer Card.

I’ll get better at writing down songs that are performed.

Until then, feel free to add your experiences at D&P, your thoughts about the performers and shows, etc., in the comments.

*Someday I’ll make a glossary, but “Cisth“ is how I refer to toxic heteronormative CIS people, who lack chill, empathy, and perspective.