On Saturday night, the Yale Queer Student Alliance, or QSA, hosted the “Drag Wonderland” event — the organization’s first-ever drag show.
The winter wonderland-themed show featured two professional drag queens, Dro Lopez Fierce and Natalia Fierce, from Mystic, Connecticut. Huck Agar-Johnson ’27, co-president of QSA, told the News that the show, which had free admission, provided an opportunity to celebrate queer identity with the broader community at Yale.
“Drag today is about queer acceptance, pride and resilience,” said Agar-Johnson. “I also think about how many LGBTQ+ Yalies do not come from areas or cultures with a loud-and-proud drag scene. Drag is obviously fun, but it also represents generations of resistors who created a defiant counterculture at a time when the world was much less accepting. We wanted to create this celebratory, open space for them.”
Elspeth Yeh ’28, a first-year liaison for QSA, told the News that she thinks of drag as “the purest form of joy as a queer medium.” She believes it to be a unique art form that is special and essential to the queer community.
Kicking off the show, Natalia Fierce, donning a sparkly ruby-red dress with a daring slit and matching red stilettos, paraded down the aisles of the packed LC 101 lecture hall while singing along to holiday tunes. Throwing herself across chairs, Natalia Fierce catwalked across the room, spontaneously throwing high kicks and performing dances to the audience’s delight.
Natalia Fierce, as part of her performance, also shouted out Noah Safar ’27 — who was sitting in the front row — for being the “cutest boy” she’d ever seen. In response, Safar told her that she was “making him blush,” drawing laughter from the crowd. Throughout the show, the two queens repeatedly agreed on Safar’s cuteness and even called upon him to pick up their tips thrown across the front of the room, with Safar happily obliging.
After concluding her introductory performance, Natalia Fierce welcomed Dro Lopez Fierce, who debuted in an angelic white robe before quickly revealing a Santa Claus catsuit and white platform heels underneath.
Before fully giving the stage to her sister, Natalia Fierce told the audience that it is “more important than ever to support our queer community. We are heading into dark times and it’s important now more than ever to come together as a community.”
Throwing high kicks, lip-syncing and dancing along the stairs of the lecture hall, Dro Lopez Fierce’s performance was also met with great applause.
After a brief 15-minute intermission, the two drag queens returned sporting new outfits — Natalia Fierce in a sequined mini-blue dress reminiscent of Sabrina Carpenter’s iconic look and Dro Lopez in a two-piece, cropped plaid suit and a micro-mini skirt with an enormous white bow.
In a high-energy, quick-paced performance to a medley of iconic holiday songs, the two drag queens whirled around the room, performing even more daring tricks, cartwheels and even a death drop — all in heels.
“When [Natalia Fierce] made that dollar bill just fly out of her vagina, I was like, ‘oh my god,’ it flew right at me, but I’ll take it,” Safar told the News. “And then she gave me these [earmuffs], too. It was lovely. I might give them my number later, I don’t know. We'll see how it goes.”
Powell Munro Holzner ’27, who had dressed as a drag queen with the stage name “Fantasia” in middle school, arrived late to the show but was also given a special shout-out by the drag queens.
Munro Holzer told the News that although he initially felt bad for being late, he found the show to be such a great joy and that the spirit in the room was simply incredible. When asked if he would see another drag performance at Yale, he responded with “Oh my fucking god, absolutely.”
“Drag Wonderland” was a collaborative effort by QSA with BlackOut, De Colores and the Intercultural Affairs Council.
Quinn Luong ’26, co-president of QSA, noted that because drag shows are often misunderstood, QSA wanted to promote respect and educate the public about what drag shows are really about — promoting inclusivity, community and having a space for joy and celebration.
Before the show concluded, the drag queens asked the 100-person audience to stand up and dance along, as they sashayed around the room one last time.
Yeh told the News that she hopes that the co-sponsored event sets a precedent of celebrating drag queens and drag art on Yale campus.
“I really felt the energy and it was different,” said Luong. “The community was so vibrant, everyone was dancing, everyone was singing, everyone was clapping and everyone was with each other, happy in this moment. That’s what drag is about: bringing people together and celebrating our queer identity.”
Currently, six states have enacted laws that target, restrict or ban drag shows.
Contact Baala Shakya at baala.shakya@yale.edu.