How You Get Famous: Ten Years of Drag Madness in Brooklyn

Journalist Pasulka debuts with an entertaining deep dive into the last decade of the Brooklyn drag scene. Though there’s just enough contextualization of American drag itself—with its roots in “female impersonation” and Black ballroom culture—Pasulka’s keen eye is trained on Brooklyn and the queens from the borough who have risen over the past 10 years to unexpectedly become the “apotheosis of cool.” Much of the narrative focuses on a few subjects, including Aja, a multiple-time contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race who used drag to understand her nonbinary gender and has since pursued a career in rap; Merrie Cherry, arguably the founder of the Brooklyn drag community, who overcame a stroke to continue her drag career; and Sasha Velour, whose arthouse-inspired looks pushed the limits of mainstream drag. Pasulka skillfully weaves each performer’s story into a tapestry of messiness, drama, and the complexities of modern queer subcultures, but as the author herself cautions, this isn’t a comprehensive or definitive history. Occasionally, to its detriment, the book positions its subjects’ word as final; when addressing the criticism around white drag queen Thorgy Thor’s dreadlocks, for instance, she offers the queen’s own explanation (it’s easier for wig purposes) without further unpacking the issue. Still, LGBTQ history buffs and fans of Drag Race will be hard-pressed to find a more in-depth look at the drag explosion of the 2010s. (June)