A museum walkthrough is typically a sombre experience, encouraging quiet listening, ruminating and careful embedding of the history you’ve learnt into memory. The colourful costumes, humour and pizazz that drag queens sashay into any space with, hardly seem capable of being contained by a museum. But it’s exactly this energy that the Indian Music Experience Museum is inviting into its halls with ‘Drag at the Museum’ this Sunday.
Collaborating with four local drag queens – Rang He Ra, Queen Shivangi, Kamani Sutra and Dark Fantasy – for a unique walkthrough led by them, the museum seeks to celebrate the stories of women and people with marginalised gender identities through Indian music history, this women’s history month. “Museum spaces are full of academic voices, but the idea of bringing in drag queens is about presenting the facts in a way that subverts expectations – academics can’t be as irreverent as a drag queen and use that persona to talk about history, heritage and music. It also felt fitting because drag art and cross-dressing have a long connection with art and performance in India and are not a western import as many believe,” says Hina Siddiqui, the head of marketing & strategy.
The queens have worked closely with the curators to choose exhibits to talk about, bringing their own lived experiences to the forefront in Kannada, Hindi and English. “Each of them will be drawing parallels from the drag community, adding some of their own characterisation and personality into the space. For example, Queen Shivangi is originally from Bihar, and she was quite drawn to the folk music gallery, especially a display on work songs. She will be talking about her music culture from Bihar and will also be demonstrating a form that she’s been practising since childhood called Jhijhiya, which is indigenous to Bihar and Jharkhand,” says Sarvar Kahlon, the programme manager. She adds, “In the melting pot section of the museum, where we talk about how western influences came with colonisation and shaped India’s music landscape, Kamani Sutra will be drawing parallels with the evolution of western drag and its influence in the Indian context.”
Drag at the Museum is set to take place on March 22 from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. For details, visit @indianmusic-experience on Instagram